Description
Somaliland has long been a test-case within academia of successful African peacebuilding. However, while existing scholarship has rightly celebrated Somaliland’s achievements, it has done so in a way that provincialises its lessons, arguing for Somali solutions to Somali peacebuilding problems. In this paper, I argue that Somaliland’s peacebuilding process provides lessons that go beyond the specific case, and instead can tell us much about both what peace is and how it can be brought about globally. Through concepts and practices such as the pluralisation of power, the promotion of mutual dependence, the de-instrumentalisation of political negotiation, the re-localisation of accountability, and the balancing of independence, unity and equality among political groups, Somaliland’s peace settlement can offer a universalisable alternative to state-based and liberal ideas of peace and peace-making. The paper draws on extensive field world in Somaliland, and traces the evolution of Somaliland’s peace compact as it evolved from stateless to state-based forms of governance.
