Pentagon Pushing Recognition of Somaliland

Some background:

Somaliland was a British colony, and handed off to Somalia, an Italian one, when they were both granted independence in 1960.

Follow the collapse of the Somali government, they declared independence, and they have created a relatively stable government.

There are no nations which have recognized them, largely because the African Union refuses to, because they have a policy of recognizing only former colonial political boundaries^*.

While Somaliland was a separate colony, the AU members, concerned about their own borders, does not want a separate nation state to be founded out of Somalia.

Well, the Pentagon is concerned about instability in this region, and is now lobbying to have Somaliland recognized.

I tend to agree for a number of reasons:

• It meshes with the facts on the ground.
• That it could lead to rearrangement of borders, leading to more viable and prosperous African nations in the long run.
• I do understand that, in the short term, that secessionist movements would cause a lot of pain.
• That a policy of slicing stable portions of Somalia away, and slowly tightening the ring around the unstable portions, seems like the only way for stability to ever be restored there.
  

^*Causing untold amounts of strife and misery, as the colonial boundaries cut across ethnic and sectarian lines in a completely arbitrary manner.