Graduation Year

2026

Date of Submission

4-2026

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

International Relations

Reader 1

Peter Uvin

Reader 2

Pierre Englebert

Terms of Use & License Information

Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

2026 Melayae L Houser

Abstract

This thesis investigates whether Ethiopia's system of ethnic federalism resolved the longstanding conflicts that have characterized the country's political history or instead transformed them into new manifestations. Introduced in 1991 after the collapse of the Derg regime, ethnic federalism reorganized Ethiopia into ethnically defined regional states and granted groups constitutional rights to self-governance and self-determination. The system aimed to address historical grievances stemming from decades of centralized, exclusionary governance.

Employing a four-part analytical framework, this thesis analyzes two case studies: the Tigray War of 2020–2022 and the Oromia-Somali border conflict, to argue that ethnic federalism did not resolve Ethiopia's underlying tensions but fundamentally reshaped them. Instead of remaining concentrated between the central state and its peripheries, conflict shifted toward disputes over territory, representation, and administrative authority at multiple levels of the federal system.

This argument is supported by academic scholarship and personal interviews with three members of my family who directly experienced successive regimes. Their testimonies reveal a consistent pattern: before 1991, ethnic identity was not a significant social divider, but ethnic federalism institutionalized it as the primary framework through which citizens relate to the state and to each other. The central question, therefore, is not merely whether ethnic federalism reduced conflict, but whether it altered the trajectory of conflict relative to the alternatives Ethiopia confronted.

Download

Share

COinS