At a high-profile UN peacekeeping summit in Berlin, which concluded on the 14^th of May, Ethiopia announced that it will contribute a helicopter unit, a Formed Police Unit, and a police guard unit to UN missions. In recent years, Ethiopia’s contributions focused on infantry battalions and a few support companies, but Berlin marks the first time it has volunteered specialized police formations for UN duty. By adding an air mobility detachment and new police troops, Ethiopia signals that it is renewing its role as a major peacekeeping partner.

Ethiopia has a long, storied history of peacekeeping.  It was one of the first non-Western countries to send troops abroad for UN missions.  In 1951, Ethiopia’s Kagnew Battalion joined the UN fight in the Korean War, blazing a trail that would continue for decades. Since the 1990s, Ethiopian forces have served on nearly every UN mission in Africa. From Congo and Somalia to Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda, Burundi, and the two Sudans. For years, Ethiopia was a major UN contributor. By 2016, it had become the single largest troop contributor to UN operations, peaking at well over 8,000 personnel across missions.

For peace and security in Africa, Ethiopia has also been a leading African Union contributor. It sent thousands of soldiers to the continuing peacekeeping mission in Somalia. All told, Ethiopian peacekeepers have operated under UN or AU flags in nearly every major Horn of Africa peace mission.  

Not long ago, Ethiopia’s peacekeeping role was interrupted by its internal strife. From 2020 into 2022, Ethiopia was racked by a civil war in the Tigray region. During that period, much of its security focus turned inward, and its foreign deployments were scaled back. Before the conflict, Ethiopia had been the largest troop contributor in UN missions, but by 2022, most of those troops had been withdrawn or reassigned. After a peace agreement in late 2022, however, Addis Ababa has been eager to restore stability and resume its international commitments. The Berlin pledge is part of that broader strategy, it tells the world that Ethiopia is “back in business” as a reliable partner in regional security.  

In fact, Ethiopia has been beefing up its defense technology in recent years. Addis Ababa’s recent defense budgets and the focus on revitalizing security institutions suggest a focus on modernization and advancement. The new pledge, therefore, reflects a country at peace with itself and poised to project power, a far cry from the isolation and uncertainty of war years.

Beyond UN missions, Ethiopia is sharpening its influence on continental security. Hosting the African Union gives Addis Ababa a central platform, and its leaders have played big roles in peace diplomacy. More recently, in February this year, Ethiopia won election to the AU Peace and Security Council, the bloc’s top security body. Ethiopia’s leadership dubbed the election as recognizing Ethiopia’s contributions to peace, security, and development across Africa. Indeed, EU and AU diplomats long saw the country, under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, as a regional leader against terrorism and in mediating conflicts. Its seat in the Peace and Security Council recognizes this critical role.

Ethiopia has also taken concrete steps at home to support continental defense. Aside from hosting AU summits, Addis continues to support the AU mission in Somalia with a commitment to deploy forces to the new African Union mission in Somalia (AUSSOM). In 2024, it organized the AU’s first defense ministers meeting to coordinate counter-terrorism efforts on African soil. All these moves tell fellow African governments that Ethiopia is eager to take the leadership slot in African Security.

Ethiopia’s peacekeeping pledge also sends a broader signal. To the international community, it is a confident reaffirmation of reliability. After struggling with conflict and a major humanitarian crisis, Ethiopia is effectively saying: “We are back, stable, and ready to help solve problems abroad.”  

The Berlin announcement, on the heels of Ethiopia winning influential seats and hosting security talks, projects an image of normalcy and engagement. Western allies, the UN, and African partners all interpret it as a commitment to multilateralism. As the world sees it, Ethiopia’s contributions to peace and security have been positive and bold, from Korea in 1951 to today. Renewing those contributions is a reminder that Ethiopia remains a partner, not an outlier.

Regionally, the pledge may also be a subtle display of strength. East Africa and the Horn are a tangled web of tensions. By highlighting its advanced peacekeeping assets, Addis Ababa hints that it has built up its military power.  It projects an image of strength, capability, and firm footing.  At the same time, donating those very forces to international duty reassures neighbors that Ethiopia is not looking to display power unilaterally; rather, it is channeling its strength into collective security efforts.

By committing high-value assets to UN missions, Ethiopia tells the world it is revitalizing itself as a partner eager to help stabilize troubled regions, and to uphold the collective security it once championed in the early days of the bloc.