Kinship Networks and the Architecture of Peace: Clan-Based Social Capital in Somaliland’s Post-Conflict Transformation

Abstract

This article examines the influence of kinship networks and clan-based social capital on Somaliland’s post-conflict trajectory through a longitudinal comparative case study spanning 1991 to 2026. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork conducted in Hargeisa and the eastern Sanaag region during 2024–2025, documentary sources, and a systematic review of secondary literature, and applying social transformation theory as a comprehensive but not exclusive analytical lens, the article investigates how indigenous institutions — particularly the Xeer customary normative framework and the mediating authority of clan elders — function as adaptive infrastructures of peace. Somaliland’s political order is resilient but conditional: while Xeer-based bonding social capital has been essential to governance resilience, its bridging and linking dimensions remain underdeveloped, generating structural exclusions that recent crises have made visible. Analysis of three contemporaneous developments — the December 2025 Xeer Ciise conflict in Awdal, where elders used diya (customary compensation) and boundary renegotiation to manage cross-lineage grievances; the October 2025 Erigavo peace conference in Sanaag; and Israel’s December 2025 bilateral recognition of Somaliland — reveals both the adaptive capacity and the structural breaking points of endogenous peacebuilding. The article further interrogates the 2023 Las Anod war as a genuine hard case that challenges celebratory accounts of Somaliland’s peace. It concludes that sustainable peace in hybrid political orders requires continuous negotiation of centre–periphery relations, inclusive reform of customary institutions, and formal representation of historically excluded groups, including occupational castes and women. The findings contribute to debates on hybrid governance and endogenous social transformation as pathways to locally led peacebuilding in post-conflict societies.