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Democracies Rearm Fast But Too Often for Politics Not Deterrence

Feb 28 , 2026      |      By James Ryseff      |      153 Views

We are living through a crucial moment for global security. The norms, assumptions, and systems that underpinned relative global stability since the Cold War's end are reaching an inflexion point. The decisi...

Militarising Security While Starving Development Strategic Folly

Feb 28 , 2026      |      By Alexander de Croo      |      181 Views

This year's Munich Security Conference brought plenty of talk about geopolitics, spheres of influence, the future of NATO, and defence budgets. But as much as these debates matter, they no longer define the ful...

Central Bank Makes Policy in Catch-Up Mode

Over the past few years, the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has issued a steady stream of directives, in quick succession, reshaping banking operations, foreign exchange rules, capital requirements and market conduct. On paper, the agenda looks ambitious. It claims to adopt i...

Feb 21 , 2026      |      By Abreham Tesfaye      |      576 Views

AI Fever No Substitute for Sound Governance

In a speech before Parliament, the Ethiopian Prime Minister announced (or reiterated) the ambitious plan to open an ‘AI University' within months. A putative AI enthusiast himself, he further flagged the plan to “train five million coders” as quickly as possible. This is...

Feb 21 , 2026      |      By Kinfe Yilma (PhD)      |      560 Views

Could a BRICS Currency Work?

Like many conventional international economists, I have generally dismissed the idea that BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) would ever launch a shared currency to challenge the US Dollar's dominant position in the world economy. This is despite my own role in coi...

Feb 14 , 2026      |      By Jim O’Neill      |      1101 Views

With Wars Spreading, Authority Waning, the African Union Faces a Reckoning

Multilateralism has never been an inspiring word. It is procedural, abstract, and emotionally thin. No one rallies under its banner, and no leader wins popularity by defending it. Yet for Africa, multilateralism has never been a luxury of orderly times or a matter of instituti...

Feb 14 , 2026      |      By Abdul Mohammed      |      510 Views

Central Bank Makes Policy in Catch-Up Mode

Over the past few years, the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has issued a steady stream of directives, in quick succession, reshaping banking operations, foreign exchange rules, capital requirements and market conduct. On paper, the agenda looks ambitious. It claims to adopt i...

Feb 21 , 2026      |      By Abreham Tesfaye      |      576 Views

AI Fever No Substitute for Sound Governance

In a speech before Parliament, the Ethiopian Prime Minister announced (or reiterated) the ambitious plan to open an ‘AI University' within months. A putative AI enthusiast himself, he further flagged the plan to “train five million coders” as quickly as possible. This is...

Feb 21 , 2026      |      By Kinfe Yilma (PhD)      |      560 Views

Could a BRICS Currency Work?

Like many conventional international economists, I have generally dismissed the idea that BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) would ever launch a shared currency to challenge the US Dollar's dominant position in the world economy. This is despite my own role in coi...

Feb 14 , 2026      |      By Jim O’Neill      |      1101 Views

With Wars Spreading, Authority Waning, the African Union Faces a Reckoning

Multilateralism has never been an inspiring word. It is procedural, abstract, and emotionally thin. No one rallies under its banner, and no leader wins popularity by defending it. Yet for Africa, multilateralism has never been a luxury of orderly times or a matter of instituti...

Feb 14 , 2026      |      By Abdul Mohammed      |      510 Views

Tadesse Werede Steers a Wounded Region into Crisis of Power, Plunder and Betrayal

The war in Tigray Regional State inflicted unimaginable havoc on the region, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, and the ongoing occupation of Western Tigray. The signing of the Pretoria Agreement in November 2022...

Feb 7 , 2026      |      By Getachew Reda      |      5643 Views

Financialisation Won't Improve Global Health

For the past half-century, the economics of global health were straightforward. Rich countries gave grants to poor countries, which used the funds to meet their populations' health needs. Success was measured by services provided or lives saved, rather than by balance sheets. ...

Feb 7 , 2026      |      By Walter O Ochieng and Tom Achoki      |      428 Views

When AI Does the Work Who Decides What Is Authentic

Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) is changing the workplace faster than the metrics used to measure its output. As a university instructor, researcher, and consultant, I find myself less troubled by whether to use this technology and more preoccupied with how to use it. Mo...

Jan 31 , 2026      |      By Birhanu Beshah (PhD)      |      364 Views

Global Power Shifts Leave Africa on the Sidelines

The global economic order is shifting, not with sweeping declarations but through the priorities of powerful actors and, perhaps more tellingly, in what they choose to omit. The approaches of Donald Trump and Mark Carney do not chart opposing futures so much as they represent...

Jan 31 , 2026      |      By Mikiyas Mulugeta (PhD)      |      183 Views

The Global Order Slips into Power and Extraction

Ahead of the World Economic Forum convened in Davos, Switzerland, under the banner "A Spirit of Dialogue," the United States has seized control of Venezuela's oil infrastructure, installing what President Donald Trump called an "indefinite" American Administration of the country...

