Book Cover

Chatham House is scheduled to release a new book titled “Eritrea’s External Relations: Understanding Its Regional Role and Foreign Policy” on January 15.

The press release reads as follows:

Eritrea is increasingly isolated, militarised, and misunderstood on the world stage. It has become vital to the stability of east and northeast Africa, and beyond. A focal point of violent insecurity across the region, Eritrea urgently requires better understanding on the part of policy-makers in the international community.

Eritrea’s External Relations: Understanding Its Regional Role and Foreign Policy, publishing 15th January 2010, is a pioneering assessment of the country’s regional role and foreign relations, representing the first significant analysis of those relations and the internal and regional dynamics which lie behind them, and bringing together the insights of several international analysts and scholars.

Eritrea’s External Relations argues forcefully that the international community must engage with the Eritrean Government as a matter of priority, and urges policy-makers to understand the country’s political culture as a first step toward its rehabilitation. It is argued that Eritrea’s diplomatic culture is rooted in a violent and misunderstood past, and makes the explicit connection between troubled foreign relations and external adventurism on the one hand, and a militaristic, oppressive political culture at home on the other.

The book explores the manner in which the lack of resolution in the conflict with Ethiopia – a failure in which the international community is complicit – continues to destabilise the region in unforeseen ways. Until this is addressed, there is no prospect of peaceful development in the region.

Eritrea’s External Relations makes recommendations for policy-makers as to how best to approach this embittered and aggressive regime, and how it might be made a partner rather than an opponent.

Eritrea’s External Relations makes clear that a failed state in Eritrea would be catastrophic both for the wider region and for international security, and that therefore new paths of engagement are absolutely essential in terms of both the stabilisation of external relations and the encouragement of some degree of liberalisation and demilitarisation inside Eritrea itself.

The Editor:

Richard Reid is Reader in the History of Africa in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He taught for several years at the University of Asmara in Eritrea and has also at Durham University. He is the author of War in Pre-Colonial Eastern Africa and A History of Modern Africa: 1800 to the Present.

He was guest editor of a special volume of the Journal of Eastern African Studies in 2007, dealing with identities in east and northeast Africa. He is also the author of several articles on modern Eritrea and Ethiopia, dealing particularly with the liberation struggle, the 1998–2000 war, and the current political situation.

Released by:

Chatham House has been the home of the Royal Institute of International Affairs for over eight decades. Its mission is to be a world-leading source of independent analysis, informed debate and influential ideas on how to build a prosperous and secure world for all. www.chathamhouse.org.uk

The Book at Amazon:

Eritrea’s External Relations: Understanding Its Regional Role and Foreign Policy

Asmara Tea

Marco Barbon travelled between 2006 and 2008 to Eritrea to make the pictures of his newly published book “Asmara Dream”. The book captures the timeless beauty of Asmara in Eritrea. The Author was born in Rome in 1972 and has a PHD in Asthetics of Photography from the Ecole Etudes en Science Sociales in Paris, France. He worked as a Photo Editor, Author and Film Director of a short film presented at the Italian Film Festival, Nice and at Cinema Le Latina, Paris.

Who is Marco Barbon?

I am an Italian photographer living and working in Paris. I was born in Rome but later moved to Paris the place of art, culture and inspiration.

What drives Marco Barbon?

The passion for travel, art and photography is what drives me. The places I visit and the things I see are my artwork. I try to capture them in a moment of time and space, revealing their beauty.

What is the subject of your work in Eritrea?

The subject of my book is the city of Asmara, more precisely that particular sensation of suspended time and subtle melancholy that struck me the first time I was there. The Italian flair and beauty of the city is something you can not forget after having visited Eritrea.

How did you find out about Eritrea?

Some friends who have visited the country some years ago told me about the beauty of Asmara and I was curious to visit it. So, I packed my things and got on the plane to see myself what they were talking about.

What do you think about Eritrea?

I think Eritrea is a very beautiful country. The tourism is potentially a great richness for the country, the people of Eritrea should continue to develop it because it has a great potential to help the country in the future.

What do you think of Eritreans?

Eritrean people are wonderful, I love them.

Which are your favourite photographs in “Asmara Dream”?

For me is basically impossible to say what are the « best photos » in the Book; it’s up to the reader to judge.

How many books of “Asmara Dream” have been printed?

We printed in total 1200 books. Out of this 600 books are in the Italian/English language and the remaining 600 are in the French / English language.

Will you visit Eritrea again? And what are your future projects?

I would like to visit Eritrea again – I hope in a near future. Now I have many friends there, I miss them very much. I am planning to continue my photographic work in other countries. I have few other book projects.

Do you have a message for our Eritrean readers?

I have no real message for them but a question for them: How do you see and dream the future of your motherland?