![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Despite an increasing academic interest, ECOWAS peacemaking interventions have largely been approached from a top-down perspective. This tends to highlight the roles played by high-level mediators who use ECOWAS and its instruments as the basis for their interventions. Deeper analyses of the undercurrent intra-ECOWAS processes and the role played by community actors, in particular the ECOWAS Commission and its cooperation with civil society organisations, are rare. Yet it is both the high-level policy and the community actors that constitute the protagonists of ECOWAS peacemaking. This article examines the roles of both protagonists in the planning and conduct of ECOWAS peacemaking. Based on secondary sources and insider accounts, it argues that, although policy actors have so far been dominant, community actors play a complementary role, which often goes unnoticed. This is illustrated with empirical examples of ECOWAS peacemaking interventions from the Liberian war in 1990 to the recent case of the Gambia.
Notes on contributor
Habibu Yaya Bappah serves on the ECOWAS Commission. A political scientist by training, Habibu Yaya Bappah holds a PhD from the University of Ahmadu Bello Zaria and is lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria. His main areas of interest are regional security and economic integration, regional governance, human rights and democracy promotion with specific focus on ECOWAS. He currently works at the Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security of the ECOWAS Commission. The views expressed in this article are his own.
Notes
1 Ortsin E, The Emerging ECOWAS of People (An Overview of the Role of Non-State Actors Participation in the West Africa Regional Integration Process). Paper presented at 2nd Annual Conference on Regional Integration in Africa Abuja, 7–8 July 2011; ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), Vision 2020, Abuja: ECOWAS Commission, 2017, http://www.ecowas.int/about-ecowas/vision-2020/.
2 ECOWAS, Revised Treaty. Abuja: ECOWAS, 1993.
3 Boutros-Ghali B, An Agenda for Peace: Preventive Diplomacy, Peacemaking and Peacekeeping. Report of the Secretary-General pursuant to the statement adopted by the Summit Meeting of the Security Council on 31 January 1992, pp. 4–5.
4 Fawole WA, ‘ECOWAS and the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire: The politics and problems of peace-making in West Africa’, Democracy and Development – Journal of West African Affairs, 4.2, 2004, pp. 8–26; Conteh-Morgan E, ‘ECOWAS: Peace-making or meddling in Liberia?’, Africa Insight, 23.1, 1993, pp. 36–41; Afolabi BT, ‘Peacemaking in the ECOWAS region: Challenges and prospects’, Conflict Trends, 2, January 2009, pp. 24–30; Addo P, Peace-making in West Africa: Progress and Prospects. Accra: Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, 2005.
5 Addo P, Peace-making in West Africa: Progress and Prospects. Accra: Kofi Annmissioan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, 2005, n, namely the Office of the President of the Commission and or, the department for Political Affairs, Peace and Security. p. 3; Mohamed B, African Sub-regional Organizations in Peacekeeping and Peacemaking: The Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS). Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in National Security Affairs, 2005, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California; Cilliers J & P Handy, Lessons from Africa. Africa Mediators’ Retreat 2013 – The Oslo Forum Network of Mediators, 2013, https://www.osloforum.org/sites/default/files/Africa-Mediators-retreat-BP-African%20Peacemaking.pdf (accessed 30 September 2017).
6 Brown NE, ECOWAS and the Liberia Experience: Peacekeeping and Self Preservation. US Department of State CSC, 1999; Fawole WA, ‘ECOWAS and the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire: The politics and problems of peace-making in West Africa’, Democracy and Development – Journal of West African Affairs, 4.2, 2004, pp. 8–26.
7 Fawole WA, ‘ECOWAS and the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire: The politics and problems of peace-making in West Africa’, Democracy and Development – Journal of West African Affairs, 4.2, 2004, pp. 8–26
8 Kabia JM, Regional Approaches to Peacebuilding: The ECOWAS Peace and Security Architecture. Paper presented at the BISA-Africa and International Studies ESRC seminar series: African Agency in International Politics, African Agency in Peace, Conflict and Intervention at the University of Birmingham, 7 April 2011.
9 Chuka E, ‘United Nations and ECOWAS joint intervention in Sierra-Leonean conflict: An analysis of the problems of peacekeeping, peacemaking and peace enforcement’. IUP Journal of International Relations, Hyderabad, 6.3, July 2012, pp. 52–66.
10 ECOWAS, Protocol Relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security. Abuja: ECOWAS, 1999, p. 4.
11 ECOWAS, Revised Treaty. Abuja: ECOWAS, 1993, p. 36.
12 ECOWAS, Protocol Relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peace-keeping and Security. Abuja: ECOWAS, 1999.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid., Article 16.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid. p. 7.
17 West Africa Civil Society Forum, Summary of the ECOWAS Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance. Abuja: WACSOF, 2009, p. 9.
18 Ibid., p. 12.
19 ECOWAS, ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework. Abuja: ECOWAS, 2008, p. 5.
20 Ibid., pp. 9–10.
21 This section is based on the author’s observations and analysis of the standard operating procedure for activating peace-making intervention in the commission.
