Anuario de Historia Regional y de las Fronteras

Vol. 27 No. 2 (2022): Anuario de Historia Regional y de las Fronteras
Articles

From Internal Conflict to Total War. Evolution and International Intervention in the Ogadén War (1976-1980)

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  • Pablo Arconada-Ledesma
Pablo Arconada-Ledesma
Secretario del Observatorio de Estudios Africanos
Bio
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18273/revanu.v27n2-2022012

Published 2022-07-19

Keywords

  • Ethiopia,
  • Somalia,
  • War,
  • International Intervention,
  • Border

How to Cite

Arconada-Ledesma, P. (2022). From Internal Conflict to Total War. Evolution and International Intervention in the Ogadén War (1976-1980). Anuario De Historia Regional Y De Las Fronteras, 27(2), 315–338. https://doi.org/10.18273/revanu.v27n2-2022012
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

This research focuses on the Ogadén War, which has traditionally been seen as a war between two states. However, it is necessary to broaden the view of this border conflict as the role of non state actors such as the Western Somali Liberation Front, which became a key factor during the first months of the war, has been underestimated. This study therefore seeks to deepen the analysis of a regional war, embedded in the Cold War, with two novel aspects. The first aims to refute the mainstream position on the time frame in which the war took place, which has traditionally been set at July 1977 to March 1978. The second aspect focuses on examining the role played by foreign powers during the war. Regional and international newspaper sources, audio-visual media and official documentation have been used for this purpose.

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