Full Description
Ethiopia has been going through the most tumultuous period in its recent history, with conflict and civil war killing hundreds of thousands and leaving millions displaced. This book investigates the escalation and making of the current crises in Ethiopia, starting with the root causes of the protests (2015-2018), the bumpy transition (2018-2021), the civil war in the north (November 2020-November 2022) and ongoing violence in Amhara and Oromia regions, taking us up to 2024.
Adopting a diachronic approach, the book brings in historical insights to help us understand the causes of the crises and how they have led to current realities on the ground. The book presents a multiscalar analysis, investigating local identity and security concerns and state- level political, economic and security dynamics. Using the concept of the intrastate insecurity complex, the book sheds light on contested notions of security between state security on the one hand and societal security - the security of ethno- linguistic or cultural groups - on the other. It also takes into account the relevance of regime security in the complex dynamics between state and societal security.
Providing fresh conceptual and analytical perspectives on the unfolding situation, the book will be an important read for researchers, policymakers and practitioners interested in governance, development and security issues in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
Contents
Introduction: Intrastate Insecurity Complex: The Intricacies of State, Regime, and Societal Security Section I: The Fundamentals of Ethiopia's (In)Security 1. Prisoners of the Political Past? Ethno-Nationalism and the Difficulty of Imagining a Common Future 2. Ethiopia's National Security: Post-2018 Politico-Military Vulnerabilities and Threats Section II: Facilitating Insecurity: Elites, Technology and Political Economy 3. The Political Economy of Developmentalism: Distributive Crisis, Inequality, and Insecurity 4. Ethiopian Elites in Transition: Fragmentation, Polarisation and Insecurity Dynamics 5. Drone Discourse: Contemporary Technologies of Warfare in Ethiopia Section III: Understanding the Complex Web of Insecurity 6. From Protest Movements to Armed Insurgency: The Dynamics of Conflict and Insecurity in Oromia, Ethiopia 7. Amhara: Emerging Ethnic Nationalism and Insurgency 8. Tigray's Dilemma: Historical Roots and Contemporary Dynamics 9. The Somali Region in Ethiopia's Insecurity Complex: Towards Centring the Periphery? 10. Federalism, Insecurity and the Pursuit of an Own Ethnic Region in Southern Ethiopia Concluding Remarks: Intrastate Insecurity as a Complex Systemic Dynamics
