Re-examining Eritrean history through scholarship, archives, and lived memory.

04 Nov 2026

**The March of Folly: Three Regimes, Three Wars, One Historical Lesson** An Emperor. A Marxist dictator. A revolutionary coalition. Three entirely different Ethiopian regimes, spanning decades, united by a recurring geopolitical miscalculation: the belief that military force could bend Eritrea to their will. From Emperor Haile Selassie's annexation of Eritrea in 1962, through Mengistu Haile Mariam's Soviet-backed military offensives, to Meles Zenawi and the TPLF-led government's devastating border war of 1998–2000, Ethiopia's successive leaderships pursued military solutions to the Eritrean question. Each confrontation came at an enormous human and economic cost. Armies were exhausted, resources consumed, and political orders shaken or overthrown. The tragedy of the 1998 war was particularly striking. Ethiopia and independent Eritrea had enjoyed years of cooperation, including access to Eritrean ports, cross-border trade and relatively open borders. Yet that relationship collapsed into another destructive conflict. Today, as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his Prosperity Party revive demands for sovereign access to the Red Sea, an unsettling historical question emerges: **Is Ethiopia's current leadership marching down the same path of folly as its predecessors?** This episode examines the decisions, contradictions and consequences that shaped successive Ethiopian governments' approaches to Eritrea, and the dangers of repeating historical mistakes. History offers a warning to governments that refuse to learn from the wreckage they leave behind. **The March of Folly — a story of power, war, sovereignty and the lessons of history.** Source & Historical Reference: Alemseged Tesfai — Eritrean historian, author and playwright whose historical writings document Eritrea's struggle for independence and its political history. #TheMarchOfFolly #Eritrea #Ethiopia #EritreanHistory #HaileSelassie #MengistuHaileMariam #MelesZenawi #AbiyAhmed #TPLF #ProsperityParty #EritreaEthiopiaWar #Badme #RedSea #HornOfAfrica #AfricanHistory #Geopolitics #EritrawiPodcast