Research On The Changes Of Alliances In The Horn Of Africa During The Ogaden War

The Horn of Africa is located in the northeast corner of Africa, close to the Persian gulf where is the world's most important oildom, connecting the Indian Ocean, red sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The important strategic value makes it a key stronghold to the United States and the Soviet union during the cold war. The ogaden region is located in the eastern Ethiopia and near the Ethiopia-Somalia border, the population is mainly Somalis. After the independence of democratic republic of Somalia, it has been committed to bring all the Somali community together to establish a unified Somali state. Therefore, Ethiopia and somalia are always in fierce competition in the Ogaden region.The Ogaden war in 1977-1978 has important impact on the alliances situation in the horn of Africa. Based on the domestic and foreign related research literature, especially the literature of Soviet Union's meditation of Ethiopia-Somalia conflict in Professor Shen Zhihua's 'Anthology of Soviet historic archives "(33), we tell the history of alliances in the Horn of Africa, the establishment, crisis arising and changing of the alliances. And explore the reason of the changes during the ogaden war.The paper is composed of introduction, text and conclusion, and the text is divided into four parts. The first chapter introduces the Ogaden war, from which we find alliance, especially the Soviet Union's choice of ally, has important influence on the war process. It raises the important issue of our study, namely, what happened to the alliances in the horn of Africa during the Ogaden war, and why this happened. In the next three chapters, we separately discuss the establishment, crisis arising and changing of the alliances among the United States, the Soviet Union, Ethiopia and Somalia, and analyze the reason of alliances' changes. The third and fourth chapters are the keys of this paper.Throughout the analysis, we found during the changes of alliances, there is no significant change of the external threats from all over the world. However, the domestic political changes play an important role in affecting the changes, especially the development of the domestic situation in Ethiopia. After the revolution in 1974, the Ethiopia military government changes previous pro-western attitude on foreign policies, and to develop relations with the Soviet union and other socialist countries. This is not only directly affected the alliance between Ethiopia and America, but also indirectly affected the trust between the Soviet Union and Somalia. In the process of attaining power in 1976-1977, Mengistu bloody crackdown on the opposition. The event became the key factor leading the end of America-Ethiopia alliance, but it strengthened the Soviet government's trust in Mengistu. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union with Somalia had some strategic differences on issues such as Ogaden war. Shortly after the breakup of the war, the alliance between Soviet Union and Somalia came to the end, and the Soviet Union fully supported Ethiopia, and eventually won the victory of the war.