ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses the role that international dynamics and actors have played in the different statehood trajectories, which have taken place in Somalia over the past three decades. It highlights some of the international aspects: inter alia, the role of colonial powers in the manipulation of the clan system, the extraversion of Siad Barre's regime, Ethiopia, and cold war dynamics. The chapter explains how the Somali conflict is highly complex, multi-causal and multifaceted, with an intricate combination of endogenous and exogenous factors. It aims to challenge the hegemonic discourse, which is behind the current international peace-building agenda in Somalia. The chapter emphasizes the international dimension of the peculiar trajectory of Somaliland statehood. The decision of Puntland's leaders to pursue federalism and to continue to be engaged in successive international efforts to form a government in Somalia, has offered them access to foreign aid, global legitimacy, and business and travel opportunities, and also possibilities for personal enrichment.
