While the Biden team approaches the fighting between the Somaliland Army and militia forces in and around Las Anod with moral equivalency, the true outline of the Somaliland conflict could not be clearer:
By Michael Rubin
As Ukraine prepared to mark the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion, President Joe Biden (finally) traveled to Kyiv to reaffirm American support. He explained he acted to “reaffirm our unwavering and unflagging commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.” Biden was right. What happens to Ukraine matters beyond Ukraine.
While Biden does the right thing on Ukraine, he is inconsistent. Despite his rhetorical embrace of Africa, he is far more willing to ignore, forgive and forget African genocides than he has been in Russia’s slaughter of Ukrainians.
He has also repeatedly thrown Somaliland under the bus. While Somaliland is the most democratic country in the Horn of Africa and one of only two African nations to choose Taiwan over China, Biden declined to invite Somaliland to either the Democracy Summit or the African Leaders Summit.
US adversaries took note. Both China and Russia saw Biden’s gratuitous humiliation of Saudi Arabia and concluded Riyadh was ripe for the picking. As Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Larry André, Jr., the US Ambassador to Somalia, undermined the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act’s embrace of Somaliland, Somali forces likely working with the foreknowledge of China, invaded eastern Somaliland. Call it what it is: China’s first proxy war in Africa.
Today, the Somali invasion of Somaliland is approaching its fifth month. While Biden’s response differs sharply, the outlines of the conflict differ little from Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
After hostilities began, Somalis denied any responsibility and argued the forces fighting in Las Anod were indigenous and seeking to protect the local population. This was akin to Russia’s original propaganda when, in 2014, men in black suits appeared to lead the Crimea invasion. Just as with the Russians in Crimea, the SSC militias say they want a referendum. But, like the Russian militiamen in Crimea, they want first to kill or drive out anyone who does not agree with them.
The recent deaths of senior Puntland and Somali Special Force officers belie the notion that outside forces do not drive today’s fight. That the Pentagon trained these Danab special operators who now fight on behalf of Chinese interests is a scandal that Congress should investigate.
Too often, the State Department prefers to double down on pre-existing policies rather than acknowledge errors. While the Biden team approaches the fighting between the Somaliland Army and militia forces in and around Las Anod with moral equivalency, the true outline of the conflict could not be clearer:
Somaliland, like Ukraine, is a democracy fighting to maintain its freedom from an irredentist neighbor. Just as Washington recognizes the established borders of Ukraine, so too does the United States recognize the century-old border between former British Somaliland and the former Italian Somaliland, the latter of which exists today as Somalia proper. The argument by Somali officials that Las Anod and its environs should be its own separate state is analogous to Russia creating and propping up independent states in Donetsk and Luhansk.
What happens in Africa matters. Biden cites both principle and national security to reject Russia’s efforts to carve up Ukraine. He weakens the Western hand and gives hope to reactionary forces, however, when he ignores a similar attack on democracy and a strategically important country in the Horn of Africa.
About Michael Rubin
Senior Fellow
Research Areas
Arab politics, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Horn of Africa
Bio & Experience
Michael Rubin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he specializes in Iran, Turkey, and the broader Middle East.
A former Pentagon official, Dr. Rubin has lived in post-revolution Iran, Yemen, and both pre-and postwar Iraq. He also spent time with the Taliban before 9/11. For more than a decade, he taught classes at sea about the Horn of Africa and Middle East conflicts, culture, and terrorism, to deployed US Navy and Marine units.
Dr. Rubin is the author, coauthor, and coeditor of several books exploring diplomacy, Iranian history, Arab culture, Kurdish studies, and Shi’ite politics, including “Seven Pillars: What Really Causes Instability in the Middle East?” (AEI Press, 2019); “Kurdistan Rising” (AEI Press, 2016); “Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes” (Encounter Books, 2014); and “Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos” (Palgrave, 2005).
Dr. Rubin has a Ph.D. and an MA in history from Yale University, where he also obtained a BS in biology.
Experience
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- Foreign Military Studies Office: Contract Analyst, 2012–present
- Naval Postgraduate School: Senior Lecturer, 2007–21
- Middle East Quarterly: Editor, 2004–09
- Coalition Provisional Authority (Baghdad): Political Adviser, 2003–04
- Office of the Secretary of Defense: Staff Adviser, Iran and Iraq, 2002–04
- Council on Foreign Relations: International Affairs Fellow, 2002–03
- Hebrew University (Jerusalem): Fellow, The Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations, 2001–02
- Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs: Fellow, 2000–01
- Universities of Sulaymani, Salahuddin, and Duhok (Iraqi Kurdistan): Visiting Lecturer, 2000–01
- Yale University: Lecturer, Department of History, 1999–2000
- Iranian Studies: Assistant Editor, 1994–97
Education
Ph.D. and MA in history; BS in biology, Yale University
Contact
Send Email: mrubin@aei.org
Twitter: @mrubin1971
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