A year after the establishment of the Transitional National Government (TNG), Somalia and in particular the southern part of the country remained fragmented and riven by armed confrontations between clans and faction leaders. The TNG succeeded in re-assuming Somalia's seat in the United Nations and all relevant regional organisations, while the breakaway north-western region of ‘Somaliland’ failed to gain any international recognition, despite the widely acknowledged establishment of a relatively stable administration. This paper tries to explain this apparent discrepancy by arguing that state or government recognition is an instrument of international relations, designed to influence rather than passively acknowledge political reality. In Somalia, granting or withholding recognition to one or other political leadership has been driven by specific interests, thus complicating the process of political stabilisation and national reconciliation.