Ethiopia in the Wake of Political Reforms (Paperback or Softback)

Ethiopia is in the midst of unprecedented and sweeping reforms taking place at lightning speed. Close observers of the reform process are deeply divided. Some are excited, inspired and energized; others are skeptical, despondent and even scared. A glance merely at the headlines on mainstream and social media in the past couple of years is suggestive of how polarized the political discourse in and about the country has become, often painting the situation in highly contrasting colours: the country is either ascending to the heights of a free and democratic republic or descending to the depths of autocracy; launching itself on a new path of sustained prosperity or on a downward spiral to ever-deepening poverty; a thriving multiethnic federation in which its citizens live together in peace and harmony, or a ticking time bomb with the threat of disintegration along ethnic lines hovering up in its horizons; and a force for peace and stability in the Horn of Africa and beyond or a country divided from within and facing the imminent threat of civil war that can easily spiral onto the rest of the sub-region to threaten international peace and security.

But, one thing is clear beyond doubt – everybody agrees that, for better or for worse, Ethiopia is at a historic turning point. Following the political transition in April 2018, the current administration launched all-encompassing reforms at breakneck speed and set in motion a transformation of the political, social and economic fabric of the state along with its relations with the rest of the world. These changes are, rightly, often described as unprecedented in the long and turbulent history of the country. In a remarkable feat of political management, the 2018 transition brought a new leadership to office largely — if not entirely – through a non-violent internal political process that evokes the image of an egg opening from within to give birth to a new form of life. Also unprecedented is that the new leadership, instead of proclaiming a radical revolutionary agenda that repudiates and rejects everything from the past and starting with a clean slate, adopted a vision of the future that integrates, and builds on, its positive accomplishments.

Where this change leads, only time will tell; but, there is little doubt that that destination is in the hands of the Ethiopian people, that they are the masters of their own destiny. Ethiopia in the Wake of Political Reforms is about making a modest contribution to that goal; it is about interrogating, understanding, conceptualizing and explaining the core components of the reform process systematically, independently, and rigorously. To that end, the book brings together contributions from a multi-disciplinary team of over twenty scholars and practitioners with acknowledged expertise in the areas of political and economic reform, federalism and nation building, as well as foreign and security policy. The resulting analysis contained in the book, organized in four parts and twenty chapters, is rich, insightful, challenging, and refreshing.

One shared theme appears to emerge from all parts and chapters of the book – that, while the reforms unleashed in April 2018 have promised a new chapter in Ethiopia’s centuries-old efforts to lay down the foundations for democratic peace and prosperity based on equality and rule of law, Ethiopia’s history teaches us that success cannot be taken for granted even now, once again calling for continued effort and vigilance to ensure promises are honoured, citizens recognized and respected, and office holders held accountable before the law.

Melaku Geboye Desta is professor of international economic law at Leicester De Montfort Law School in England (since 2013), currently on leave working for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) as principal regional advisor in regional integration and trade. He is a lawyer by training and holds a PhD in international economic law. Melaku has published widely in the fields of international economic law and policy, with a particular focus on the interests of developing countries in general and those in Africa in particular. Melaku is a founding coeditor of the Ethiopian Yearbook of International Law (EtYIL), which has been published annually since 2016.

Dereje Feyissa Dori holds a PhD in social anthropology from Martin Luther University. He has been a research fellow of Osaka University, the Max Planck Institute, and the University of Bayreuth Centre of International Excellence "Alexander von Humboldt." Currently he is a research and policy advisor to the Life & Peace Institute in Uppsala, Sweden. Dereje has extensive experience in research on a wide range of topics, such as ethnicity and conflict, religion and politics, the political economy of development, and borderland studies. He is the author and coeditor of several books, as well as numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes.

Mamo Esmelealem Mihretu is a senior adviser on policy reforms to the prime minister of Ethiopia and Ethiopia's chief trade negotiator. Prior to taking his post in 2018, Mamo was a senior project manager at the World Bank Group from 2010 to 2018 and has more than sixteen years of experience in economic policy reforms. His past roles include lecturer at Addis Ababa University and other Ethiopian academic institutions. Mamo studied leadership, public administration, and economic development at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Additionally, he completed his postgraduate studies in law at the Universities of Pretoria and Amsterdam.