Lessons from Ethiopia and Sudan on US Efforts to Support Democracy

Lessons from Ethiopia and Sudan on US Efforts to Support Democracy

 Source: The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published in October 2024 a paper titled “U.S. Support for Democratic Openings in Conflict-Affected Countries: Lessons from Ethiopia and Sudan” by Brittany Gleixner-Hayat.  

The author concluded that while there are limits to what the U.S. government could have reasonably done to increase the likelihood of democratization in Ethiopia and Sudan, Washington missed opportunities to support peaceful democratic change and did harm by exacerbating conflict drivers through exclusionary and short-sighted policies.

The United States does not bear the responsibility for the failure of Ethiopia and Sudan to transition from authoritarianism to democracy.  The likelihood of democratization in both cases was low and the contexts were conflict prone.  However, the United States was a prominent external actor in both situations with a stated policy of supporting the consolidation of the democratic openings, so examining lessons learned is critical for future opportunities.