Conflicts of Four Heterogeneous Cases in the Horn of Africa from Path
Dependency Perspective
Abstract
As a crossroads, the Horn of Africa is characterized by a diversity of
ethnic groups, religions, and cultures. Since the wave of Western
colonialism, the countries of the Horn of Africa have been embroiled in
internal conflicts, and Ethiopia, the Sudan, South Sudan, and Somalia
have long failed to resolve their communal conflicts. Previous studies
have described the outbreak of conflicts or civil wars in terms of
competition for resources, ethnic identity, and colonial legacy. The
civil conflicts in the four countries in the Horn of Africa are a
typical case of heterogeneity. Through the path-dependency approach,
this paper takes colonial rule as the starting point and state
construction as the node to analyze how the four cases develop step by
step leading to the occurrence of internal conflicts. The study shows
that all four cases failed to properly solve the problem of state
construction and build a system of power balance among ethnic groups,
which led to the repeated planning of inter-ethnic conflicts and the
formation of conflicts.