Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Completion: A Strategic Challenge to Egypt’s Water Security

The recent announcement by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile is now complete represents more than a mere infrastructure milestone—it signals a strategic geopolitical maneuver that has significant implications for the USA's interests in regional stability and international water rights. For decades, Egypt has viewed the Nile as absolutely vital to its national survival, depending on it for nearly all freshwater needs for over 100 million citizens. The GERD threatens to upset this precarious balance by potentially reducing the flow of life-giving waters downstream. Cairo rightly calls it an existential...