NAIROBI, Kenya — The Enough Project is a part of the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank in Washington. Enough is dedicated to combating genocide and crimes against humanity.

Enough's shrewd use of actual experts, as opposed to simply impassioned advocates, is paying off with what is an increasingly impressive catalogue of analytical reports.

More from GlobalPost: Enough Project praises US special representative to Congo

In "After the Kenyan Invasion," author Ken Menkhaus, a professor at Davidson College, looks at Kenya's recent invasion of Somalia and the dangers it poses for Kenya, Somalia and the region.

Related: Kenyan air strikes kill ’60 or more’ Somali militants

Here's an excerpt from the introduction which warns of the risks Kenya has taken by sending troops into Somalia:

Intervention strategies that plan the war but not the peace will fail. Indifference to or wishful thinking about the crafting of a post-intervention political order guarantees disorder, and can leave both the occupied country and the intervening power worse off than before.

Kenya risks this fate in southern Somalia, where its armed forces are currently engaged in an operation against the jihadi group al-Shabaab in the Jubbaland border region. Almost three months into the offensive, which has at times been bogged down in a combination of rainy season mud and political indecision, there is still little indication that Kenya or anyone else has a viable plan for who will govern this highly unstable and contested region if and when Shabaab is ousted. Unless this question is clearly and effectively addressed Kenya is not likely to get what it wants—a more stable and secure border area.

Instead, its offensive could produce destabilizing clan clashes over the seaport of Kismayo. Aggrieved clans and communities could turn to Shabaab, reinvigorating a jihadi group in crisis. And the consequences of this combination of developments are likely to spill over into Kenya, affecting both the troubled border area and the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

The stakes are exceptionally high for Kenya, which has much to lose if this operation fails. 

NAIROBI, Kenya — Eighteen months ago, Kenyans voted for a new constitution.

It was a moment of hope, particularly since the last time they had voted it triggered political violence that split the country along ethnic lines and left over 1,100 people dead, 300,000 homeless and — latterly — six Kenyan men facing possible trial for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.

More from GlobalPost: Kenya glued to International Criminal Court proceedings

Among various provisions in the new constitution was the ruling that future elections should be held in August. Not so, said the MPs who are desperate to continue drawing their huge salaries (Kenyan lawmakers are the world's best paid) until the final moments of the terms they won in the bloody aftermath of the 2007 polls. And not so, said the High Court, which has issued a ruling to a surprised country that elections might not happen until March 2013.

Related: Kenya passes new constitution

The timing of the vote is not as important as the willingness to flout the new constitution that the High Court ruling shows. This is worrying because the constitution is precisely supposed to prevent a repeat of the violence of early 2008.

NAIROBI, Kenya — For nearly 18 years some of the Hutu commanders responsible for organizing and orchestrating the Rwanda genocide have been hiding out in eastern Congo, preying on local villagers and plotting the downfall of President Paul Kagame's Tutsi-led government.

The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) have not posed much of an existential threat to modern Rwanda for more than a decade yet they persist, and their survival is an affront to Kagame whose rebel forces halted the 1994 genocide.

A court in Rwanda recently convicted 22 people of having links to the FDLR and being responsible for a spate of grenade attacks in the capital.

Read more on GlobalPost: FDLR attack kills 26 people

The FDLR spends much of its time nowadays battling other militias for control of lucrative mines in eastern Congo or carrying out horrific attacks of rape and pillage.

But Kigali has not forgotten the FDLR nor especially its few remaining commanders who were directly involved in the genocidal attempt to wipe out the Tutsis.

More on GlobalPost: On-the-ground look at Rwanda now (PHOTOS)

According to Jason Stearns writing on his influential CongoSiasa blog a squad of Rwandan special forces recently assassinated a senior FDLR commander named Leodomir Mugaragu:

"On Wednesday, 11 January, a group of soldiers — some reliable reports claim they were a unit of Rwandan special forces, guided by the FDC - penetrated into the FDLR headquarters in Walikale and ambushed FDLR leaders around a fire. They killed the FDLR chief of staff Brigadier Leodomir Mugaragu. The overall FDLR commander General Mudacumura was also apparently present but was able to escape.

"Mugaragu, aka Leon Manzi, was one of the only remaining FDLR commanders with concrete allegations against him of involvement in the 1994 genocide. According to one report, he was a major and battalion commander in 1994 in Ruhengeri, where he was involved in mobilizing militias and setting up roadblocks to kill Tutsi."

If true, the killing of Mugaragu is another serious blow to the increasingly weak FDLR but the downside, as Stearns points out, is the FDLR's tendency to exact revenge on local people who it accuses of supporting its enemies.

NAIROBI, Kenya — Piracy is fuelling economic growth in Somalia, according to a new report from the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.

Using satellite imagery and night-time light emissions to plot the growth and development of coastal towns over a number of years, Dr Anja Shortland finds that "the positive economic impacts of piracy are widespread" and argues against a military solution to piracy, as this would damage the fragile economies of coastal communities.

Read more from GlobalPost: Somali pirates attack EU warship Patino

Much of the economic benefits seem to be accruing to larger towns, regional centers like Bosasso and Garowe, while smaller seaside villages miss out.

However, the strength of clan-family connections means that ransom money is widely distributed helping to boost local markets, wages, transport and construction.

Read more from GlobalPost: Somali pirates coverage shows their human side

Shortland, a development economist from Brunel University, uses her study to argue — as do many other experts on the subject — that naval warships are not the solution to piracy, rather a local and land-based answer must be found by providing economic alternatives to impoverished coastal communities.