In the mid-20th century, Horn of Africa nations were endlessly at odds over border issues stemming from colonial partition. Local boundary politics acquired a new dimension when superpower rivals turned their attention to the establishment of spheres of influence in a newly independent Africa.This study explores the role of international politics in the life of a region where on the one hand is a nation trying to gather its people into a state (Somalia), and on the other are neighboring states (Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti) constructed on Western notions of statehood and wedded to colonial-defined borders. The positions were intractable. The Horn became an arena for Cold War ideological-global competition, and the conflict one of the longest running disputes on the African continent.