ABSTRACT

The Ethio-Eritrea border war, which took place from 1998–2000, was not formally resolved until the signing of a peace declaration on 9 July 2018. Known as a ‘fight between two bald men over a comb’, this conflict has long puzzled social scientists and political analysts. While the two countries provided different explanations for the conflict to rally public support and justify the price of war, the author argues that the conflict exceeded the logics of territorial integrity. Rather, he contends that given the colonial legacy of intentionally instituting borders to divide communities and ethnic groups, it is not possible to fully understand the border dispute without accounting for the transnational nature of the ruling ethnic groups. This is because the border and ethnic conflicts that have characterised post-colonial Africa have usually been linked to the creation of inter-ethnic groups, intra-ethnic competition and artificial boundaries between neighbouring nation-states. The Ethio-Eritrea border dispute is best understood through the lens of an ethno-linguistic struggle for supremacy disguised as a patriotic campaign against invaders. The paper concludes by reflecting on the durability of the 2018 peace declaration.

摘要

直到2018年7月9日签署和平宣言，直到1998年至2000年的埃塞俄比亚-厄立特里亚边境战争才得到正式解决。这种冲突长期以来一直令人感到困惑，该冲突被称为“两个秃头之间的争斗”。社会科学家和政治分析家。尽管两国对冲突提供了不同的解释，以唤起公众的支持并证明战争的代价是合理的，但作者认为，冲突超出了领土完整的逻辑。相反，他认为，考虑到有意建立边界来划分社区和族裔群体的殖民历史，如果不考虑统治族裔群体的跨国性质，就不可能完全理解边界争端。这是因为殖民地后非洲的特点是边界和种族冲突通常与族裔间群体的建立，族裔内部竞争以及相邻民族国家之间的人为边界联系在一起。埃塞俄比亚与厄立特里亚的边境争端最好是通过民族语言斗争争取至高无上的斗争的镜头来理解的，该斗争被伪装成对侵略者的爱国运动。本文最后总结了2018年和平宣言的持久性。