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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Soviet militarism in the Horn of Africa |
Author: | Olufemi, Kola |
Year: | 1989 |
Periodical: | Nigerian Journal of International Affairs |
Volume: | 15 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 50-81 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Ethiopia Somalia Soviet Union |
Subjects: | foreign policy military assistance |
Abstract: | This article examines the bases and future of Soviet interests in the Horn of Africa. The upsurge in Soviet military transfers to Africa (especially Somalia) in the 1970s is explained by the following factors: the Soviet quest for political influence and military presence in the Horn to bolster its global interests and counteract American presence; the exigencies of the Soviet armaments industry; local or regional factors that favour Soviet intervention such as the increase in frequency of local conflicts which has created a greater demand by African regimes and their opponents for arms. A brief examination of Soviet military involvement in the Horn (first, in the first half of the 1970s, in Somalia, later, from 1977 onward, in Ethiopia) reveals two complementary objectives of Soviet military diplomacy in the Horn: a geostrategic objective and ideological-political considerations. What has the USSR gained through its military involvement in the Horn? The USSR's presence in Ethiopia compensates for its decline in the Middle East; USSR military diplomacy enabled it to export its own style of socialist practice; it has gained access to Ethiopia's military facilities; the Ethiopian terrain has been useful for the valorisation of weapons. Impediments to Soviet interests include countervailing moves on the part of the USA; the intense nationalism in African States; Soviet economic weakness. In conclusion, future prospects under Gorbachev are discussed. Notes, ref., sum. |