ECOWAS Peacekeeping Interventions

After the Second World War,we are witnessing the creation of international organizations and intensification of bilateral and multilateral relations.This increase of cooperation agreements is explained by the increase in economic and cultural exchanges resulting from the globalization phenomenon.As a result,there isn't now a part of the world that is not member in one or many organizations for integration.In the late 1980 s,the international system is then shaped by active integration dynamic.These dynamics bring together various different elements into a coherent and harmonized system.The African continent has not remained on the sidelines of this dynamic.Its integration process goes back to the day after the independence of former colonial territories which,because of incapacity related to low population,political immaturity and economic weakness,failed to fully assume the obligations rising from their status of States.To meet these challenges,achieving unity through regional integration was seen as the most appropriate response.Thus,having managed to create an organization of almost all states of the continent,some initiatives from much smaller group have emerged.The Economic Community Of West African States(ECOWAS)is a regional organization regrouping fifteen states in West Africa.It was founded by the Treaty of Lagos on May 28,1975.Its main goals are the promotion of economic integration and the creation of a sustainable developed region trough peace and security.ECOWAS mission,originally,was to create one large trade and economic area in West Africa but the recurrent conflicts that occurred in the sub region brought new objectives to the organization.Today,it also provide a peacekeeping force in the region and has created a single West African identity,promoting therefore,the free movement of people and goods without borders.However since its creation,this organization faced multiple obstacles due to the instability of its states members.Beside the fact that most of them were new democracies,trying to find their way,these fragile countries were dealing with regular military coup,rebellion,insecurity,civil war etc.This thesis focus on the most important conflicts that ECOWAS has to deal with since its creation: the civil war in Ivory Coast.The research covers the time periodfrom 1999 till 2011 and study the prevention mechanism and strategies created by ECOWAS in order to resolve conflicts and maintain peace in the sub region.The civil war in Ivory Coast had a significant impact on the integration process because Ivory Coast was the second economic power in the sub region.Thus,ECOWAS,must intervene to bring peace and restore democracy.Despite many diplomatic and military interventions in Ivory Coast,ECOWAS failed to contain and resolve the conflict.This study seeks to find out what justify the failure of ECOWAS to resolve it?Firstly,ECOWAS's lack of resources made any intervention in Ivory Coast difficult.ECOWAS resources are provided by the state members mostly composed by fragile democracies and under developed countries.Secondly,the ECOWAS mode of decision making.ECOWAS interventions for peace require consensus from all the members who has each a veto right.The existence of rivalries between Heads of States members,have weakened the chances of a successful intervention in Ivory Coast.ECOWAS is certainly a regional institution,but it is important to underline that,it is fully supported by the European Union and the United Nations(financially)while the West African countries only provide the logistics for its interventions.The thesis is organized as following:-The first chapter is a general introduction that includes the background of this topic,the main question and hypothesis,the theoretical framework,the literature review,the thesis structure and the methodology.-The second chapter is devoted to the history of ECOWAS's creation,its missions and objectives for peacekeeping.-The third chapter focuses on ECOWAS's strategies and protocols to prevent and resolve conflicts in the sub region.-This allows us,in the fourth chapter,to talk about the conflict in Ivory Coast and ECOWAS's failure in maintaining peace.At the end of this study,we found out that our main hypothesis was indeed confirmed however,we must consider many other facts about the sub region.ECOWAS failed in Ivory Coast because its lack of logistic resources and staff deficit but also because of the procedure of decisions making.Furthermore,through our study we discovered that most ECOWAS members had signed defense and cooperation agreements with international organizations and western countries which made many interventions disorganized and unsuccessful.These are the main causes,among others,that justify the failure of ECOWAS in Ivory Coast.In the future,to avoid negative outcomes,we think that ECOWAS should review some parts of its peace keeping strategies and protocols to be more effective during the interventions.This includes a better coordination of national and sub-regional security strategies.Also,ECOWAS must establish a new strategic framework based on participative governance to respond to the needs of the state members according to the historical and socio-political background.(Safety and security,stable political system,economic development,peace)Moreover,it must redefine and limit the role of the international community in reaching a peaceful way of conflicts resolution.For the control and safety of the sub region,it must take more actions in the fight against intercontinental criminality too.