Understanding Statebuilding: Traditional Governance and the Modern State in Somaliland

Much analysis of state building focusses on dissecting specific projects and attempting to identify what has gone wrong in states such as Afghanistan and Iraq. What draws less attention is what has gone right in non-interventionist statebuilding projects within unrecognised states. By examining this model in more depth a more successful model of statebuilding emerges in which the end goal of modern democracy and good governance are more likely to be realized. Indeed states-within-states such as Somaliland where external intervention in the statebuilding process is largely absent can provide vital new lessons.