ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the main contours of Eritrea's historical trajectory and its role in the sub-regional political context. It shows how the deterioration of relations with Ethiopia, and the latter's deepening links with the Western states, was integrally linked to Eritrea being increasingly portrayed as a destabilizing and terrorism-supporting state, and increasingly seen as a pariah. In the late nineteenth century, Eritrea formed the northernmost part of Ethiopian empire's sphere of influence on the African continent. The military effort to liberate Eritrea in the early 1960s became largely possible due to external support. Eritrea is an authoritarian state in which political power crystallizes exclusively in the highest leadership, the Afewerki presidency. Eritrea is widely considered to be a rogue state and a spoiler of peace in the Horn of Africa. Finally, there are few prospects for Eritrea under the current leadership to escape its image as a rogue state.
