ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the dynamics of making and unmaking of states in the Horn of Africa since the 1990s and the emerging issues in transnational involvement in the region. State making, transnational clientelism, and political community are the key concepts. By state making, we mean the process by which either an existing state undergoes a major transformation or a new state comes into being. The concept of clientelism as it applies to politics is viewed as a situation in which actors pursue their interest in a mutually beneficial manner regardless of prevailing norms of law and morality. Political community is a concept in political theory which has often been confused with other political concepts such as the state. Political community presupposes the existence of a meaningful sense of citizenship-life of dignity, the right to subsistence and security, freedom of association and expression, the rule of law and constitutionalism.
