Introduction

This volume of Northeast African Studies presents eight articles, including this introduction, on the various dimensions of development in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. Most of the articles were selected from those contributed to the International Conference on Ethiopian Development Issues (ICEDS) that convened at Western Michigan University (WMU) in Kalamazoo, Michigan, 16–18 August 2001, and also those contributed to two other ICEDS conferences, 11–12 July 2003, and 18–19 July 2005, which convened in Ethiopia. This is the second of a two-part series on challenges of building democratic institutions for human development, focused on Ethiopia, and accepted for publication by Northeast African Studies, an interdisciplinary social science journal published by Michigan State University (MSU) Press. Most of the articles in the present issue were selected by the first guest editor and the late Harold Marcus, distinguished university professor in African history at MSU, before he passed away in 2003.

The purpose of this introduction is to highlight the main points of the articles and conclude with remarks and comments drawing out some policy implications and ideas related to the challenge of building democratic institutions of governance, which we believe is necessary for sustainable development in Ethiopia.

A Brief Summary

The first article, by Paulos Milkias, discusses the 2001 political conflict within the current ruling Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which is the dominant party in the coalition of ethnically based parties that comprise the ruling party known as the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Milkias reviews the evolution and the dynamics of the conflict within the TPLF, including some of the underlying root causes of this conflict. He presents a revealing analysis of the potentially explosive recent conflict within the ruling party in general and the TPLF in particular, from which the current prime minister, Meles Zenawi, and his supporters emerged as victors over the dissident group or over what Milkias terms the "Tewolde-Siye" clique. Milkias also points out that when viewed in the context of the recent violent political history of Ethiopia, the 2001 political conflicts and purges have been relatively bloodless.

The second article, by Daniel D. Kendie, explores the challenges and opportunities for economic cooperation in the Horn of Africa, with a focus on resolving the old Ethiopia-Somalia conflict. Kendie's article discusses the background to the geopolitical events in this strategic subregion and the events themselves, focusing on Somalia and Ethiopia. Kendie contends that the Republic of Somalia, which was created in 1960 with the merging of the former British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland, had an ambitious plan to unite all Somalis living in the neighboring states, as symbolized on Somalia's national flag, which shows a five-pointed star, with three of its points representing territories within the neighboring states of Djibouti, Kenya, and Ethiopia.

Kendie reveals that as an expression of Arab and Muslim solidarity, Saudi Arabia gave massive financial aid to Somalia following independence. He further points out that other states such as Iraq, Syria, and Sudan provided significant military aid. Somalia and Ethiopia were engaged in a vicious war in 1977–1978 with arms supplied by the former Soviet Union and the United States. Between 1967 and 1978, Somalia imported $185 million worth of military assistance from the Soviet Union, and the United States supplied about the same amount of military assistance to Ethiopia during the period 1953–1977.

The 44-year rule of the late Emperor Haile Selassie collapsed in 1974, primarily due to a failure to make significant political and economic reforms along democratic lines. The failure of the U.S. government under the Carter administration to follow through with the United States' long commitment to the security of the Ethiopian state from internal and external threats also contributed to Haile Selassie's downfall. The Ethiopian revolution erupted following the demise of the imperial regime in 1974, and power was later captured by an oppressive military regime that ushered in a reign of terror, bloodshed, mass displacement, exodus, human capital flight, and destruction of the economy and of property in Ethiopia.

The military junta known as the Derg...