“Currently, in the Ethiopian political arena many things attributed as the legacy of late Prime Minster Melese Zenawi. It is also believed to be part of the country history and remained to be continued. Similarly many things urge to be changed. Among the legacy of the late prime Minister is his soft power exercise. He served extensive communication ability and his massive exposure to the external world as a tool to exercise his soft power. While he is communicating and dealing on the national interest issues he goes into very detail to check whether his
counterpart has understood his bottom line of interest. This helped him to influence internally and external audience. The late Prime Minister experience tells us that effective communication can be one tool for exercising the soft power. To forward his vision, to explain his position and created
opportunity for others to understand the reality and influenced as well. In addition, the Ethiopian foreign policy benchmark is soft power. The points of references of the policy are speedy economic development, democratization and peace. He served the foreign policy as a strategy to communicate the external world. This was because foreign policy is the major mirror to maintain
relations and to exercise soft power. That is the reason behind that influence many foreign policy analysts to consider the policy as a benchmark.”
