The Horn of Africa and the Red Sea Arena are an epicenter of war and famine, and also a recent focus for African and international peacemaking and humanitarian action. But the last few years have seen a rapid abandonment of the norms, principles and institutions that undergirded the prospects for peace. Conflicts of the region are increasing entangled, with Ethiopia and its neighbors engaged in proxy wars of destabilization, while the rising powers of the Middle East are arming and financing their clients in a ruthless game of rivalry that has eviscerated the African Union and left the United Nations a spectator. Global tensions in and around the Red Sea are creating a complex shatter zone.
The World Peace Foundation has championed the principles of multilateral peace and security in Africa and especially the Horn, with our report African Politics, African Peace, and developed the concept of the ‘Red Sea Arena’ as a zone of contestation. In a series of papers and essays, we document the complex and rapidly unfolding politics of conflict, hunger and strategic rivalry in the region.
