Major (Ret) Andrew Fox
The United Kingdom should recognise Somaliland as an independent state, a recommendation that would have been easier to avoid a few years ago, when London could still treat Somaliland as a useful but unresolved anomaly. Such a position is harder to sustain now. Israel’s recognition of Somaliland in December 2025 ended the fiction that the status quo is frozen. The question for the UK is no longer whether recognition will ever become a live policy issue. It is a question of whether Britain will shape that debate or allow others to define it for narrower regional purposes.
