The non-recognition of Somaliland as an independent state poses a direct challenge to the consistency of international law and the security of the Western alliance.

Somaliland has functioned as a sovereign entity since 1991, fully satisfying the objective criteria for statehood under the 1933 Montevideo Convention. Yet it remains unrecognized by most states, notwithstanding Israel’s historic formal recognition on December 26, 2025.

This anomaly is not neutral—it validates the permanence of coerced or invalid unions, creating a precedent that undermines the legal basis of post-Cold War sovereignty restorations, including those of the Baltic states, and weakens NATO’s deterrence posture. Recognition of Somaliland is therefore a legal and strategic imperative.

I. Somaliland’s Legal Claim to Independence

Somaliland’s sovereignty rests on two interlocking foundations: declaratory statehood and the restoration of a previously recognized entity.

On June 26, 1960, the British Protectorate of Somaliland achieved independence as the State of Somaliland, receiving formal recognition from 35 nations, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Israel, Libya, and the Soviet Union. Five days later, it entered a proposed union with the former Italian Trust Territory to form the Somali Republic.

However, this union was never lawfully consummated: Somaliland’s legislature did not ratify the Act of Union, and two different versions were signed. Under Article 46 of........

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