Yesterday’s The New York Times reports on “The Other Somalia: An Island of Stability in a Sea of Armed Chaos” (7 March 2007, A11).

The gist of the article is that Somaliland (the northern part of Somalia) has achieved peace and social stability through an integration of tribal, clan and national institutions. In contrast, the rest of Somalia, trying to organize via Western-style (and supported) governance, continues to be in chaos. The 19th century colonial pasts of these two regions partly explains the present situation: Somaliland went to the British, who, in their fashion of “indirect rule,” relied on pre-existing clan chiefs; Somalia went to the Italians, who brought thousands of administrators to rule directly. After decolonization in 1960, the two regions merged, but only Somaliland was able to sustain a viable government; Somalia collapsed into violence, from which it has not yet emerged.

Law & Society scholars and others have long discussed the differences between clan and state systems. Some relegate clan organizations to the realm of historical anthropology, while others focus on contemporary clan systems in so-called “less developed” societies. Only a few regard tribe and clan as relevant to “advanced” societies. The Times article is valuable for its display of the historical picture as a foundation for contemporary political process.

Though the Times article makes no mention of Iraq or Afghanistan, we may understand that each of those countries has a historical foundation of clan governance. In Iraq, this becomes occasionally visible in the proposals for partitioning into three areas; in Afghanistan, almost every report acknowledges the clan structure, in then guise of “warlords.”

To the extent that we comprehend clan and tribe as historical and contemporary phenomena, we may better investigate how and when and where these modes of social organization may not only help provide, but be necessary ingredients for peace and stability. Where these modes have been destroyed, we may be in the position of Humpty Dumpty: “All the King’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put him back again.”

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After I wrote this note, I read Rory Stewart’s Op-Ed piece about Afghanistan and Iraq in the same issue of the Times: “The Value of Their Values”. Though he uses the term “values,” it’s clear from the text that he is referring to “social structures” as well as personal behaviors. His conclusion:

Our invective about state failure and our dissatisfaction have become part of the problem. Real solutions will emerge, often improbably, from local individual virtues, and from the cultures we struggle to describe and tend to ignore.