A Cold War Microcosm in the Political and Route Evolution of the Ethiopian Airlines Fleet (1945–1991)

Abstract

During the Cold War, the global geopolitical rivalry and technological competition between the two major blocs led by the United States and the Soviet Union exerted significant influence on the developmental trajectories and industrial pathways of Third World countries. Ethiopian Airlines (hereafter “Ethiopian Airlines”), as a landmark enterprise in the African aviation industry, provides a micro-level case through its entire course from its establishment in 1945 to the end of the Cold War in 1991 for examining the differences in U.S. and Soviet models of technical assistance as well as Ethiopia’s practices of national autonomy. Centering technical assistance as the core analytical dimension and taking changes in the route network as the most visible manifestation, this paper integrates key Cold War turning points from 1945 to 1991 with Ethiopia’s domestic political transformations to explore the essential differences, implementation logics, and concrete impacts of U.S. and Soviet technical assistance to Ethiopian Airlines. It further reveals how, within the context of being “assisted,” the Ethiopian government and the management of Ethiopian Airlines actively safeguarded national interests and industrial autonomy through strategic choices, technological integration, and operational planning. The theoretical value of this study lies in its systematic empirical validation of the practical effectiveness of the “technopolitics” theory through the Ethiopian Airlines case, while also revising the pessimistic assertions of “dependency theory” regarding the passive subordination of late-developing states. The findings indicate that the development of Ethiopian Airlines was not merely a passive outcome of U.S. and Soviet technological export; rather, it represented a strategic achievement whereby Ethiopian Airlines, within the Cold War structure, employed technical assistance as an instrument and national needs as a guiding orientation to balance great-power relations and pursue autonomous development. This case provides a representative example for understanding the agency of post-colonial states during the Cold War and offers historical insights for contemporary post-colonial countries seeking to leverage external resources to achieve independent development under globalization.