ABSTRACT
Few parts of the continent more strikingly illustrate the upheavals that have taken place in Africa's foreign policies than the area that, from 1952 until Eritrea's independence in May 1993, formally constituted Ethiopia. This chapter outlines the foreign policies of Ethiopia and Eritrea, not just as states but also as parts of a multilayered conflictual region in which foreign policies, like every other aspect of politics, have been part of the currency of conflict. The insurgents were, however, able to profit from the long history of conflict in the Horn by attaching themselves to other states and movements opposed to Ethiopian centralism. For a period, nonetheless, the revolution that broke out in 1974 was to give a new lease on life to the quest for centralized Ethiopian statehood that had formed the theme of Ethiopian imperial government and foreign policy since 1855.
