Abiy Ahmed—PhD?

Does Abiy Ahmed have the skills needed to make peace? In this post I won’t examine his record in office but his capacity to understand peacemaking, based on his academic writing.

Abiy Ahmed was awarded a PhD from the Institute of Peace and Security Studies at Addis Ababa University in 2017. What does this tell us about Abiy and his vision for peace in Ethiopia?

Abiy’s books on Medemer have come in for criticism for being superficial. Many have given him the benefit of the doubt because he holds a PhD, and a doctoral dissertation is a serious academic endeavor, and Addis Ababa’s IPSS was a reputable institution.

I invite readers to examine Abiy’s thesis and make their own assessment. It’s available to read here. It is dated November 2016. For me, it raises important questions.