Distrust Among States in the Horn of Africa A Catalyst for Conflict and Poverty

Abstract The purpose of this research is to help readers comprehend the phenomenon of conflict in the Horn of Africa. It recognizes and examines the political element as the primary cause of the subregion's problems with security and peace. The lack of literature on conflicts in the Horn of Africa is not debated in this examination. The argument it is attempting to make is that a large number of the literature the author has read and consulted on the issue focus onconflict markers like religion, area, race, colonial legacy etc. This perspective of the origins of disputes has theunintended consequence of hiding the importance of politics as a primary cause of the issue. Academic research on theconflict problem should take an asymmetrical and undemocratic state-society relationship-based approach rather than a horizontal and asymmetrical society-society relationship. Based on this, the exposé's conclusion—which is amply demonstrated by the scenarios in the conclusion—states that it would be challenging to recommend workableor realistic coping strategies for resolving the issue of peace and security in the subregion in conflict studies if thestate and its institutions were given little to no attention as a major root cause of conflicts and instabilities within andbetween states in the Horn of Africa.