Beyond the Border War: The Ethio-Eritrean Conflict and International Mediation Efforts

Abstract

When Eritrean and Ethiopian troops first clashed along their countries' common border in 1998, most observers accepted that the Ethio-Eritrean dispute was primarily a question of competing claims on territory. The subsequent escalation and apparent intractability of the conflict - illustrated most bla­tantly by the failure of a series of international mediation efforts - now suggests that factors beyond territoriality may be fueling this costly war. To this end, the article begins with a description of the current dispute and provides a summary of recent and ongoing attempts at conflict resolution by the international community. It then takes a closer look at the element of territoriality to assess how salient a feature it has been in precipitating and perpetuating the conflict. This leads into an examination of a number of economic, political, and social factors in both societies chat impact upon the conflict. From this analysis, the article evaluates ongoing mediation efforts and concludes that alternate third-party strategies for setting the conflict should be adopted. These alternate strat­egies, the argument follows, would target the underlying roots of the Ethio-Eritrean war.