The Horn of Africa not only remains one of the most crucial bottlenecks for international trade but has been subject to fierce and relentless civil conflict. The European Union has, along with the UN and NATO, aimed to create humanitarian relief and facilitate piece in the region. Yet, resource competition in Ethiopia or humanitarian crises in Somalia and the Sudan still dominate the political realities at the Horn.

Join the Oxford University International Relations Society in hearing first hand the EU’s diplomatic perspective on the challenges at the Horn of Africa. What are the diplomatic options most likely to resolve conflict and suffering at the Horn? What can the EU as a Western transnational institution contribute to the process, what mistakes does it have to learn from? And ultimately, what is the nature of work as a diplomat for the EU, representing the foreign policy of 27 member states with sometimes vastly different perspectives on the same problem?

Dr. Annette Weber is a German political scientist specialised in Northeast Africa and gender studies. She has been serving as European Union Special Representative (EUSR) for the Horn of Africa since 1 July 2021. Weber previously worked as a journalist, a human rights defender and most recently as the regional expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (German: Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik; SWP). She is also a novelist.