The Challenges of the United Nations Effort in the Furtherance of Peace and Security in the Horn of Africa: The Case of the Ethiopian-Eritrea Border Dispute

Abstract

The study utilises the UN’s past role in both diplomatic and peacekeeping operations in the region, barriers that have been erected to the resolution of the border dispute, and efforts that the UN made to overcome these barriers. The Ethiopian-Eritrean border dispute in the Horn of Africa continues to significantly impede civil stability in the region. Despite multidimensional efforts made by the United Nations (UN), peace has yet to be brokered between the disputants. This study utilised an analysis of the border dispute in an effort to explore the effectiveness of the UN in conflict resolution, affording particular respect to the longstanding instability of the Horn of Africa region. Wholly qualitative in nature, the study used primary and secondary sources in its analysis of the UN’s peacekeeping efforts and apparent barriers to those efforts; among these barriers was an inaccurate understanding of the socio political and socioeconomic landscape of the region. Economic instability in conjunction with cultural tensions supplement the enduring political conflicts in the Horn of Africa, thereby warranting attention to these variables when resolving conflicts and maintaining peace. The ability of civil unrest in the Horn of Africa to quickly escalate to disastrous, humanitarian crises is strong, and this study explored how the UN can avoid such unfortunate outcomes in the future through a better understanding of conflict-supporting variables unique to the Horn of Africa. The study examined both the diplomatic and peacekeeping role of the UN in resolving the Ethiopian-Eritrean border dispute before exploring barriers to resolution and UN efforts to surmount such barriers. The evidence clearly suggests that the UN should seek to empower regional organisations and adopt a more indirect role in border-conflicts, as the UN-created Boundary Commission fostered increasing hostilities toward international intervention. This study concludes by positing that the UN should reframe its role in civil disputes in the Horn of Africa region in order to empower, financially, politically, and otherwise, regional organisations such as the AU in brokering and maintaining peace.