Economic Community Of West African States Conflict Management Study

The Economic Community of West African States is the most important regional political and economic integration organization in West Africa.In the face of frequent conflicts and civil wars in West Africa,ECOWAS's cooperation goals have gradually extended from promoting regional economic development to establishing regional security cooperation mechanisms.In the process of ECOWAS conflict management,ECOWAS's involvement in the civil war in Liberia is not only a major test since the establishment of the regional security cooperation framework in 1978,but also an important event to promote the continuous improvement of ECOWAS conflict management practices.At the same time,the Liberian civil war was the largest,most refugees,and most widespread large-scale conflict in West Africa after the end of the Cold War.The civil war not only caused a huge humanitarian disaster in Liberia,it even overflowed its borders and induced opposition from neighboring countries.The armed conflict between the government and the formation of a turbulent situation in Liberia caused a multilateral struggle,which severely endangered the security environment in West Africa,hindered the process of economic integration in West Africa,and challenged ECOWAS's commitment to safeguarding regional security.Therefore,ECOWAS's conflict management of the Liberian civil war is not only a need to contain the spread of the conflict,but also a need to reverse the deteriorating security situation in West Africa.This article takes ECOWAS involvement in the Liberian civil war as an example,sorts out the definition of conflict management and the mode of conflict management in regional organizations,reviews the history of the establishment and evolution of the EC security mechanism,explores the root causes of the two outbreaks of the Liberian civil war,and traces ECOWAS Intervened in the process of conflict management in the Liberian civil war,analyzed the failure and successful experience of ECOWAS conflict management,and finally concluded that the reason for the failure of ECOWAS's intervention in the first Liberian civil war was: the loss of ECOWAS's neutrality and defects of its strategy,so that it failed to eradicate the "resources for funds" war economy model and failed to eliminate the root that led to the continued conflict.The reason for the success of ECOWAS's conflict management in the second Liberia civil war lies in the following: the deepening of ECOWAS's security cooperation mechanism and the rich experience in conflict management provided useful guidance for ECOWAS's involvement in the second Liberian civil war,adding tight cooperation with the international community such as the United Nations and the United States successfully prevented the escalation of the conflict.Finally,relying on the signing and implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement,Liberia finally ended its civil war and moved towards peace.