Ethiopia Insight published on 5 June 2025 a commentary titled "Empowering Ethiopia's Judiciary" by Nagessa Dube, a lawyer in Seattle, Washington.
One of the most glaring weaknesses in Ethiopia's system of governance is the lack of an empowered, independent judiciary. Judges must be given the authority to strike down unconstitutional laws.
The Heritage Institute for Policy Studies published in January 2025 a study titled "Rule of Law and Independent Judiciary in Somalia" by Bashir M. Sheikh-Ali.
Somalia's judiciary has historically been weak and politically influenced, limiting its ability to uphold the rule of law. Somalia's Provisional Constitution does not resolve this problem.
The author advocates for the creation of strong legal frameworks and institutions, emphasizing that Somalia's cultural commitment to justice, if properly harnessed, can ignite a transformative legal renaissance in the country.
Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS) published on 3 July 2024 an analysis titled "Without Peace in Ethiopia, Transitional Justice Will Be Difficult" by Tadesse Simie Metekia, ISS Addis Ababa, Tessema Simachew Belay, Bahir Dar University, and Wubeshet Kumelachew Tiruneh, Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights.
One of the primary goals of Ethiopia's policy is to end the cycle of violence through institutional reform. The authors argue, however, that without first ending ongoing conflicts and addressing the structural issues that led to the fighting, it might be impossible to guarantee the non-recurrence of violations.
The Africa Center for Strategic Studies published on 9 April 2024 an analysis titled "Red Sea and Western Indian Ocean Attacks Expose Africa's Maritime Vulnerability" by Francois Vrey, Stellenbosch University, and Mark Blaine, retired combat officer with the South African Navy.
African citizens are paying the price of delays, more expensive consumer goods, disruption to local economic entities, and polluted waterways from Houthi maritime attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Africa's ports are struggling to handle the current volume of freight and cope with the security impacts from these delays and late arrivals. The crisis calls for a recalibration of African maritime security efforts to help keep the trade routes open, safeguard communications cables, and protect the rule of law.
China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe (CHOICE), a multinational consortium of experts, published on 28 September 2023 a commentary titled "Ambiguity: The Key Obstacle for China's Ambition to Reshape the Global Order" by Moritz Rudolf, Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center.
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a white paper titled "A Global Community of Shared Future: China's Proposals and Actions" on 26 September 2023. It comes after Xi Jinping's concept of a Community of Shared Future for Mankind (CSFM), the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Global Development Initiative (GDI), the Global Security Initiative (GSI), and the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI). The GDI, GSI, and GCI are efforts to provide meaning to the CSFM.
The author points out that China's global initiatives emphasize general principles, which opens the door to ambiguity and appears to leave Beijing as their sole legitimate interpreter. The documents suffer from insufficient translation, definition, and contextualization. China struggles to formalize and operationalize its global initiatives. The author concludes that as long as Beijing remains incapable of clearly stating its global positions it will not be able to play a constructive role in reforming the global order but will disrupt it, regardless of its intentions.
The US Institute of Peace published on 6 April 2023 a commentary titled "In Africa, Here's How to Respond to Russia's Brutal Wagner Group" by Joseph Sany.
The author argues that the West needs to counter the Wagner Group by offering African countries a more respectful and realistic relationship than one that historically has been too short term and narrowly focused on building military skills rather than improved governance and economies.
The US-based CATO Institute and Canada-based Fraser Institute just published the "Human Freedom Index 2022: A Global Measurement of Personal, Civil, and Economic Freedom" by Ian Vasquez, Fred McMahon, Ryan Murphy, and Guillermina Sutter Schneider.
The Human Freedom Index uses 83 indicators of personal and economic freedom in the following areas:
--Rule of law
--Security and safety
--Movement
--Religion
--Association, assembly and civil society
--Expression and information
--Relationships
--Size of government
--Legal system and property rights
--Sound money
--Freedom to trade internationally
--Regulation
The Index looked at 165 geographical jurisdictions using data for 2020, the most recent year for which sufficient data are available. Human freedom deteriorated severely in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The five African countries with the best Human Freedom Index were Cape Verde (29), Seychelles (44). Mauritius (50), Namibia (58), and Botswana (61).
The five African countries with the worst Human Freedom Index were Egypt (161), Sudan (160), Somalia (158), Burundi (156), and Libya (155).
The US Institute of Peace published in September 2022 a report titled "Beijing's Strategy for Asserting Its 'Party Rule by Law' Abroad" by Jordan Link, Nina Palmer, and Laura Edwards, all at the time with the Center for American Progress.
The authors argue that China has concluded American hegemony and Western influence are faltering and now is the time to assert greater influence abroad. The Communist Party of China's (CPC) strategy to assert its legal regime abroad hinges on three key motivations. First, the CPC is bolstering its authoritarian conceptualization of "rule by law" and its use of the law as a political tool to maintain primacy at home. Second, the CPC is seeking to extend the extraterritorial application of domestic law to increase its influence abroad. Third, the CPC is creating what it refers to as new "legal weapons" to blunt the impact of foreign legal tools such as sanctions, to implement Chinese laws abroad, and to shape the global legal environment to fit its own interests.
