Exploring Ethiopia’s Tumultuous Transformation: A Discussion with Tom Gardner

June 2024

Past Event

Exploring Ethiopia’s Tumultuous Transformation: A Discussion with Tom Gardner

Past Event

Online Only

June 20, 2024

Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed on his official visit to the state house in Nairobi, Kenya, on February 28, 2024. (Photo by Luis Tato/AFP via Getty Images)

June 2024

Past Event

Speakers:

Tom Gardner

Africa Correspondent, The Economist

Listen to Event Audio

When Abiy Ahmed unexpectedly became Ethiopia’s prime minister in April 2018, he rapidly unleashed a wave of liberal political and economic reforms and shocked the world by making peace with longtime foe Eritrea. This earned him international adoration that culminated in the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.

Just a year later, however, Africa’s second largest state descended into a horrific civil war that left hundreds of thousands dead and tarnished Abiy’s reformist image. Though his regime nearly collapsed during the war, Abiy ultimately emerged victorious and now rules over a country that is at once internally unstable and regionally ambitious.

The Economist’s Africa correspondent, Tom Gardner, joins Hudson Research Fellow James Barnett to discuss Gardner’s new book, The Abiy Project: God, Power and War in the New Ethiopia, and Ethiopia’s future in the volatile and strategically vital Red Sea region.

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