Jan 24 , 2026      |      By Mariana Mazzucato      |      321 Views

AI Is Unlike Previous Tech Booms

Concerns about an artificial intelligence (AI) bubble have intensified since the start of 2026, as investors and policymakers focus on whether, and when, it might burst. But the real question is not whether current valuations are inflated. It is whether AI's emerging business mod...

Jan 24 , 2026      |      By Dambisa Moyo      |      368 Views


Most read

Columns

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Red Gold Makes the Case for Smarter Agri Business Strategy

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When Problem-Solving Fails Because the Shape Looks Different

My Opinion | May 23,2026

Global Water Cycle Critical Shared Infrastructure

Sunday with Eden | May 23,2026

A Ball, A Father, A Life-time of Memory

Agenda | May 23,2026

When Bread Becomes Too Costly for Breakfast

Editorial | May 23,2026

Tax Push Tests How Much Pain Taxpayers Can Bear


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Editorial

Tax Push Tests How Much Pain Taxpayers Can Bear

May 23 , 2026

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team has spent weeks in Addis Abeba conducting t...

T-Bills Trap Begins in the Federal Government's Own Budget

May 16 , 2026

The federal budget tells a troubling story about inflation, debt and reform. The prob...

Every Encounter with the State Should Not Become an Invoice

May 9 , 2026

The Ethiopian state appears to have discovered a fiscal instrument that is politicall...

National Dialogue Has Everything But the Trust It Needs

May 2 , 2026

By the time Ethiopia's National Dialogue Commission (ENDC) reached the end of its fir...

Sunday With Eden

A Ball, A Father, A Life-time of Memory

Football was never merely a game in our household. It was ritual, language and affect...

Love, Not Blood, Makes a Family

There are moments that quietly expose the prejudices buried inside society. They appear in ordinary places, a hospital corridor, a waiting r...

Life Matters

When Problem-Solving Fails Because the Shape Looks Different

We like to think of ourselves as pattern-recognition machines. From the moment the day begins until sleep...

The Hidden Limits Behind Unlimited Data Plans

A few weeks ago, I found myself reaching for a mobile data package after our home Wi-Fi went down. The el...

Agenda

When Bread Becomes Too Costly for Breakfast

May 23 , 2026 . By HELINA HADGU

For Helen Mekonnen, 45, bread has become the measure of how far a household income ca...

Quiet Campaigns Speak Loudly

May 17 , 2026 . By NAHOM AYELE

Genene Gedebu reached Kucha after the campaign season for the upcoming national elections opened, expecting to do what candidates do. The Pr...

Period Poverty Crisis Forces Women to Pay For Dignity

May 9 , 2026 . By HELINA HADGU and MASTEWAL ZEMENE

Luladay Abraham treats the arrival of her menstrual cycle less as a private inconvenience than as a month...

The Building Boom That Rans Out of Fuel

Two unfinished buildings owned by Roman Tahir on Omedla Street near a roundabout in the Ferensay Legasion...

Gallery

Parliament Approves New Cabinet Members

Oct 6 , 2021

Parliament Approves New Cabinet, Incorporates Opposition Leaders Lawmakers have approved today the nominations of 22 ministers, including three opposition leaders. Two MPs have voted against, while 12 abstained...

2020 in Posterity

Jan 5 , 2021

TIGRAY VOTES DESPITE "NULL & VOID" THREAT

Sep 9 , 2020

IN-PICTURE: LAUREATE'S RECEPTION  

Dec 14 , 2019

PM Abiy Ahmed (PhD) at a Gala Dinner Called for the Awarding of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize

May 6 , 2019

Faces, Voices of Addis Abeba

Apr 26 , 2019

Commentaries

Red Gold Makes the Case for Smarter Agri Business Strategy

Volcanic soils, cool nights and temperate days have given strawberry growers the cond...

Africa Key to Sustained Global Growth

More than 50 years after decolonisation, the West still regards Africa as a supportin...

Fineline

Leaders of the National . . .

Leaders of the National Election Board are in a charm offensive mood, of a sort. Last week, they organised a rare tour for members of the me...

When the country’s most. . .

When the country's most senior diplomats and envoys return back to their posts after two-week debriefings, they leave behind a point or two...

Fortune news

ADDIS ABEBA Tries to Redraw Its Future Without Awakening Old Ghosts

May 23 , 2026 . By NAHOM AYELE

Addis Abeba's most contested planning document is entering its final year, carrying t...

Ethiopian Looks South as Namibia Tries to Rebuild a National Carrier

May 23 , 2026 . By BEZAWIT HULUAGER

The Ethiopian Airlines Group (EAG) is weighing a deeper role in Southern Africa's fra...

Fed Courts Big Investors with a Promise to Pay If Things Go Wrong

May 23 , 2026 . By NAHOM AYELE

The federal government has moved to put its balance sheet behind a select group of in...

New Capital Market Pledges Power to the People But Finds Few Ready to Trade

May 23 , 2026 . By BEZAWIT HULUAGER

The test arrived not in the trading hall, but at the regulator's desk. The young capi...