MILITARY COUPS AND THE CRISIS OF REGIONAL INTEGRATION IN WEST AFRICA: ASSESSING ECOWAS’ INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS (2010-2024)
Keywords:
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), coups, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and NigerAbstract
Since 2010, West Africa has experienced a resurgence of military coups, which has significantly disrupted governance and regional cooperation. This development raises questions about the effectiveness of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in upholding its democratic principles and its objective of maintaining regional integration. Although ECOWAS has established a normative framework that condemns unconstitutional changes of government, the recurring coups in countries such as Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Niger reveal a significant gap between its declared commitments and its capacity for effective enforcement. This study examines ECOWAS’s responses to coups between 2010 and 2024 and evaluates the implications for regional cohesion. Employing a qualitative comparative case study approach, the research analyses official ECOWAS communiqués, policy instruments, and existing scholarly literature. The findings indicate that while ECOWAS has maintained its normative commitments, the implementation of these principles has been inconsistent. This inconsistency has weakened the organization’s deterrence capacity and gradually eroded its legitimacy among member states and regional populations. The study contributes to broader scholarly discussions on regional governance, democratic consolidation, and the stability of postcolonial states. It demonstrates that repeated military interventions have gradually transformed ECOWAS from an organization primarily focused on regional integration into one increasingly preoccupied with crisis management. These transformations have important implications for the future of regional cooperation and peace in West Africa
References
Acharya, A. (2014). Constructing a Security Community in Southeast Asia (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Acharya, A. (2018). The End of American World Order (2nd ed.). Polity Press.
Ake, C. (1996). Democracy and Development in Africa. Brookings Institution.
Bach, D. C. (2016). Regionalism in Africa: Genealogies, Institutions and Trans-State Networks. Routledge.
Boas, M., & Torheim, L. E. (2013). The trouble in Mali: Corruption, collusion, resistance. Third World Quarterly, 34(7), 1279–1292. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2013.824272
Bowen, G. A. (2009). Document analysis as a qualitative research method. Qualitative Research Journal, 9(2), 27–40. https://doi.org/10.3316/QRJ0902027
Chambers, P. (2019). Khaki Capital: The Political Economy of the Military in Southeast Asia. NIAS Press.
Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches (4th ed.). SAGE.
Croissant, A., Kuehn, D., Chambers, P., & Wolf, S. (2013). Democratization and Civilian Control in Asia. Palgrave Macmillan.
Dash, K. C. (2017). Regionalism in South Asia: Negotiating Cooperation, Institutional Structures. Routledge.
Denzin, N. K. (2012). The Research Act: A Theoretical Introduction to Sociological Methods. Routledge.
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). (1993). Revised Treaty of the Economic Community of West African States.
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). (1999). Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security.
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). (2001). Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance.
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). (2012). Final communiqué on the situation in Mali.
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). (2020). Extraordinary summit communiqué on Mali.
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). (2021). Communiqué on the political situation in Mali.
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). (2021a). Communiqué on the situation in Guinea.
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). (2022). Extraordinary summit communiqué on Burkina Faso.
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). (2023). Extraordinary summit communiqué on the political situation in Niger.
Finer, S. E. (1962). The Man on Horseback: The Role of the Military in Politics. Praeger.
George, A. L., & Bennett, A. (2005). Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences. MIT Press.
Haas, E. B. (1958). The Uniting of Europe. Stanford University Press.
Huntington, S. P. (1957). The Soldier and the State. Harvard University Press.
International Crisis Group. (2022). Mali's transition: Challenges and prospects.
International Crisis Group. (2022a). Guinea's transition: Avoiding a deadlock.
International Crisis Group. (2023). Niger: Regional diplomacy at an impasse.
Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods (4th ed.). SAGE.
Söderbaum, F. (2016). Rethinking Regionalism. Palgrave Macmillan.
Tallberg, J., Sommerer, T., Squatrito, T., & Jonsson, C. (2018). The Performance of International Organizations. Cambridge University Press.
Thurston, A. (2021). Mali's 2020 coup and the limits of regional diplomacy. African Affairs, 120(479), 297–305. https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adab010
Yin, R. K. (2018). Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods (6th ed.). SAGE.