When most Americans think about Somalia, they picture Black Hawk Down, pirates, starving kids, al Qaeda, and urban chaos. More than 148 million Americans (almost half of the U.S. population) were born after Somalia’s last stable government collapsed in 1991. But for Somalis living in the northern region of Somaliland, the chaotic perception of their situation has always been false. Somaliland has for more than a quarter century been de facto independent. Long ignored by policymakers, however, it may soon find itself to be the latest geopolitical battlefield between the United States and Russia.

Somaliland’s colonial origins