NECESSITY AND DUTY MAY COMPEL PUNTLAND STATE TO ASSUME AN OFFICIAL ROLE IN FOREIGN POLICY

The state-based global order faces a category 5 geopolitical-security hurricane which poses a compendium of threats not seen since the end of World War Two. There’s a mad scramble across the world. Every country is on a survival mode, first to weather the catastrophe relatively intact, and second to ensure that it continues to exist and remain sovereign should the entire edifice of the international system collapse and until a new global order takes shape. 

Countries vary greatly, but what matters is how every nation optimally and effectively mobilizes and leverages the assets and capabilities at its disposal. National unity at home and robust foreign policy and geopolitical competence abroad are two fundamental prerequisites for survival.

Unfortunately, Somalia has been mired in a protracted state of dysfunction and disunity. And the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) has no capacity to control the country internally. And foreign policy and international cooperation has been an unmitigated disaster. 

It’s therefore incumbent upon Puntland State to take extraordinary measures to deal with the unprecedented challenges and existential threats. As the only FMS with the required coherence, capacity and capabilities, Puntland ought to consider an official role in foreign policy for its own self-interest and the survival of Somalia as a whole. Necessity, duty and imperatives of geopolitics make this move a matter of utmost priority and urgency.