THE FIASCO OF SOMALILAND’S FORIEGN POLICY AND DIPLOMACY

Introduction

The key mainstream perspectives on Foreign Policy are the self-interest strategy and Diplomacy. The former, which is the self-interest strategy refers how states blueprint and cherry-pick to safeguard, defend and maintain their own national interests. Where the latter, which is Diplomacy refers how states achieve their goals within the International Arena. In this article, I would like to illustrate how International Diplomatic Projects being set into state’s national goals and how the international strategic cooperation works through Diplomacy.

The piece will also demonstrate the AWOL steps in which Somaliland obliges to formulate in order to achieve the two mainstreams of International Foreign Policy. As people might fallaciously think that Foreign Policy is more to do with International Relations and how state interacts with one another. But if the reality is deprived of a solid and strategically digested Foreign Policy it is unlikely to safeguard, defend or maintain the persistence of a country as well as its national interest. Therefore, in this article I will set five main themes, and this will be the central core of the article, I will also define the solutions of the existing challenges in short.

Somaliland is Diplomatically Unrecognised

This is one of the main questions people ask themselves, when discussing the political situation of Somaliland. But the riposte of this query looks bit tougher for most of the people, for the reason that Somaliland is unrecognized for nearly two and have decades. Let me start the question from the mindset of the political point of view. The first part of this question suggests whether the political culture, which is our tribal system and social structure determined the hindrance of the recognition, or whether it is the distrust of the international community. The latter is our political position, which might seem unclear to the regional communities, while the distrust of the world exists. But to answer the question, as I have mentioned in my previous articles, Somaliland will turn out to be the 57^th independent state of the Muslim World if it is recognised. The evidence of my argument is, if this is not the reality why 34 Christian countries have politically been recognised without the legal justification of statehood. This is what silenced Ethiopia, the Western and some other African countries as it barely give the impression to predict the future direction of an independent Somaliland. On the contrary, Arab States are calamitous to see broken Somali Republic while they failed and unable to summon up the broken Sudan.

Somaliland is a Muslim country,

If healthily processed and abundantly discoursed, the retort of this question is NO. Because Islam is not the problem, we all know that 98.7% of the international states have Muslims within their nations, and the ratio in Islam by country is an existing fact in our biosphere today. Ethiopia and Kenya have larger Muslim populations, but historically the political elites are from the Christian dominance. Even though, the country is secularly governed by its people while the vast majority of Djiboutians are Muslims.

The main thing to note here is, that the issue of religion is not a big issue, if the regional cooperation is showed up to the outside world. The neighbouring countries and the Western world are more sceptical about one issue, and that is Somaliland’s current political position as well as the future. The international community understands that the country’s political culture is a tribal normative dogma mixed with religious dogma.

And this two different traditional ideologies are gainsaying and contraverting in many ways, which might allow the country in the future to self-destruct on its own premises. But every problem has its own solution, diseases have their own cure, so as the Somaliland’s unrecognised status that has its own pragmatic solution, and this can lead to the country to procure its deserved status as an independent sovereign state. And this is to set strategically digested Foreign Policy, which is fully equipped with fundamental political knowledge, multilateral diplomatic approach and vigilant state strategy.

 

The Erroneous of Somaliland Foreign Policy

The Foreign Policy of Somaliland is to construct Diplomatic Channels and how state political information, myths and believes being shaped by our political behaviour. Diplomacy is not about flights and conference participation. Inclusively, that is not what politics and foreign relations stand for. We need a Foreign Policy to be set into our Vigilant State Strategies. Having said this, Somaliland requires a Foreign Policy to be referred when dealing with the International Goals and State Strategies in order to achieve national goals. I approached the Foreign Ministry of Somaliland for several times, and I never came across a single political manual about foreign affairs. Let me explain the foreign manuals and their needs:-

1. Agenda Setting: The prominence model, which is the state to easily be seen or and be discernable. These indicate what Somaliland stands for in the international arena, what are the core foreign policy pillars, is it Neoliberalism, realistic/pragmatic and in the geopolitical sphere what states are we dealing with, in terms of democracy, detergents or authoritarian. What strategy do we need to focus when dealing with Ethiopia or Djibouti, Somalia and the International Community?
2. Formulation: Have we ever debated politically and what our Foreign Policy might be in the closed doors (not by the public arena).
3. Adoption: What is our adopted Foreign Policy (Priority One, two and three).
4. Implementation: In which basis do we need to implement the adopted Foreign Policy, the budget, technocrats, political scientists, historians, economists, international lawyers and the Diaspora?
5.  Evaluation: Expertise and influential public agency and organisations judge whether the adopted Foreign Policy precisely functioned.

These are the core elements of Foreign Policy Strategy, and this is what Somaliland government needs to regenerate, again positive press release, flights to the diaspora and wait and see Foreign Policy are not how governments toil in a Foreign Relations. Diplomacy is to covenant and compact other nations and international organisations through negotiation and confab based on our Foreign Policy and National Interest, which I have stated above. It should be in the right influential track, in terms of Diplomatic Approaches, which has been classified into three different states: Multilateral Approach, which is a diplomatic methodology that Somaliland currently prerequisites, it is about our multi-dimensional liberal foreign policy based on mutual interests with other nation states. The Bilateral Approach, which is to understand and prioritise our Foreign Political Directions, whether to focus on the African States (the AU), the Western States (the EU and the US) or the Arab League, it is about to define where our Foreign Policy is set to engage. And finally, the Unilateral Approach, which is to labour on by tracking down a political companion state (Ethiopia or UK) that defend your interest in level of the international arena.

 

In conclusion, Somaliland is our country, we need to serve and sacrifice. To criticize the government is not a fair thing to do. But the President’s speech towards Puntland was Suicidal Trap. In addition to that, another suicidal trap was dyed-in-the-wool when the President sacked the Somaliland Diplomats to Kenya and Djibouti. Having said this, in the Diplomacy it is practical to Recall Diplomats, not to sack them. And this will ice on the cake to the international community, by signifying how our Foreign Policy and International Relations Act has been bungled. Somaliland Government should have to follow the practical methodologies of the Foreign Affairs. Speeches of the President are the most important Statement from State’s Political Stratagem. The statement from the President of Somaliland has been deciphered to the international community. Unfortunately, the rejoinder from the Puntland State of Somalia revealed our diplomatic failure, because these two opposing Statements from the two administrations signaled to the true nature of their political maturity and influence to the outside world. Foreign Policy and Diplomacy are the core political pathway of how states interact each other, and that is unerringly what republics seem important in their political lives as an essential pillar in the direction of the international politics.

 

Mohamed Hagi Mohamoud. Department of Politics and International Studies. The University of Warwick. Email: m.hagi-mohamoud@warwick.ac.uk, mohamedomar1@hotmail.com