Regime Change and War

Domestic Politics and the Escalation of the Ethiopia--Eritrea Conflict

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12240669
AutoresFranklin Steves (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, autor de correspondencia)
Año2003
Volumen16
Número1
Páginas119-133
Fecha de publicación2003-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCambridge Review of International Affairs (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0955-7571 • E-ISSN: 1474-449X
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0955757032000075744
OpenAlexW2064360558
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas29

The 1998-2000 war between Ethiopia and Eritrea seems to defy rationalist explanations. This paper contends that the escalation of the war, from an isolated border clash to the largest conventional war of the past decade, has its roots in the domestic politics of each of the two states. Quasi-democratisation in both countries created environments in which political elites were able to bolster their popular legitimacy by utilising nationalist and aggressive foreign policy rhetoric. The Eritrean leadership believed that a rapid escalation of the border clash to full-scale war would undermine domestic popular support and topple the Ethiopian People's Democratic Front (EPRDF) regime. War escalation had the opposite effect, strengthening the EPRDF domestically and provoking a massive Ethiopian retaliation. War thus served nation- and state-building goals in both countries. This paper provides a theory of the domestic political roots of international conflict in transitional regimes and applies this theory to explain the escalation of a localised border conflict into a highly destructive, full-scale war

Democracy · Democratization · Development economics · Economics · Foreign policy · Legitimacy · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Rhetoric · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · State (computer science · African history and culture analysis · International Development and Aid · Law · Political Conflict and Governance