Eritrea showed considerable promise upon winning its independence in the early 1990s, but its renewed confrontation with Ethiopia since war broke out in 1998 not only dominates political discourse to the extent that all dissent is branded as treason; it also provides cover for militarizing the new state and exporting instability to Eritrea's neighbors.
Articles
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A chapter from "Countries at the Crossroads," Freedom House, New York (2011)
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Eritrea’s trouble with transition
Less than a decade after independence, the Eritrea's government shut down the press, jailed its critics, and turned the country into a political prison. This article situates this reversal within the transition from colony to independent state, explores its specific characteristics, and considers prospects for a more democratic outcome.
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from Review of African Political Economy, vol. 27, no. 126 (2010)
Gaim Kibreab offers a comprehensive account of the origins of the EPLF’s authoritarian tendencies in ‘Critical reflections on the Eritrean war of independence’ and helps us to understand what happened to the movement’s early promise in ‘Eritrea: the dream deferred.’ The first explores the toxic culture lurking within the movement from its earliest years; the second analyzes the despotism it produced.
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from "Change Not Charity: Essays on Oxfam America's First 40 Years" (2010)
A critical account of Oxfam America's emergency assistance program in Lebanon in 2002/2003 when Israel invaded the country and extremist Lebanese militias massacred Palestinian refugees and of the formation of Grassroots International a year later when OA, divided over the politics of the undertaking and under pressure from external critics, terminated its engagement.
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A chapter from "Eritrea's Foreign Relations: Understanding its Regional Role" (2009)
Eritrea’s relations with the United States have been fraught from the outset—shaped through and overshadowed by those with Ethiopia, almost always to Eritrea’s disadvantage. The arrival of a new U.S. administration under President Barack Obama offers both sides an opportunity for a fresh start, but it must build on—and overcome—a weighty legacy.
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A chapter from "Eritrea's Foreign Relations: Understanding its Regional Role" (2009)
Power in Eritrea is exercised through layers that are increasingly opaque as one approaches the center, like a set of Russian matryoshka dolls, nesting one inside the other. An exploration of this as it developed within the circle that now rules Eritrea sheds light on the way former guerrilla commander Isaias Afwerki governs and how he and his circle act to extend Eritrea’s influence across the Horn of Africa.
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A review in "Middle East Report," Washington, D.C. (2006)
Eritrea's experience with the outside world certainly fostered a politics with attitude, but it did not create those politics out of whole cloth. The liberation front's leaders bear a large share of the responsibility for inculcating, from the outset, an ideology of extreme nationalism with a strongly paternalistic bent that set the stage for dictatorship later.
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An article in "Race & Class," London (2005)
The struggle for freedom and democracy waged by the people of Eritrea has been a long and complicated on. It now suffers corrosion from within through a power grab that seeks to reverse the nation’s otherwise impressive strides toward openness, inclusion and equality.
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A chapter from "Battling Terrorism in the Horn of Africa," Brookings, Washington, D.C. (2005)
Eritrea’s diverse society has long rendered it vulnerable to centrifugal political forces, while its strategic location has made it the target of outside powers. Today, these fault lines threaten to reassert themselves, opening the country to increased ethnic and religious extremism that could spill over Eritrea’s borders, even as it draws support from hostile neighbors.
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Presented at annual African Studies Ass'n conference and published by allAfrica.com (2003)
A political assessment of Eritrea's retreat from emerging democracy to fiercely repressive dictatorship and a personal account of the author's journey from supporter to critic.