S08E06: Michael Wolde­mari­am on Chal­lenges Fac­ing African Democ­ra­cy (Part 1)

This episode explores polit­i­cal and mil­i­tary con­flicts in Ethiopia and more broad­ly, in the Horn of Africa. Why has Ethiopia’s process of democ­ra­ti­za­tion erod­ed in recent years? And what is the wider impact of such demo­c­ra­t­ic back­slid­ing on African region­al pol­i­tics? Lis­ten to hear how shift­ing glob­al geopo­lit­i­cal bal­ances are shap­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty struc­tures of democ­ra­ti­za­tion in Africa today.

Guest fea­tured in this episode: 

Michael Wolde­mari­am is an Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor in the School of Pub­lic Pol­i­cy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mary­land, Col­lege Park, and a Senior Fel­low at the Cen­ter for Inter­na­tion­al and Secu­ri­ty Stud­ies. He has held fel­low­ships from pres­ti­gious insti­tu­tions includ­ing the Woodrow Wil­son Inter­na­tion­al Cen­ter for Schol­ars and the African Research Cen­ter at Penn State Uni­ver­si­ty. In 2020–21, he brought his exper­tise to the Demo­c­ra­t­ic staff at the Sen­ate For­eign Rela­tions Com­mit­tee through a fel­low­ship from the Coun­cil on For­eign Rela­tions.
With a pri­ma­ry focus on African secu­ri­ty stud­ies, Wolde­mari­am’s research cen­ters on the Horn of Africa. He is active­ly engaged in con­sult­ing with var­i­ous inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions on the pol­i­tics and secu­ri­ty dynam­ics of the region. His schol­ar­ly con­tri­bu­tions span across aca­d­e­m­ic jour­nals such as “Con­tem­po­rary Secu­ri­ty Pol­i­cy” and “Stud­ies in Con­flict and Ter­ror­ism”, as well as promi­nent out­lets like “For­eign Affairs” and “For­eign Pol­i­cy”.
In 2018, Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty Press pub­lished his book, “Insur­gent Frag­men­ta­tion in the Horn of Africa: Rebel­lion and Its Dis­con­tents”, which has received acclaim for its insight­ful analy­sis of region­al complexities.