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HASS, with this first issue, begins to publish its quarterly bulletin. We hope that HASS Quarterly Bulletin will contribute to the ongoing social, cultural, religious, economic, and political debates and knowledge production in the Horn of Africa. The bulletin will typically include primary-empirical researches, book reviews, commentaries, review essays, and sometimes directly relevant interviews. In this first volume and first issue, the bulletin mainly included recent political and economic issues affecting the region. The essays in this asked salient questions: How does regional integration mutually benefit the Horn of Africa countries? Can a shift in foreign policy tools address the deadly tensions of the Horn of Africa neighbors? Is privatization the perceived quick fix for Ethiopian economy? How did Ethiopia outperform Eritrea economically?

Through analyzing these questions, the authors set the contours of the future in terms of regional integration, mutual understanding, and economic rapprochement in Ethiopia and the Horn. In reference to the first question, Abdulkadir points out the importance of regional integration in mutually benefiting of the Horn of Africa countries. He also explains the remarkable role Ethiopia could play in this regard given its strong social, economic and political ties with countries such as Sudan, Djibouti and Kenya. Beginning with foreign policy debates and arguing the Ethio-Eritrea relations as a principal manifestation of antagonistic policy orientation in the past two decades, Muzeyen sees new hope for peace among the two counties, following the coming into power of the new PM of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed. Abdu Seid, in his part, explains whether privatization is a quick fix for Ethiopian economy. He deals with the theoretical and historical background of privatization in Ethiopia, the challenges that obstruct privatization, and finally, recommends the importance of amending business laws towards achieving private participation. At the end, Abdurezack compares the economic conditions of Ethiopia and Eritrea before and after the Ethio-Eritrean conflict in 1998. He expounds that the political conflict between the two countries, and the autocratic nature of governments in these countries, perturbed the two sisterly and brotherly people, severely hurting Eritreans though....................

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