Buried in the Sands of the Ogaden

When the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) between the Soviet Union and the US faltered during the administration of Jimmy Carter, National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski claimed that 'SALT lies buried in the sands of the Ogaden'. Historian Louise Woodroofe takes Brzezinski's claim as a starting point to analyse superpower relations during the 1970s, and in so doing reveals how conflict in East Africa became a critical turning point in the Cold War battle for supremacy.