“Critical junctures,” or key political transitions and defining moments in recent Ethiopian history, offer a useful framework for understanding how national identity has evolved and how political debates are shaped today. At least 100,000 Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF), Tigrayan troops and Eritrean troops—acting with the Ethiopian troops—died, and at least 600,000 died in total, mostly civilians. What is the Ethiopian national question, and what does “meaningful citizenship” look like, both within Ethiopia and the diaspora? You focused on three “critical junctures” in modern Ethiopian history. As regional and intra-state wars continue across the region, it can be easy for onlookers to become drawn to conflict-centered renderings of Ethiopian history.