Whose ‘West Africa’? The regional dynamics of peace and security

ABSTRACT

The articles of this Special Issue show how theoretical perspectives, normative frames, discursive strategies and conceptual issues shape, and are shaped by, intervention practices and the dynamics of peace and security in West Africa. As they construe and construct understandings of West African conflicts, they impact and justify conflict management practices. Put another way, how one defines the region called West Africa is not disassociated from one’s understanding of peace and security. The concepts are mutually constitutive. The increasing significance awarded to ‘radicalisation’ and ‘terrorism’ said to be coming from the Sahel suggests how practices of security do not simply respond to ‘threats’ somehow, somewhere, in ‘West Africa’. As the focus on international intervention moves north toward the Sahel, it transforms the meaning and formation of West African states and the West African region as it connects them to the extra-regional dynamics from the ‘Sahel’ and ‘North Africa’.

KEYWORDS:

• West Africa
• security
• peace
• conflict
• intervention

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Bruno Charbonneau is Professor of Political Science at Laurentian University, Director of the Centre FrancoPaix, and cofounder of the West Africa Peace and Security Network. He specialises in the international politics of West African conflicts, international intervention, and France-Africa security and political relations. He is the author of France and the New Imperialism (Ashgate/Routledge), and coeditor of Peace Operations in the Francophone World (Routledge), Peacebuilding, Memory and Reconciliation (Routledge), and Locating Global Order (UBC Press).