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 examines selected literature from a number of fields, including nation-building, peacebuilding, democratization, and culture. 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 thematic analysis of the interviews, “thick recall”, and and conversations with 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 the role of traditional elders, the role of women, the role of civil society, the role of religion, and the position of minorities. The study describes and compares 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 indigenous state-building initiative in Somaliland, and the mixed external (Ethiopian) and internal (indigenous) initiative in the Somali Regional State under the federalist government of Ethiopia. The conclusion discusses some of the implications for theory, research, and practice.