Somaliland is More of a Real Country than Somalia
Recognizing Somaliland (as Israel just did) would be a case or rewarding good governance and accepting truth over dogma
For more than three decades, a quiet political anomaly has persisted on the Horn of Africa: A territory that governs itself, holds competitive elections, transfers power peacefully, controls its borders, runs courts and police forces, manages ports, and has largely kept jihadist militias out of its territory. It issues passports. collects taxes, signs contracts and fields security forces that actually patrol their own terrain. By every functional measure the world claims to care about, Somaliland is a state. Yet is treated as a mirage.
This is because its claim undermines the deepest organizing principle of the post-colonial international system: that existing borders, even if inherited from empires past. are inviolable. Even when the states inside them collapse, stability demands freezing the map as it was at a key point in the past. So the world sees — or pretends to see — Somaliland as a breakaway province of Somalia. Its antipathy to Somaliland’s independence is not unlike that which confronted the poor Catalans when they tried to break away from Spain.
To support the defense of democracy, decency and reason, consider unlocking full access to Ask Questions Later by upgrading to a Paid Subscription
In this case, actually, even the application of this principle is rooted in misunderstanding — reflecting a broader state of confusion about Africa (a continent I led the coverage of for the Associated Press in the 2000s). Somaliland was in fact the former British Somaliland Protectorate — abutting but distint from Italian-ruled Somalia. In June 1960, it became a sovereign state recognized by more than thirty countries. Only days later did it voluntarily merge with the the new Somalia to form the Somali Republic, in a rushed and poorly ratified union that never produced a fully binding constitutional framework. What followed was an unhappy marriage in which tens of thousands were killed.
When Somalia collapsed as anything resembling a functioning state in 1991, Somaliland reverted to its original separate status — and it retained, even then, something of the superior governance bequeathed by the British (an interesting, almost endearing wrinkle of the colonial legacies of Europe). It was a withdrawal from a failed union, not from a truly unitary state.
Let’s look at the complex and ironic landscape — and why Israel was compelled to break with every other country in the world on the issue.
To continue reading, upgrade to a Paid Subscription (unless you have one!)
