
When is a nation not a nation? Somaliland’s dream of independence (2018) - Thevet
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jul/20/when-is-a-nation-not-a-nation-somalilands-dream-of-independence
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anonu
found on marginal revolution:
[https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/opinion/31iht-
edmyers.1.1...](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/opinion/31iht-
edmyers.1.14914273.html)

an opinion piece by Pete Butigieg on Somaliland from 2008. Gives you an
interesting perspective on his past experiences and foreign policy stance.
(Also is a bit shorter than the guardian article but still gets the point
across about Somaliland)

My take on the situation: when you're a small country you're just a pawn for
the bigger countries around you, including the world powers.

~~~
babayega2
From the article : >"Every member of Parliament in Mogadishu gets a salary
paid mostly by U.S. and EU funds," one Somaliland official told us. "And every
one of them is a killer. If you kill enough people, you are called a warlord
and you get invited to conferences. Meanwhile, I was elected by thousands of
votes in a free election, but the international community does not consider us
a country. They should be rewarding democracy, not killing."

That's sadly the truth in some of our African states.

~~~
remarkEon
What possible benefit does the US and EU get from paying these people’s
salaries? I understand the real Politik aspect - they’re now “owned”, to be
perhaps a little crude, by the powers paying them - but what does the
arrangement get the US and EU? Asked a different way, what would happen if we
stopped paying them?

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tstegart
We pay them money so they stay in power and don't get usurped by other
killers, namely the Islamic groups that want to kill Americans. Right now the
warlords just kill other Africans, which the U.S. government considers a win,
sadly. Its a foreign policy based on the idea if we didn't support these
warlords, other groups that kill Africans AND Europeans will take power.

~~~
microcolonel
> _...namely the Islamic groups that want to kill Americans. Right now the
> warlords just kill other Africans, which the U.S. government considers a
> win..._

The Islamic killers kill more Africans too. Boko Haram are killing far more
Somalis than they are Americans or Europeans. It is cynical, but it's probably
not (on balance) morally wrong to support the opposition, god knows BH and
friends get plenty of foreign support from our favourite Islamic customer in
the middle east and others, so it's not as though the Americans are the only
ones corrupting the failed state there.

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Churdy
I know from personal experience, being from a small country created by the war
in the early 1990s, that the international community is very slow in this kind
of thing. And if you're not making a lot of concessions in the state-making
process, you simply remain unrecognized. Even if you have no natural
resources, the situation is worse.

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someperson
Somaliland should rebrand. Without renaming themselves they will forever fight
an uphill battle to distinguish themselves as something other than (at best) a
Somali provincial region.

Other than that, a great example is to follow the modern Taiwanese strategy to
be a liberal democracy and a beacon of human rights, and develop powerful
allies needed to maintain territorial integrity. Honestly, I would highly
recommend hosting military bases for the US and other NATO allies. This is
(part) of the strategy of the neighboring nation of Djibouti. The Gulf of Aden
is geopolitically fraught and teaming with pirates, so there's room for plenty
more military bases.

~~~
sanxiyn
You mean like South Sudan did?

I shouldn't need to point out why such renaming would be difficult and
controversial.

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ThinkingGuy
For those planning a trip there, Wikivoyage has good information, as usual:

[https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Somaliland](https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Somaliland)

~~~
ponsin
> Imprisonment and/or execution is the punishment for homosexuality here. So
> if you are gay and decide to visit, keep your sexual orientation secret.

yikes

