The Remarkable Story of Somaliland

In the study of state fai/ure, scholars and practitioners have mostly focused on macro-level indicators to determine which state isfailed and which is not. This focus overlooks cruciallocal and regional variation that has to be taken into account when designing interventions. In this article, we develop a new approach to examine state fai/ure on this microlevel. Using a unique data-set on Somalia, we identify micro-level indicators for state fai/ure. The analysis shows that micro-level data are crucial for detecting variation in state fai/ure.

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“…Even Somaliland, which is often described as a success in statebuilding represents at best a weak state. 75…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Micro-Level Data to Map State Failure: The Example of Somalia

2011

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“…However, it was further problematised when the Italian administration created a Western‐styled government in the South that established a hierarchical system giving some clans political power over others. This ‘launched a process whereby outsiders and Westernised elites tried to create new, modern institutions that completely ignored traditional societal norms and relationships’ (Kaplan, , p. 146). Samatar (, p. 627) argues that while pre‐colonial Somalia could be considered to be equalitarian and relatively democratic, ‘The imposition of colonial rule on stateless societies, the new dynamics of social relations, and the transformation [or commercialisation] of the pastoral economy’ generated ‘fundamental modifications of pre‐colonial tradition’ that led to competition.…”

Section: The Evolution Of the Somali Conflictmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the Connections between the EU Global Strategy and Somali Peacebuilding Education Needs and Priorities

Lewis

Winn

2018

Global Policy

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This paper examines the connections between identity politics and European Union (EU) aid effectiveness in peacebuilding education in Somalia. It engages with a severe educational challenge, which is that a lack of capacity in rigorous educational design and/or implementation across Somali Ministries in the South Central Zone, Somaliland and Puntland has led to the importation of multiple foreign curricula into the country simultaneously that do not address Somali history and contemporary conflict drivers and that frequently clash with local values as well as with each other. We critique this from a ‘new barbarism’ perspective, arguing that Somali voices and educational priorities have not been provided a sufficient space for expression in the EU debate on the global and therefore also the national development agenda.

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“…These polities include national liberation or insurgent movements (Clapham 1995;Ellis and Sechaba 1992), stateless nations (Guibernau 1999;Keating 2001a) and de facto states (Bahcheli et al 2004;Pegg 1998). As perhaps the most 'state-like' of these 'less-than-state' entities de facto states such as Somaliland (Kaplan 2008;Srebrnik 2004), Abkhazia (Walker 2007) and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (Navaro-Yashin 2005) are also the unintended byproducts of changing international norms concerning the legitimacy of states. Whilst in 'traditional international law, recognition was acquired only after successfully demonstrating the capacity to govern' (Pegg 1998, 3), following 1945 'rulers can acquire independence solely by virtue of being successors of colonial governments' (Jackson 1990, 34).…”

Section: Contextualising Geopolitical 'Anomalies'mentioning

confidence: 99%

Governments‐in‐Exile: Statehood, Statelessness and the Reconfiguration of Territory and Sovereignty

McConnell

2009

Geography Compass

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Governments‐in‐exile are conventionally viewed as discrepant forms of political practice and geopolitical exceptions to the rules of sovereign statehood. However, despite significant limitations, polities such as the Tibetan Government‐in‐Exile enact state‐like functions and are actively forging new political spaces and modalities of sovereignty. Contextualising governments‐in‐exile with regards to a range of twentieth‐century geopolitical anomalies, this study argues that such polities raise key questions for political geographers regarding the relationship between sovereignty and territory, the nature of statehood and the role of ‘the exception’ in geopolitical discourses. In light of contemporary critical reappraisals of sovereignty, territory and statehood, this study calls for political geography – and critical geopolitics in particular – to expand its gaze and engage with issues raised by governments‐in‐exile. In turn, an empirical and theoretical focus on such non‐state entities highlights the utility of ethnographic methodologies within critical geopolitics, enables a critical fusion of literatures of the state and of statelessness, problematises taken‐for‐granted political geography categories and facilitates critical inquiry into alternative political arrangements.

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The Remarkable Story of Somaliland

Cited by 28 publications

References 4 publications

Using Micro-Level Data to Map State Failure: The Example of Somalia

Using Micro-Level Data to Map State Failure: The Example of Somalia

Understanding the Connections between the EU Global Strategy and Somali Peacebuilding Education Needs and Priorities

Governments‐in‐Exile: Statehood, Statelessness and the Reconfiguration of Territory and Sovereignty

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