Diversification of Ethiopia's foreign policy and post-cold war Ethio-Turkish relations

Ethiopia has long-survived socio-cultural, economic and political relations with various countries of the world. Together with external factors, the nature, structure and content of these foreign relations have been influenced by the domestic regime type. During the past several decades, authoritarian regimes of Ethiopia used foreign policy as an instrument to legitimize their government and ensure their persistence to power. This has resulted in the formulation and implementation of state-centric and elite-dominated foreign policies and strategies. There were extremely limited efforts to make the country's foreign policy responsive to the socio-economic and political demands of the masses. The end of the Cold War and the subsequent collapse of the pro-Socialist regime in Ethiopia in 1991 have led to the beginning of a new era in the country's foreign policymaking. In place of the former Eastern or Western-centric foreign policy approach, post-Cold War Ethiopia has begun to diversify its relations and constructively engages both the established and emerging powers. Furthermore, the foreign policy and strategy of post-Cold War Ethiopia provides attention to promote strategic cooperation with countries of the Horn of Africa. On the other hand, however, foreign policy analysts have forwarded various arguments regarding the ongoing policy diversifications. Some commentators are pro while others are skeptics on the outcomes of the foreign policy diversification process. In this study, I argue for the importance of a comprehensive foreign policy diversification scheme to assure Ethiopia's national interests. Taking into consideration the occurrence of various interest groups in Ethiopia and their potential role in the country's foreign policymaking, this dissertation infers the important insights of the pluralist school of thought. This study demonstrates that the maintenance of a comprehensive foreign policy diversification enables the various pressure groups in Ethiopia to coexist and positively influence the course of developing and advancing their socioeconomic and political interests. Although there are some studies on post-Cold War Ethiopia's relations with the traditional and emerging powers, none of them examined the relations in a comprehensive manner. Based on quantitative and qualitative data's and taking the post-Cold War Era Ethio-Turkish relations, as an illustration, this dissertation examines the course of partner, agenda, instrument and actor diversifications and its implication in addressing the national interest. Keywords: Foreign policy, Diversification, Ethiopia, Turkey, Rising powers.