22 Field notes, personal observation of the author, 2017 ECOWAS Commission, Abuja.
23 Kodjo T, Mali Conflict of 2012–2013: A Critical Assessment. Patterns of Local, Regional and Global Conflict and Resolution Dynamics in Post-colonial and Post-cold war Africa. Saarbrücken: Lambert.
24 Ibid., p. 85.
25 Field notes, interviews with ECOWAS officials, 2017, ECOWAS Commission, Abuja.
26 Ibid.
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid.
29 Ibid.
30 See Coleman KP, International Organizations and Peace Enforcement. The Politics of International Legitimacy. Vancouver: University of British Columbia, 2007; Gelot L, Legitimacy, Peace Operations, and Global-Regional Security: The African Union–United Nations Partnership in Darfur. London: Routledge, 2012.
31 McAllister E & M Nichols, ‘U.S. calls Gambia crisis “very dangerous” ahead of president’s visit’, euters, 12 December 2016, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-gambia-election-idUSKBN1411AX (accessed 10 August 2017); ECOWAS, ECOWAS, African Union and UN Statement on the Political Developments in the Gambia, 2016, ECOWAS Commission, 10 December, http://www.ecowas.int/ecowas-african-union-and-un-statement-on-the-political-developments-in-the-gambia (accessed 10 August 2017).
32 Field notes, interviews with ECOWAS officials, 2017, ECOWAS Commission, Abuja.
33 Human Rights Watch, Gambia, Justice for Jammeh-Era Abuses Crucial New Government Should Develop Roadmap for Prosecutions, 2017, https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/04/21/gambia-justice-jammeh-era-abuses-crucial.
34 Field notes, personal observation of the author, 2017 ECOWAS Commission, Abuja.
35 See also Khadiagala GM, Meddlers or Mediators? Afrian Interveners in Civil Conflicts in Eastern Africa. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2007; Gomes Porto J, ‘Mediators not in the middle: Revisiting the normative dimensions of international mediation’, in Engel U (ed.), New Mediation Practices in African Conflicts. Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2012, pp. 11–41.
36 Ibid.
37 Levitt JI, Illegal Peace in Africa: An Inquiry into the Legality of Power Sharing with Warlords, Rebels and Juntas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
38 Nathan L, How and Why African Mediators Compromise Democracy. Prepared for the Conference on the Ethics of Negotiation in Armed Conflicts, Centre for Ethics and the Rule of Law, University of Pennsylvania, 14–16 April 2016, https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/5397-nathan---mediators-compromise-democracypdf (accessed 23 July 2017).
39 Ibid., p. 1.
40 Azikiwe I, AFRICA: Conflict Resolution and International Diplomacy. Milton Keynes: AuthorHouse, 2009.
41 Ibid., p. 187.
42 Pan-African News Agency, ECOWAS Mediator, Babangida Returns to Guinea Friday, 2007, Panapress, http://www.panapress.com/ECOWAS-mediator,-Babangida-returns-to-Guinea-Friday--12-503093-100-lang2-index.html (accessed 20 July 2017).
43 Yabi G, The Role of ECOWAS in Managing Political Crisis and Conflict: The Case of Guinea and Guinea-Bissau, 2010, Abuja: Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung, pp. 40–51.
44 ECOWAS, Communiqué, 50th Ordinary Summit of ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, 17 December 2016.
45 Field notes, interviews with ECOWAS officials, 2017, ECOWAS Commission, Abuja.
46 Addo P, Peace-making in West Africa: Progress and Prospects. Accra: Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, 2005, p.14.
47 Afolabi BT, The Politics of Peacemaking in Africa: Non-state Actors’ Role in the Liberian Civil War. Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer.
48 Fourteen peace-agreements for Liberia in six years in different capitals and cities including Banjul, Bamako, Lome, Yamoussokro, Geneva, Cotonou, Akosombo and Abuja from 1990 to 1996.
49 Bropleh T, Madam Ruth Perry Served Liberia Well, Daily Observer, 2 February 2017, https://www.liberianobserver.com/opinion/editorials/madam-ruth-perry-served-liberia-well/ (accessed 10 August 2017).
50 Nobel Women’s Initiative, Leymah Gbowee: Liberia, 2011, https://nobelwomensinitiative.org/laureate/leymah-gbowee/ (accessed 10 August 2017).
51 Ibid.
52 Plasse S, Niger: ‘Opposition seek ECOWAS intervention in President’s hold on power’, Afrik-News, 26 August 2009.
53 Okyere F & L Amedzrato, ‘Mediation and preventive diplomacy in the ECOWAS region: An overview’, in Okai N et al. (eds), Mediating Conflict in West Africa: An Overview of Regional Experiences. Accra: KAIPTC, 2014, pp. 12–24.
54 ECOWAS, Final Communiqué, Extraordinary Summit of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government Abuja, 17 October 2009, p. 5.
55 Plasse S, ‘Niger: Opposition seek ECOWAS intervention in President’s hold on power’, Afrik-News, 26 August 2009.