The UAE’s Shadow Empire in the Horn of Africa
Transactional Sovereignty and the New Geopolitics of the Horn of Africa Strategic Analysis By Al-Aghbari Sovereignty in the Horn of Africa is no longer protected by law alone. Increasingly, it depends on strategic leverage: how many powers need a state, how indispensable its territory is, and how effectively its government can balance competing external interests. The post-1945 international order was built on the principle that sovereignty and international law could restrain power. That principle was always imperfectly applied, but for small states it provided a diplomatic language and, at times, a measure of protection. In the Horn, that protection has weakened. The region has become a dense arena of competition involving Gulf states, China, the United States, Turkey, European powers and regional governments. Ports, military facilities, trade corridors and political relationships now carry strategic value far beyond their immediate economic functions...
