The West African multinational bloc, ECOWAS, has demonstrated its value in resolving crises and promoting stability as the US and other international partners work to stabilise Africa’s Sahel region and to stop its warfare, violent extremism, and armed coups from spreading into Africa’s strategically important and densely populated Atlantic coast. However, ECOWAS, like other multinational organisations, need updated capacities to face new challenges as global security threats have developed. The best way for international democracies to contribute to the stability of West Africa would be to work with West Africans to fortify their essential regional community. All around Africa, a similar approach is effective.
West Africa: A Global Security Imperative
It should come as no surprise to anyone who follows U.S. or global security affairs that developing successful stabilisation plans for the Sahel and West Africa is essential. This urgency is doubled by the most recent Global Terrorism Index, which shows that 47% of all terrorist-related deaths worldwide occurred last year as a result of violence in the Sahel. Africans and their allies need to stop the far more serious African and global crises—disrupted trade routes, economies, and more—from spreading from Sahelian turmoil to the Atlantic coast, which is five times more populated than the interior states of West Africa. This strengthens America’s willingness to assist: In recent years, bipartisan legislative majorities and two U.S. administrations worked together to create a 10-year Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability spanning five
West African Stability, ECOWAS’ Role
While West Africa’s governance and democratic crises, including the four states currently ruled by the military, are rightfully the focus of media and policy discussions, the region also contains a community of democracies, Senegal, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Cape Verde, which work to advance stability and good governance through ECOWAS and its institutions. The endurance of these democracies is demonstrated by the recent democratic elections and handovers of power in Liberia and Senegal’s settlement of a constitutional dispute. Among the eight regional economic groups in Africa, ECOWAS is the most successful at averting or resolving conflicts related to governance and war. Over time, its members turned to ECOWAS as a platform for establishing democratic and good governance standards. This was demonstrated by a 2001 agreement that declared “zero tolerance for power attained or retained by unconstitutional
Strengthening Africa’s Regional Blocs Is An Important Step ECOWAS needs to develop its capacities, as well as its relationships and legitimacy among the citizens of its member nations, in order to contain the upheaval in the Sahel and promote democracy and stability in West Africa. U.S. and other foreign allies ought to back. Among the crucial actions are: Develop quick, precise ECOWAS reactions to stop and manage crises. When member nations argue over whether or not to intervene, ECOWAS occasionally reacts to crises slowly and incompetently. The bloc needs to work out a more detailed agreement on what quantifiable “threshold events” should prompt certain ECOWAS actions. The bloc may learn from both mistakes (like in Niger) and triumphs (like in Senegal) to establish the groundwork for an efficient “short game” of crisis response. bolster ECOWAS’s functions
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