Ethiopia’s Security Predicaments: The Interplay of Domestic and External Vulnerabilities and Threats
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Date
2024-10
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The literature on the national security of states that are commonly known as developing, Third
World, fragile, or weak states asserts that their security concerns are domestically generated. And,
where they are located next to each other in a region, there is little or no security dynamics as they
lack the capacity to threaten one another. Due to this reason, their national security is confined to
the domestic dimension and the external/regional security dynamics is generally dull. Building on
this body of knowledge but challenging its claims about the external dimension, this dissertation
unravels the question that if the domestic dimension of (in)security trumps the external, as the
available literature indicates, what are the major sources Ethiopia’s security predicament as
defined, framed, and addressed by the state/regime? Based on this, the dissertation, anchored on
Subaltern Realism complemented by Regional Security Complex Theory, finds that: (a) Ethiopia’s
security predicament is generated by the low levels of sociopolitical cohesion or national
integration and political legitimacy accompanied by recurrent internal political violence, and
hence, domestic insecurity dilemma; (b) despite the above, the external dimension of (in)security
has also been important, and the domestic insecurity dilemma does not always trump the external,
and (c) the above create a pattern of interplay between the domestic and external dimensions of
(in)security inextricably linking Ethiopia’s national security with that of the stability and security
of its neighbours in particular and the region in general. Adopting a constructivist research
paradigm and qualitative case study design, data for this dissertation is generated/collected
through primary and secondary sources including key informant interviews, the use of newspapers
as open-archives, document reviews, and published and unpublished materials.
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Keywords
National Security, Weak States, Regional Security, Ethiopia, Horn of Africa