Passengers pose for a selfie inside an Ethiopian Airlines flight on July 18, 2018. The trip was the first commercial flight between the Ethiopian and Eritrean capitals in two decades. At home and abroad, new Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has rolled up his sleeves to make a number of changes in the country.
Ethiopia's Promise and Peril The only African country to escape European colonization, Ethiopia is a regional giant that has long exerted an influence in the lands on its periphery. Part of Ethiopia's strength stems from the geographical benefits that its heartland enjoys, as well as the fact that its highlands form a "power core," a population area that forms an entity much larger than a city and doesn't conform to state boundaries. The [Ethiopian] highlands have provided the peoples of this core with protection in the form of mountains, sheltering the fertile lowlands from invaders from elsewhere. Even in the more exposed northeast, a harsh desert helps to shield the inhabitants of the Ethiopian core.
