The Politics of State Survival: Continuity and Change in Ethiopian Foreign Policy

Abstract

For more than a century the Ethiopian state has been concerned with promoting the idea in the international community that it is a viable multiethnic nation-state and with having its claimed geographic boundaries accepted as sacrosanct. Irrespective of the 1974 change from a modern imperial regime to a leftist-oriented military government, these foreign policy priorities have been motivated by persistent claims for self-determination expressed by politically subordinate ethnic communities questioning the legitimacy of Amhara hegemony. The weak, dependent character of the state has continued to force Ethiopian leaders to advance their causes through international diplomacy and military force. Thus the state has sought both the role of a spokesman for Africa and the military aid of a big-power patron. The conclusion is that structural requirements for state survival are more important than ideology.

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