Ethnic Nationalism and the Crisis of Statehood in Ethiopia

ABSTRACT This article argues that ethnic conflict in multinational states is shaped less by institutional design than by rival nationalist interests competing within a common state. Focusing on Ethiopia, the article draws on comparatively informed insights, original interviews and organisational and media reports to examine how competition among elites from major ethnic groups sustains state crisis and political instability. Ethiopia reveals a broader vulnerability of multinational states in which ethnic groups are geographically concentrated and territorially segmented, inhabiting largely distinct areas of the state, while competing for power in a context where no single group can secure durable hegemony at the centre. These conditions facilitate armed rebellion, intensify struggles for state control, and weaken constitutional government. The article advances three claims. First, Ethiopia's crisis cannot be reduced to the failures of ethnic federalism because nationalist mobilisation predates and reshapes institutions. Second, the state is better understood as a contested political arena than as a neutral framework of governance. Third, territorial segmentation and shifting group dominance help explain why ethnic conflict persists and institutions are instrumentalised against outgroups. The article concludes by considering possible policy directions for addressing Ethiopia's crisis of statehood and contributes to broader debates on the governance of multinational states.