| Abstract
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This study investigated how Somalis and, in some cases, external interveners, have negotiated the convergences and divergences between Somali and imported understandings of governance and conflict resolution, and their accompanying structures, and processes, in the lands of the Somalis. The study examined selected literature from a number of fields, including nation-building, peace-building, democratization, and culture and conflict resolution. A qualitative research strategy involving comparative cases was employed to develop a conceptual framework. The data sources included academic, policy, and practitioner literature and documents, the lived experience of the author as a member of different communities, both intervener and Somali, and interviews with key informants. The data analysis included a thematic analysis of the literature and the interviews, “thick recall,” and conversations with Somali academic and professional peers for the purpose of establishing the credibility of the study. A number of tension points that served to illustrate and illuminate the incompatibilities between indigenous and imported assumptions and models were identified by the study. These tension points included governance structures and processes, justice structures and processes, the role of elders, the role of women, the role of civil society, the role of religious leaders, and the position of minorities. The study described and compared how these tension points played out in three state-building contexts in the lands of the Somalis: the international US/UN peacekeeping and nation-building intervention in the early nineties, the hybrid model state-building initiative in Somaliland, and the mixed external (Ethiopian) and internal hybrid model state-building initiative in the Somali Regional State under the federalist government of Ethiopia. The study concluded with a discussion of the implications of the findings and analysis, for theory, research, and practice related to state-building and nation-building interventions.
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