Outdated diplomatic orthodoxy is blocking Somaliland’s role in stabilizing the Horn of Africa. A pragmatic shift is urgently needed to reflect the territory’s de facto governance and relieve mounting displacement pressures. Recognition or functional inclusion would unlock access to aid, security cooperation, and climate finance, tools Somaliland already has the capacity to use. Failing to act leaves migration unmanaged, maritime routes exposed, and one of the most stable actors in the region excluded from solutions.

A century ago, amid famine and revolution, the US mounted a huge humanitarian relief mission, feeding millions in Soviet Russia. As the war in Ukraine drags on, this forgotten act reminds us that compassion is not weakness but geopolitical wisdom.

The world is acutely aware of the risk that China seeks to take back Taiwan by force. Less well understood is the possibility that Beijing could bring the island to its knees through a strategy of physical isolation that could be strategically harder for the West to resist.