From Ally to Enemy

Book excerpt: In Moscow's ill-fated involvement with Mengistu's regime, the strategic goals of a superpower was defeated by a concatenation of factors. This book has shown how those factors caused the grand design for a Pax Sovietica in the region to founder on a combination of hubris and poor judgement. The attitude of the Soviet Union towards the Eritrean liberation movements, and indeed the twists and turns in its support of the Derg regime, reflects the flawed thinking behind its rush to link states in the region into a confederation under Soviet tutelage. Almost half a century after the ignominious end to the Soviet Union's plans for Pax Sovietica in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea, there are now signs that Moscow is returning to the region.