Securitization and construction of a regional security complex in the Horn of Africa

How do regional security complexes (rscs) emerge and take shape? In 2003, B. Buzan and O. Waever described the Horn of Africa as a proto-rsc (after having been a pre-rsc during the Cold War), but did not have the analytical tools to explain the transition to a full-fledged rsc. We show how the emergence of a regional power, in this case Ethiopia, played a key role in the formation of an rsc. The regional power became an active agent in the process of securitization. This article seeks to provide both an empirical and a theoretical contribution. We show how a double process of securitization-of the jihadist terror threat in the Horn between 1998 and 2005, and of the Somali "failed state"-led to the 2006 Ethiopian intervention. We then analyze the outcome of rsc formation.