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to find common interests, and exert our influence to bring about change. This was Nixon's approach when opening up to China, Reagan's approach when encouraging Glasnost in the Soviet Union, and more recently, is Barack Obama's controversial preference for dealing with problem nations such as Iran and Syria. While nurturing our common interests with Ethiopia, we can support the development of a strong liberal democracy in a part of the world which has suffered in the post-imperial era from an incredible range of human suffering (war, genocide, poverty, famine, authoritarian regimes, and brutal ethnic tribalism).

Opponents of this view say that our alliance will only embolden Ethiopia's current government to become increasingly authoritarian. This is a valid concern, and brings us back to the original question: Should the US consider Ethiopia an ally despite its poor human rights record? Unfortunately, we can only work towards the influence we desire. If we can clearly see that our alliance is directly increasing the government's human rights abuses, we must withdraw our support, and leave. Only at that point will the value of our alliance to Ethiopia, and the truth of our "common interests" be clearly tested. Abandoning our military interests in Ethiopia, we would need to seek alternative locations for east African influence. Just as importantly, we would need to redouble our efforts to end the suffering in Ethiopia, and step up efforts to fight human rights abuses within Ethiopia.

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