Soviet Influence and Intervention in Ethiopia between 1974 and 1991

Ibrahim Al Habib, Mohamed

doi:10.21608/aafu.2021.200296

Soviet Influence and Intervention in Ethiopia between 1974 and 1991

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Mohamed Ibrahim Al Habib

*Royal Holloway university

10.21608/aafu.2021.200296

Abstract

This research paper examines the political strategic and involvement of the two superpowers (the Soviet Union and the United States of America) in the Horn of Africa during the Cold war. It discusses more particularly the dynamic of the Ethiopian-Soviet relationship in the context of Soviet influence and intervention between 1974 and 1991. Likewise, it shows how the Soviet Union profoundly engaged in the regional affairs of the Horn of Africa as part of Pax-Sovietica scheme, especially when this region became a geopolitical concern for the superpowers to export their political influence, ideolog, and military business during the Cold War. Such circumstances lead to a dramatic change in both superpowers to reverse their traditional political allegiances in the region in the 1978. Ethiopia, traditionally was an ally of the United States, became an ally of the Soviet Union, and in turn, Somalia, formerly was an ally of the Soviet Union, became an ally of the United States. The united efforts of the West and Arab nations in confronting the Soviet threat which jeopardized their individual interests in the Horn of Africa played also a part of weakened the position of the Soviet Union in the region. As a result, the Soviet dream of a Pax-Sovietica never came into being in the Horn of Africa.

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