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Analysis
The new boundaries that were created are located Somalia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Somalia could split into Somalia and Puntland. Somalia then being split into two pieces, and Puntland in between. The countries that have a possibility of merging are Afghanistan and Pakistan on their borders into the AfPak.
Somalia has many places where it could split, but one common theory is Puntland. They both want different governments. Puntland has a democracy (president and vice president), and Somalia has a federal parliamentary republic. Southern Somalia has faced a lot of conflict that Puntland has been able to keep away. Therefore, in order for Puntland to gain their independence from that chaos, they could break off. Puntland had one of the only functioning governments in the country after warlords brought down Somalia’s central government in 1991. Although, many regions may break apart inside Puntland, due to the government.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have a potential of merging at their borders, creating a place called the AfPak. The US foreign policy wants to identify the two countries as a “single theater of operations”. One boundary that brings them together is their religion, Islam. Unfortunately they do not share the same official language or currency, but they share many regional languages.
Somalia and Puntland share two geometric boundaries. Afghanistan and Pakistan share an anthropographic and cultural boundary; their religion, Islam. By sharing a religion and many languages, it makes their boundaries anthropographic and cultural. They also have mountains that go around the AfPak, creating a physical political boundary.
If the AfPak comes together, it may help other countries like the US foreign policy said will make it a “single theater of operations”. On the other hand, it will bring some struggle to Afghanistan and Pakistan finding an official language, common currency, and government. If Puntland breaks off from Somalia, part of Somalia will become an exclave creating difficulty.
