The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Implications for Regional Energy Integration and Geopolitical Equilibrium in Northeastern Africa

Abstract

 Countries use their natural and man-made resources as a diplomatic chip to change the geopolitical power configuration of a particular region in their favor and as an impetus for their regional integration efforts. After qualitatively analyzing both primary and secondary data, this article ascertained the important role of GERD in supporting Ethiopia’s regional energy integration efforts and in fostering a new water-geopolitical order in Northeastern Africa. Moreover, GERD’s ability to create a symmetrical water-geopolitical order in Northeast Africa triggered a preservist-revisionist dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia. While Egypt aims to maintain the current asymmetrical water-geopolitical order of the Nile River basin, Ethiopia wants to create an equitable water-geopolitical order. In water-geopolitical terms, GERD represents a new hydro-political reality that challenges Egypt’s long-standing technical hydro-hegemony over the Nile River basin by unlocking Ethiopia’s natural hydro-hegemony.