PBS News Hour recently interviewed Dr. Ahmed I. Samatar on suicide bombings in Uganda and the Somali group that has claimed responsibility.

Dr. Ahmed I. Samatar is James Wallace Professor and Dean of the Institute for Global Citizenship at Macalester College. Professor Samatar has lectured at many universities and colleges, including Cornell, Harvard, Iowa, London School of Economics and Political Science, Somali National University, Toronto, University of Amsterdam, York, University of Otago, and Wellesley College.

Samatar, whose expertise is in the areas of global political economy, political and social thought, and African development, is the author/editor of five books and over thirty articles, including The African State: Reconsiderations (Heinemann, 2002) and Somalia: State Collapse, Multilateral Intervention, and Strategies for Political Reconstruction (Brookings Institution, 1995). Professor Samatar is the founding editor-in-chief of Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies. He is also the editor of 24 Volumes of Macalester International, a journal of undergraduate education and internationalism. His current research is on two tracks: leadership and the state in Somalia, and globalization and the rise of Islamic consciousness.

In the special commissioned volume of Bildhaan which focuses on the exigencies of transition in Somalia, Samatar's article is titled: The Porcupine Dilemma: Govenance and Transition in Somalia (Volume 7, 2007). His recent articles include: A Virtuosic Touch: Hodeide, a Life with the Oud and More (Bildhaan, Volume 8, 2008), and Battling Two Fronts: Introducing Maryen Omer Ali (Bildhaan, Volume 9, 2009)

Full interview can be viewed by going to http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/africa/july-dec10/uganda2_07-12.html.