Both sides had mutually incompatible expectations and the international soldiers and civilians were in the main profoundly ignorant of Somali culture and local politics. Although both Sahnoun and Oakley, in their different ways, had some knowledge of local conditions and negotiated directly with leading local figures, their successors relied on indirect contacts through aides and representatives, a style of diplomacy calculated to sow suspicion in the minds of their interlocutors. The intractable Somali situation, in which each Somali group vigorously sought to influence U.N. activity to its own advantage, required skilful and patient diplomacy of a high order, making the job of U.N. special envoy exceedingly demanding.

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 647