West Africa: From Peacekeeping to Peace Enforcement. ECOWAS and the Regulations of Regional Security

The ECOWAS principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of member states included in its Charter was in line with the sovereignty of states in the international system. This principle, ECOWAS, has to some extent been kept, but the growing insecurity arising from internal conflicts in West Africa states motivated the adoption of ECOMOG as a mechanism for peace and security. The ECOMOG, in the effort to securitize the region to enable economic integration and development as major goals of ECOWAS, has engaged in several peacekeeping operations. However, the nature of the conflict from these states rendered peacekeeping operations inadequate, leading to the adoption of peace enforcement as a new mechanism for mitigating intractable conflicts in West Africa. It is in this context that this article investigates the role of ECOWAS in peacekeeping operations and its transformation to peace enforcement in the West African security complexes.