IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/indqtr/v80y2024i1p133-148.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ethiopia’s and Kenya’s Use of Military Force as an Instrument of Foreign Policy in Post-1991 Somalia

Author

Listed:
  • Tadie Degie Yigzaw

    (Tadie Degie Yigzaw is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science and International Studies at Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia. He also served as a lecturer at Bahir Dar University. He published numerous articles that bring a security perspective to the fields of international relations and peace studies. This article is derived from one of his dissertations, ‘Military Intervention in the Horn of Africa: Kenya’s and Ethiopia’s Security Engagement in Somalia.’)

  • Kidane Mengisteab

    (Kidane Mengisteab is an African Studies and Political Science Professor at Pennsylvania State University in the United States. The focus of his current research includes the relevance of ‘traditional’ institutions in Africa’s governance, the socioeconomic implications of the expansion of extractive industries and commercial farming in Africa and alternative approaches to democratisation in the African continent. He is the author and/or editor of several books on Africa. His most recent book is titled ‘The Horn of Africa: Hot Spots in Global Politics.’ London: Polity Press, 2015. Mengisteab’s co-edited the book ‘Traditional Institutions in Contemporary African Governance’, which is in press. He is currently working on a book titled Alternative Approaches to Democratization in Africa.)

Abstract

In the history of politics, states have viewed military intervention as one of their tools of foreign policy. However, many scholars have not agreed on the effectiveness of military means in achieving the foreign policy objectives of states. Like other states, Ethiopia and Kenya have used the military as a means of foreign policy and tested their tools in Somalia practically. However, the effectiveness of their foreign policy tool has not been studied. That is why this article’s main objective is to analyse the effectiveness of Ethiopian and Kenyan foreign policies that used military interventions to achieve their foreign policy goals in terms of outcomes. In doing so, the article used a comparative case study methodology. Besides, the ‘good enough’ approach is the proper theoretical lens that is used in this article to comprehend Ethiopia’s and Kenya’s operational outcomes. The analysis comes to the conclusion that both Kenya’s and Ethiopia’s military deployments in Somalia generally failed to accomplish their foreign policy goals. Accordingly, the findings reveal that using hard power as a tool of foreign policy without combining soft power is largely unsuccessful, as indicated by Ethiopia’s and Kenya’s military engagement in Somalia.

Suggested Citation

  • Tadie Degie Yigzaw & Kidane Mengisteab, 2024. "Ethiopia’s and Kenya’s Use of Military Force as an Instrument of Foreign Policy in Post-1991 Somalia," India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs, , vol. 80(1), pages 133-148, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:indqtr:v:80:y:2024:i:1:p:133-148
    DOI: 10.1177/09749284231225836
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09749284231225836
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09749284231225836?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tamar Gutner & Alexander Thompson, 2010. "The politics of IO performance: A framework," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 227-248, September.
    2. Michael Lipson, 2010. "Performance under ambiguity: International organization performance in UN peacekeeping," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 249-284, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heidi Hardt, 2018. "Who matters for memory: Sources of institutional memory in international organization crisis management," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 457-482, September.
    2. Manfred Elsig, 2010. "The World Trade Organization at work: Performance in a member-driven milieu," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 345-363, September.
    3. Steffen Eckhard & Vytautas Jankauskas & Elena Leuschner & Ian Burton & Tilman Kerl & Rita Sevastjanova, 2023. "The performance of international organizations: a new measure and dataset based on computational text analysis of evaluation reports," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 753-776, October.
    4. Mark Pollack & Emilie Hafner-Burton, 2010. "Mainstreaming international governance: The environment, gender, and IO performance in the European Union," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 285-313, September.
    5. Michael Zürn & Alexandros Tokhi & Martin Binder, 2021. "The International Authority Database," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(4), pages 430-442, September.
    6. Martin Binder & Monika Heupel, 2020. "Rising Powers, UN Security Council Reform, and the Failure of Rhetorical Coercion," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 11(S3), pages 93-103, October.
    7. Zbigniew Brodziński & Piotr Bórawski & James W Dunn, 2017. "Development of Non-Governmental Organizations in Poland," Contemporary Economics, University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw., vol. 11(4), December.
    8. Ms. Ghada Fayad & Chengyu Huang & Yoko Shibuya & Peng Zhao, 2020. "How Do Member Countries Receive IMF Policy Advice: Results from a State-of-the-art Sentiment Index," IMF Working Papers 2020/007, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Julia Gray & Jonathan Slapin, 2012. "How effective are preferential trade agreements? Ask the experts," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 309-333, September.
    10. Alao T.O. & Aina O.O., 2020. "Organisational culture of construction companies in Lagos State, Nigeria," Organization, Technology and Management in Construction, Sciendo, vol. 12(1), pages 2158-2169, January.
    11. Zürn, Michael & Tokhi, Alexandros & Binder, Martin, 2021. "The International Authority Database," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 12(4), pages 430-442.
    12. Kenneth Abbott & Duncan Snidal, 2010. "International regulation without international government: Improving IO performance through orchestration," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 5(3), pages 315-344, September.
    13. Yoram Z. Haftel & Tobias Lenz, 2022. "Measuring institutional overlap in global governance," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 323-347, April.
    14. Sanderink, Lisa & Nasiritousi, Naghmeh, 2020. "How institutional interactions can strengthen effectiveness: The case of multi-stakeholder partnerships for renewable energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    15. Pradip Kumar Sarker & Lukas Giessen & Max Göhrs & Sohui Jeon & Minette Nago & Fredy David Polo-Villanueva & Sarah Lilian Burns, 2024. "The forest policy outputs of regional regimes: a qualitative comparative analysis on the effects of formalization, hegemony and issue-focus around the globe," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 449-467, September.
    16. Andrew Lugg, 2024. "Re-contracting intergovernmental organizations: Membership change and the creation of linked intergovernmental organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 545-577, September.
    17. Moser, Fabian & Bump, Jesse B., 2022. "Assessing the World Health Organization: What does the academic debate reveal and is it democratic?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    18. Bernhard Reinsberg & Christian Siauwijaya, 2024. "Does earmarked funding affect the performance of international organisations?," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 15(1), pages 23-39, February.
    19. Susanna P. Campbell & Aila M. Matanock, 2024. "Weapons of the weak state: How post-conflict states shape international statebuilding," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 469-513, September.
    20. Lall, Ranjit, 2021. "The financial consequences of rating international institutions: competition, collaboration, and the politics of assessment," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 107032, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:indqtr:v:80:y:2024:i:1:p:133-148. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.