The United States has been a leader both on the diplomatic front and in humanitarian and economic assistance to the region. With the incoming Obama Administration in the United States, there is a great deal of hope — and opportunity–that the US policy toward the Horn could change. But a key question is: what should the main elements of such change look like and why? The OSA mid-year conference is intended to promote exchange of ideas and discussion on the following issues:
What is driving the inter- and intra-state conflicts and how do they relate to one another? Do they have a regional character?
Has US policy towards the Horn been effective, and if not, why not? What are its main shortcomings?
What key areas of the US policy need to change under the new administration: Diplomacy? Military policy and Counter-terrorism? Human rights and humanitarian aid? Development policy and assistance?
The OSA conference will last one full day. Invited talks will be organized into two panels of three speakers — one panel in the morning and another in the afternoon. We expect that each panel will last about 90 minutes, which will be followed by ample time for questions and answers from the audience. In view of the timeliness of the topic, we expect that the conference will generate a lot of discussion.
Venue:
500 Howard Place
Founders Library, Browsing Room
Howard University
Washington, DC
David Shinn is currently Adjunct Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University. Prior to his current position, Shinn had served for thirty-seven years in the US Foreign Service with assignments at embassies in Lebanon, Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritania, Cameroon, Sudan and as ambassador to Burkina Faso and Ethiopia. He is the co-author of An Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia and has authored numerous articles and book chapters. He is working on a book concerning China-Africa relations. His research interests include China- Africa relations, East Africa and the Horn, terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism, conflict situations, U.S. policy in Africa, and the African brain drain. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the George Washington University.
Ezekiel Gebissa is currently Associate Professor of History at Kettering University. He is the author of Leaf of Allah: Khat & Agricultural Transformation in Harerge, Ethiopia, 1875-1991 (James Currey and Ohio University Press, 2004). He has published several articles in refereed journals, and edited most recently Contested Terrain: Essays on Oromo Studies, Ethiopianist Discourse, and Politically Engage Scholarship (The Red Sea Press, 2009). He is past president of the Oromo Studies Association (OSA) and currently editor of the Journal of Oromo Studies. He holds a PhD in history from Michigan State University.
Asafa Jalata is currently Professor of Global Studies at Tennessee University-Knoxville. Jalata’s research agenda has focused on investigating and understanding the dynamic interplay between the exploitative global and regional economic structures and the human agencies of the colonized/ indigenous peoples. He has been identifying and explaining the chains of historical and political economic forces shaping racial/ ethnonational inequality, development and underdevelopment, and national and social movements on global, regional, and local levels. Specifically, for the last twenty years, he has researched the relationship between the colonization and incorporation of Oromia, the Oromo country, into the Ethiopian Empire and the global capitalist system and the development of the Oromo national movement. He has authored several books and published several articles in refereed journals. He is past president of the Oromo Studies Association (OSA). He holds a PhD from State University of New York at Binghamton.
Leonardo R. Arriola is currently Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Arriola’s research has focused on ethnic politics, party systems, political economy, and the formation of multiethnic electoral coalitions among opposition parties in Africa. He has conducted field research in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Senegal. He has previously been a Fulbright scholar at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University, a visiting researcher at the West African Research Center in Dakar, Senegal, and a predoctoral fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. He holds aPhD in political science from Stanford University.
Lahra Smith is currently Assistant Professor at Georgetown University. Smith is a Political Scientist with a particular interest in African politics. She teaches a variety of courses, including African Politics & Government, Peace and Conflict in East Africa and Civil Society & Democracy in Africa. Her recent research focused on the role of political institutions in addressing conflict based largely on ethnic and language identities in Ethiopia. In addition to study in Ethiopia, Smith has worked and studied in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Djibouti and Zimbabwe. Previously, she worked for USAID in Nairobi, Kenya and Oxfam America, and she served as an election observer in Ethiopia (The Carter Center) and Kenya (USAID/US Embassy). Smith holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles.
