PROBING ETHIOPIAN FOREIGN POLICY TOWARDS SUDAN AND SOUTH SUDAN POST-2011.

Abstract

With the core objective of assessing the Ethiopian foreign policy and its relations towards Sudan and south Sudan post 2011. Foreign policy is a routine espoused by countries to engage with other countries through dialogue and conciliation to advance their political, social, economic and military interests.  Ethiopian foreign policy initially  dominated by state to state relations that marginalized the participation of none state actors like Non-Governmental Organizations, individuals and other Multinational Corporations. The first official document of Ethiopian foreign policy was adopted by Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front government.The findings are more emphasized and analyzed qualitative research approach and narrative research design to attain the objective of the study. On the other hand secondary sources were used in order to address the basic objectives of the research. To this end the study used qualitative data analysis techniques for collecting data from different sources. The findings of this study indicate that Ethiopian foreign policy played paramount role for its relations with Sudan and south Sudan and challenged by different obstacles. As the findings show, Ethiopian government provide political, and military support for Sudan and south Sudan   like military training and diplomatic support for resolving border conflict. It also played paramount role in peace-making and peace keeping role, this greatly contributed to    regional stability for border security, people to people relations, increasing understanding on hydro politics etc. On the other hand, Ethiopian foreign policy challenged by different obstacles such as, the prevalence of terrorism, the expansionist behavior of Sudan, the development of greedy interest on the Nile River by riparian states, the rise of nationalism, misuse of social media,  border insecurity and extreme poverties are the main determinant of Ethiopia’s foreign policy post- 2011. Finally, the study comes up with good relations continued until Prime Minister Abyi Ahmed come to power in 2018 but the coming of joint military civilian government in Sudan August 2019 the relations of these countries are once more uncertain.