Moonshot: Turkey Building A Spaceport In Somalia
February 12th, 2025
Via The Economist, a report that Turkey is building a spaceport in Somalia: Alper Gezeravci’s first message from space was a patriotic one. “The future is in the skies,” he said from a Falcon 9 rocket on its 14-day mission in January 2024. The line is one of many attributed to Kemal Ataturk, Turkey’s founder, […]
Read more »Ankara Declaration: A Positive Development Imbued with Regional Risks
January 31st, 2025
Via African Arguments, a look at the Ankara Declaration and what it may mean for Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, and Somalialand: Ethiopia and Somalia have agreed to de-escalate yearlong tensions in Türkiye-mediated negotiations resulting in the Ankara Declaration. The two countries agreed to forgo contentious issues, cooperate in mutually advantageous bilateral arrangements, and decided to finalize negotiations […]
Read more »World’s First WhatsAppocracy: Government By Social Media in Somalia
January 29th, 2025
Via The Economist, a look at how cheap data, social media and creativity are filling in for an absent state: Thirty years ago, making a phone call from Somalia meant crossing the border into better-connected Kenya or Ethiopia. Yet by 2004 the lawless nation had more telephone connections per capita than any other east African country. […]
Read more »Trump, Not Turkey, Likely to Decide Somaliland’s Fate
December 16th, 2024
Via Middle East – Told Slant substack, interesting analysis of Somaliland in light of the recent Turkish-brokered agreement between Somalia and Ethiopia: Somaliland Seen Critical to Containing Iranian, Chinese Expansion in the Red Sea Turkey last week announced it brokered an understanding between Ethiopia and Somalia, in a bid to turn down the heat on an […]
Read more »Will Turkiye Brokered Deal Between Ethiopia and Somalia Lower Tensions in the Horn?
December 13th, 2024
Via The Africa Report, an article on the Turkiye brokered deal between Ethiopia and Somalia: Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan says a joint declaration between Ethiopia and Somalia ‘focuses on the future, not the past’, describing it as the first step towards a new beginning based on peace and cooperation between the neighbours. In a […]
Read more »America’s “One Somalia” Policy is a Gift to China
November 1st, 2024
Via National Interest, commentary on how the U.S. State Department’s futile and ossified approach to Somaliland advances Beijing’s objectives in the Horn of Africa: On December 13, 2018, National Security Advisor John Bolton announced the Trump administration’s new Africa strategy. “Great power competitors, namely China and Russia, are rapidly expanding their financial and political influence […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.