National Power in Ethiopia

This research examines the elements of national power in Ethiopia. Considered are factors related to geography, economics, national psychology, military power, and international relations. Probable Ethiopian positions on significant current issues in international relations are also assessed.

Ethiopia is an arid mountainous country located in north eastern Africa, east of the Sudans, north of Kenya and Somalia,with a northeast border along the Red Sea. If the country possessed significant military power and the will to act, its position along the Red Sea would permit it to effectively interdict traffic through the Red Sea between the Suez Canaland the Indian Ocean. Throughout its history, Ethiopia has had neither the power nor the desire to initiate such action. The only natural resource of any consequence found in Ethiopia is petroleum. With an annual capacity of 750,000 tons of crude petroleum extraction, the resource is important to the country; however, it is relatively insignificant at the worldlevel. The country's generally hostile climate, however, does support a viable coffee plantation industry. Coffee exports are

1 2vital to the country's economy, providing approximately 70 percent of foreign exchange earnings (Paxton, 1989).

Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries on earth (The World Bank, 1989). In late1985 and early1986, the attention of the world was drawn to the pathetic spectac

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, 1986). The food crisis in most of the world's lowincome coun tries (including Ethiopia), however, also has other causes. Governmental policies in both those countries, and in the food exporting industrialized countries are implicated (The World Food Institute, 1985). The international economic and financial situation contributes to the development and continuation of the food crisis (The World Food Institute, 1986). Economic development in the nonindustrialized countries such as Ethiopia in the postSecond World War period, thus, must be considered within the wider context of the sociopolitical environment. Three theories of economic development are widely accepted in the1980s. These three theories are the (1) diffusion model, (2) structuralist model, and (3) the dependency model (Wallerstein, 1979). The diffusion model holds that progress is a function of the spread of modernism to backward, archaic, and traditional 5economies, and that the principal factors leading to development are (1) advanced technology and (2) an infusion of foreign capital. Neither of these factors have been made available to Ethiopia. In this model, development is equated with industrialization and increased economic diversifica

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