The Center for American Progress published in October 2022 a comprehensive report titled "The Expanding International Reach of China's Police" by Jordan Link.
The report maps the universe of China's Ministry of Public Security (MPS) overseas activities, which fall into broad categories of unilateral actions, bilateral engagement, and multilateral engagement. Under President Xi Jinping, the MPS has significantly expanded its overseas activities, increasingly using security cooperation as a tool to expand its influence and shape global norms.
The Ministry's global efforts to implement the Communist Party of China's (CPC) directive to "actively build a law enforcement security cooperation system with Chinese characteristics" pose significant challenges to the United States and other liberal democracies. The MPS operates under the CPC's own definitions of the rule of law and terrorism, which depart from globally established norms.
Aljazeera published on 10 February 2022 an article titled "Ethiopian Officials Accused of Extorting Tigrayan Detainees" by Samuel Gebre and Zecharias Zelalem.
Aljazeera interviewed victims and relatives of Tigrayan civilians detained by federal authorities in the aftermath of conflict that began in November 2020. The article claims there is widespread extortion of the detainees for everything from release from prison to access to clean water.
The Cato Institute has just released its Human Freedom Index 2021 that ranks and evaluates 165 countries. The index presents a broad measure of human freedom, understood as the absence of coercive constraint. It evaluates 82 indicators of personal and economic freedom in the following areas: rule of law; security and safety; movement; religion; association, assembly, and civil society; expression and information; relationships; size of government; legal system and property rights; sound money; freedom to trade internationally; and regulations.
Countries in the Horn of Africa did not score well. Ethiopia ranked 132, Djibouti 137, Somalia 159, and Sudan 162. Eritrea and South Sudan were not included in the rankings.
The Africa Center for Strategic Studies published on 29 June 2021 an analysis titled "Lessons from a Decade of South Sudanese Statehood" by Luka Biong Deng Kuol.
So much went wrong in South Sudan over the past 10 years of independence but many South Sudanese are still proud that they at least have a country of their own that they can fix one day.
Senators Robert Menendez (Democrat of New Jersey) and James Risch (Republican of Idaho) have introduced the "Strategic Competition Act of 2021," which is designed to counter China globally.
The proposed legislation contains sections (271-276) on Sub-Sahara Africa that call for a series of actions by elements of the US government. They include:
--A report that assesses the nature and impact of Chinese political, economic, and security sector activity in Africa, and its impact on US strategic interests;
--A report setting forth a multi-year strategy for increasing US economic competitiveness and promoting improvements in the investment climate in Africa, including through support for democratic institutions, the rule of law, improved transparency, anti-corruption, and governance;
--A review of the number of Foreign Commercial Officers and Department of State Economic Officers at US embassies in Sub-Sahara Africa;
--Establishment of an interagency working group to counter Chinese cyber aggression with respect to Africa;
--The commitment of resources to enhance the entrepreneurship and leadership skills of African youth with the objective of enhancing their ability to serve as leaders in the public and private sectors. This will include the establishment of the Young African Leaders Initiative. (This is a return to a key component of President Obama's Africa policy); and
--A report by the US Agency for Global Media on the resources and timeline needed to establish an organization whose mission is to promote democratic values and institutions in Africa.
The Bill contains less detailed sections (281-282) for the Middle East and North Africa.
Comment: While it is too soon to predict where this Bill is headed, it has bipartisan sponsorship. It also deals with one of the major omissions of the Trump administration's efforts to counter China in Africa: no new proactive American programs except for the US International Development Finance Corporation. The reports requested in this Bill are aimed at creating new programs and adding resources.
The International Peace Institute, Security Council Report, and Stimson Center published in February 2021 a report titled "Prioritization and Sequencing of Security Council Mandates: The Case of UNMISS" by Victoria K. Holt and Julie Gregory.
Nearly one year after the creation in South Sudan of a transitional government in February 2020, the main pillars of the June 2018 permanent cease fire and September 2018 peace agreement continue to hold, but their implementation has progressed at a worryingly slow pace.
Ethiopia Insight posted on 17 March 2021 a commentary titled "The Ethiopian War Plan that Went Astray" by Fassil Hailu, a pen name for an Ethiopia Insight columnist.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed offered four objectives for the operation in Tigray: to disarm the TPLF, bring its leaders to justice, appoint a new administration for Tigray Region, and enhance law and order. The author argues that only the appointment of a new administration for Tigray Region has been partially accomplished and large chunks of Tigray are now under the control of Amhara Region and Eritrea.
The Heritage Institute for Policy Studies published in March 2021 a study titled "Impediments to Good Governance in Somalia" by lead author Abdirizak A. Muhumed.
The study concludes that the unwillingness of national stakeholders or their inability to build and work within autonomous and functioning public institutions, coupled with the 4.5 political formula, perpetuate Somalia's underperformance in all indicators of good governance. The study assesses the impediments to good governance in Somalia.
