This timeline looks at the history of Al-Shabab from 2004 to present.

The UN Security Council's Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea submitted this report on July 12, 2013, pursuant to resolutions 751 (1992) and 1907 (2009) concerning Somalia and Eritrea and in accordance with paragraph 13 (m) of Security Council resolution 2060 (2012). These resolutions address how the UN Security Council will monitor peace and security efforts in the region and report on violations such as trading arms and charcoal or funding terrorist organizations.

The Obama administration relies on drones for one simple reason: they work. Drone strikes have devastated al Qaeda at little financial cost, at no risk to U.S. forces, and with fewer civilian casualties than many alternative methods would have caused.

The United States restored official relations with Somalia in January 2013 after years of civil unrest there, reflecting an increasingly stable Somali political environment. Better relations with Somalia, however, have little to do with the decrease in piracy, and the drop in offshore piracy cannot be attributed to Somali government efforts.

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Some experts believe al-Shabab is at its weakest point in years following an African-led counterinsurgency campaign, but others warn of the group's resiliency in an unstable Somalia.

Jeffrey Gettleman, East Africa bureau chief for the New York Times, examines African conflicts that have continued even without clear ideology and goals.

A surge in pirate attacks off the Somali coast in recent years has prompted the deployment of an international coalition of navies. But experts say that military force alone cannot address the underlying issue of failed Somali governance.

Micah Zenko analyzes the unexpected invasion by Kenyan forces into Somalia to defeat the militant group, al-Shabaab.

Despite the fall of the Qaddafi regime in Libya, humanitarian intervention still has plenty of critics.

Somalia's growing famine partly stems from a global failure to act on warning signs, but it's exacerbated by militant group al-Shabaab, factions of which are blocking aid delivery and might have to be negotiated with, says Africa analyst Rashid Abdi.

Robert Paarlberg of Wellesley College writes in The Atlantic about how to avert a repeat of Somalia's 1992 famine.

The Nation's Jeremy Scahill offers a look into CIA counterterrorism operations in Somalia, particularly the CIA presence in Mogadishu. Washington is intensifying its focus on Somalia, including targeted strikes by U.S. Special Operations forces, drone attacks, and expanded surveillance operations.

In a Bloomberg feature, Noah Feldman explains the instructive problems posed by the case of captured Somali terrorist Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame.

As part of Under Suspicion, a Washington Post series on the lives of American Muslims in the decade following 9/11, Eli Saslow examines the case of Abdirizak Bihi, a Somali-American Muslim activist at the helm of a community-based counterterror group in Minnesota.

This backgrounder emphasizes the need for the US and other countries to take offensive, and not defensive, measures against threats to global commerce and security.

Somali pirates have been resilient against efforts to stop them, but a new approach that includes legal measures, controlling financial flows, building regional capacity and more could be the combination that defeats piracy, writes CFR's Michael Lyon Baker.

A global naval coalition has failed to halt Somali-based piracy. More effective would be a broader approach to maritime policing that integrates African authorities, writes CFR's Michael L. Baker.

Isobel Coleman argues that local women can play a role in mitigating the corruption that surrounds humanitarian aid in Somalia.