The great sucking sound coming from the South, from thie ambitious Prime Minister of Ethiopia is a cause for concern. It may be win, win proposition for all or it may be not!
The author is not sounding an alarm of “be aware” but the Somalis must understand what is going on around them before they did what Faramajo of Mogadishu did. If the Somalis do not understand right what is happening around them they will live the consequences of their missteps or mistakes forever. What is happening in the Horn is consequential thus understanding what it entails is warranted in my opinion.
What is hegemony?
“Hegemony is when stronger state imposes dominance on weaker state or states in which the hegemon (leader state) rules geopolitically” (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) the leader state applies its interest to the subordinate states by the implied means of power, the threat of force, rather than by direct military force, and that is what is happening in the horn of Africa whereby Ethiopia is the hegemon-the leader state, and the Somalis in the Somali peninsula are the subordinate states.
“Socially powerful people use their influence to convince less powerful people it is in their best interest to do what is actually in the most powerful people’s best interest”.
This scheme, hegemony hastening by the new prime Minister of Ethiopia with his new found Eritrea President is applied to Somalia and Somaliland in two different ways. In the case of Somalia it is applied from top down whereby in Somaliland it is happening in a discreet, steady fashion which is “bottom-up, people to people relationship”
How hegemony works.
Hegemon exercises leadership, either through diplomacy, coercion, or persuasion, it is actually deploying its “preponderance of power.” This is called hegemony which refers to a state’s ability to “single-handedly dominate the rules and arrangements [of] international political and economic relations. (See the activities and a new found relationships between the Gulf states and Ethiopia)
We saw all these were happening in Somalia. This happened by means of “top-down relationship” Subordinate states either give “unwilling consent” or “voluntary consent” to the social logic imposed on specific issues by the strong states. Accordingly, social forces that commence within the powerful states soon spillover into weak states, and the policy implications or adaptive mechanisms that accompany them imposed upon or integrated into the political economy of these weak states. The socio-political developments produced by the dynamics of the economic system in turn generate institutions and policy changes that determine world orders (Colclough, & Manor, 1991; United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), 1995; Toulmin, 1992).
In the relationship of the hegemon and the subordinate state or states the Subordinate states either give “unwilling consent” or “voluntary consent” to the wishes of the hegemon. That is precisely what the Ethiopian prime Minister dictated to the (weak) President of Somalia recently and the later willingly or otherwise accepted all the laundry list given to him!!
Accordingly social forces that initiated by the hegmon, the powerful state, will soon spillover into the weaker Somali states. The integration of the peoples of the region proposed and initiated by the hegemon state, Prime Minister of Ethiopia proposed to Farajo, of Mogadishu, Somalia, where by Faramago of Mogadishu of Somalia abided! That is voluntary consent.
The policy implications or mechanisms adapted upon or integrated into the political economy of the (Somalis) weaker states will manifest itself in the vision of greater Abyssinia dream the present prime Minister of Ethiopia is foreseeing and acting upon in haste!
However peace, justice and prosperity for all
Ibrahim M Mead
Hargeisa
Somaliland
Meadgd@gmail.com