The Soviet Union in the Horn of Africa: The Diplomacy of Intervention and Disengagement

427 Pages·1990·12.23 MB·English

by  Robert G. Patman

THE SOVIET UNION IN THE
HORN OF AFRICA
Soviet and East European Studies: 71
Editorial Board
Ronald Hill (General editor), Judy Batt Michael Kaser
Anthony Kemp-Welch Margot Light Alastair McAuley
James Riordan Stephen White
Soviet and East European Studies, under the auspices of Cambridge
University Press and the British Association for Soviet, Slavonic and
East European Studies (BASSEES), promotes the publication of works
presenting substantial and original research on the economics, politics,
sociology and modern history of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Soviet and East European Studies
71 ROBERT G. PATMAN
The Soviet Union in the Horn of Africa
The diplomacy of intervention and disengagement
70 IVAN T. BEREND
The Hungarian economic reforms 1953-1988
69 CHRIS WARD
Russia's cotton workers and the New Economic Policy
Shop-floor culture and state policy 1921-1929
68 LASZLO CSABA
Eastern Europe in the world economy
67 MICHAEL E. URBAN
An algebra of Soviet power
Elite circulation in the Belorussian Republic 1966-1986
66 JANE L. CURRY
Poland's journalists: professionalism and politics
65 MARTIN MYANT
The Czechoslovak economy 1948-1988
The battle for economic reform
64 XAVIER RICHET
The Hungarian model: markets and planning in a socialist economy
63 PAUL LEWIS
Political authority and party secretaries in Poland 1975-1986
62 BENJAMIN PINKUS
The Jews of the Soviet Union
The history of a national minority
6l FRANCESCO BENVENUTI
The Bolsheviks and the Red Army, 1918-1922
60 HIROAKI KUROMIYA
Stalin's industrial revolution
Politics and workers, 1928-1932
59 LEWIS SIEGELBAUM
Stakhanovism and the politics of productivity in the USSR, 1935-1941
58 JOZEF M. VAN BRABANT
Adjustment, structural change and economic efficiency
Aspects of monetary cooperation in Eastern Europe
5J ILIANA ZLOCH-CHRISTY
Debt problems of Eastern Europe
56 SUSAN BRIDGER
Women in the Soviet countryside
Women's roles in rural development in the Soviet Union
55 ALLEN LYNCH
The Soviet study of international relations
Series list continues on p. 408
THE SOVIET UNION
IN THE HORN
OF AFRICA
The diplomacy of intervention and disengagement
ROBERT G. PATMAN
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© Cambridge University Press 1990
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no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 1990
This digitally printed version 2009
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Patman, Robert G.
The Soviet Union in the Horn of Africa: the diplomacy of
intervention and disengagement / Robert G. Patman.
p. cm. - (Soviet and East European studies: 71)
Revision of the author's thesis (PhD.) - University of
Southampton, 1986.
Bibliography.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-521-36022-6
1. Africa. Northeast - Foreign relations - Soviet Union.
2. Soviet Union - Foreign relations -Africa. Northeast.
3. Ethiopia — Foreign relations — Soviet Union. 4. Soviet
Union - Foreign relations - Ethiopia. I. Title. II. Series.
DT367.63.S65P38 1990
327.47063 - dc20 89-15826 CIP
ISBN 978-0-521-36022-7 hardback
ISBN 978-0-521-10251-3 paperback
To my mother and father

Contents
List of maps page ix
List of tables x
Preface xi
List of abbreviations xvi
Note on transliteration of Russian words xvii
INTRODUCTION
1 From intervention to disengagement: a framework 3
The problem of definition 4
Intervention as an instrument of policy 8
The calculus of intervention 12
The path to disengagement 15
PART I MOTIVATIONAL ASPECTS
2 The evolution of a Soviet interest 25
The tsarist period 27
Soviet rule: the early period 30
The cold war and the Horn of Africa 35
The thawin Soviet-Ethiopian relations 1955-1960 41
The period of escalation, 1960-1967 46
3 Entering the 1970s: The Soviet disposition 58
Global trends 63
Regional trends 71
Local trends 1967-1970 87
The Soviet disposition in perspective 109
vii
viii Contents
PART II THE HORN OF OPPORTUNITY
4 The budding alliance: Marx, Lenin and Mohammed 113
The expansion of Soviet-Somali ties 114
The ambiguities of Somalia's 'socialist orientation7 127
Soviet perceptions of an emperor in decline 136
The year 1974: the treaty 143
5 The Ethiopian revolution and the quest for a Pax
Sovietica 150
The course of the Ethiopian revolution 1974H976 152
The Ethiopian revolution through Soviet eyes 161
The reality of Soviet caution 172
The new drive towards a Pax Sovietica 190
6 War, realignment and the enforcement of proletarian
internationalism 204
The Soviet disengagement 205
The Soviet intervention 222
Soviet behaviour: an analysis 235
CONCLUSION
7 Soviet power without influence? 257
The military juggernaut 258
The Ethiopian constraints 269
The Soviet learning process 284
Epilogue: the diplomacy of perestroika 289
The future 302
Appendix A. Soviet-Somali treaty of 11 July 1974 307
Appendix B. Soviet-Ethiopian treaty of 20 November 1978 311
Notes 315
Bibliography 375
Index 397
Maps
1 The Horn of Africa page 26
2 The imperial partition of the Horn 29
3 Ethnic groups in the Horn 47
4 Administrative regions in Ethiopia and Somalia 159
5 TheOgaden 199
6 TheOgaden campaign 215
IX