Dias, Alexandra Magnolia
(2008)
An inter-state war in the post-Cold War era: Eritrea-Ethiopia (1998-2000).
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
Inter-state wars are not one of the most salient features of current world politics. Indeed, the prevailing patterns of contemporary armed conflict show an increasing trend in intra-state wars that spill over borders. Beyond the continuities with the thirty-year civil war in Ethiopia, namely in the relations between the two former insurgent movements, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), the 1998-2000 war was waged between the armed forces of two sovereign states: Eritrea and Ethiopia. This is one of the few cases of inter-state war in Africa. The case-study provides evidence to contradict the strand of the literature which claims that we are witnessing a decisive transformation of warfare (Van Creveld, 1991); (Kaldor, 1999). The central claim of the thesis is that neighbouring states do fight over territory. Indeed, territory is central to understanding the causes, the conduct, and the outcomes of the 1998-2000 inter-state war. The case-study provides a contribution to the development of a comparative perspective on the relationship between territory and the causation, conduct and outcomes of intra-state and inter-state wars in Africa and in other regions. My contribution is to the reflection on the challenges of globalization to the territorial state and particularly to understanding the significance of territory for the survival of the modern sovereign state in Africa. The adherence to uti possidetis and the noninterference norms coupled with de facto porous borders is one of the most challenging questions facing African states. The findings of the research highlight the value-added of the case-study to the debates on the general transformation and on the more specific patterns of warfare in Africa, the dynamics of state formation in Africa and the region's security dynamics.
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