Ethiopia: Crumbling of Rentier Fortress – Ethiopia’s Maritime Pivot, Decline of Djibouti’s Monopoly

Addis Abeba — For much of the past three decades, the political economy of the Horn of Africa rested on a fragile but durable arrangement: Ethiopia’s overwhelming dependence on Djibouti as its primary maritime gateway and Djibouti’s ability to convert geography into political and economic leverage. That arrangement is now in terminal decline. What is unfolding across the Horn is not simply a series of bilateral disputes or diplomatic misunderstandings, but a structural transition–a Red Sea Cold…