in a series of articles, weldemariam engaged in a constructive criticism of ethiopia's national security and foreign policy in which he unmasked the incumbent's obsession with territorial security to the detriment of human security. more particularly, he criticizes ethiopia for its military misadventures in somalia in december 2006. he also prognosticated a possible cooling in the ethiopian american relations as result of foreseeable diplomatic wrangles over the grim domestic human rights situation. his criticism never went without provoking an official response from the foreign policy establishment. a case in point is the publication of 'a bogus call for a paradigm shift-ethiopia's foreign affairs and national security policy and strategy', in a week in the horn, the e-weekly of the ethiopian ministry of foreign affairs. in the official response, the foreign ministry wrote "alemayehu fentaw does not just miss these central elements of the policy and strategy instrument. he concocts facts and makes unsubstantiated allegations. one is the suggestion that us-ethiopia relations would cool under the new us administration. in fact, as is obvious, the relationship between the two countries is thriving."