John M. Kabia. Humanitarian Intervention and Conflict Resolution in West Africa: From ECOMOG to ECOMIL. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2009. 234 S. $99.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-7546-7444-3.

Reviewed by Robert Tynes (University at Albany/SUNY)
Published on H-Human-Rights (October, 2010)
Commissioned by Rebecca K. Root (Ramapo College of New Jersey)

ECOWAS and the Value of Regional Security Mechanisms

Humanitarian intervention is no longer just about air-dropping bags of rice into famine-stricken regions. Now it is about how to stop the slaughter of civilians by machete; how to provide safe havens for war-ravaged women and children; when to use nonviolent strategies, and when to use force. This is John M. Kabia’s concern in Humanitarian Intervention and Conflict Resolution in West Africa: From ECOMOG to ECOMIL. Kabia ponders how the international community can most effectively approach complex political emergencies (CPEs).[1] His research focuses on a single case study of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and how it has confronted CPEs in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, and Cote d’Ivoire. The project traces ECOWAS’s transformation from a purely regional economic integration organization to an assertive security mechanism in West Africa. The strength of Kabia’s work lies in his demonstration that the evolution of ECOWAS is ultimately positive and progressive. There is evidence that decision makers have learned from historical experience and are making adjustments.

Previous research on ECOWAS has viewed its security arm, the ECOWAS Cease-fire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), as subpar, as “primarily an instrument of Nigerian foreign policy”[2] and lacking “sufficient training, resources, and logistical support.”[3] However, according to Robert Mortimer, later permutations of ECOMOG have moved away from hegemonic control, and, according to Joseph Bangura, the regional security function has helped bring peace to Sierra Leone, by creating a situation that facilitated the signing of the Lomé Peace Accord.[4] Kabia’s deeper look into the development and lifespan of ECOWAS’s security apparatuses not only illuminates the details about its shortcomings and potentials, but also provides nuanced explanations for its failures and successes.

The problems plaguing ECOWAS have included the hegemonic role of Nigeria, the colonial legacy in and long-standing divisions between Anglophone and Francophone states within the regional organization, the shortage of funding, and the absence of “an effective humanitarian policy, a coherent political plan and a well-thought out peacebuilding and exit strategy” (p. 5). Human rights violations by some ECOMOG troops, and the manipulation of peace efforts by political entrepreneurs, such as Foday Sankoh and Charles Taylor, have also been issues. The strengths of ECOWAS are its awareness of Nigeria’s overbearing role and ability to adjust the imbalance, its effective use of both coercive and noncoercive strategies in CPEs, and its efforts at increasing its internal institutional capacity--building stronger mechanisms to deal with conflict resolution and peacebuilding. Kabia provides a comprehensive tracing of the development of ECOWAS from its beginning in the 1970s to its peacekeeping and peacebuilding roles in the 1990s. ECOMOG has deployed to Liberia and Sierra Leone, then back to Liberia, and later Guinea Bisseau and Cote d’Ivoire. Because Kabia provides such a thorough comparative historical analysis of each of these missions, we see the progress, a picture that could not have been revealed if he had only examined one or two of the ECOWAS missions.

Kabia’s arguments and theoretical foundations are presented clearly throughout the text. Chapter 1 lays out the conceptual framework of the project, based on theories of CPEs and the legitimacy (or lack thereof) of breeching state boundaries in order to quell conflict. Kabia advocates a pro-solidarist approach, asserting that in some cases humanitarian intervention is a valid reason to violate state sovereignty. Additionally, regional bodies such as ECOWAS are legitimate and necessary security tools, bridging the local with the global. Chapter 2 discusses the complexities of conflicts in West Africa, outlining multiple causal and intervening factors, including state sponsors of war in neighboring countries, mercenaries, civil defense militias, the small-arms trade, and the plethora of strategic natural resources. The point is to depict the multiple actors, objectives, and events that ECOWAS must contend with during its humanitarian interventions. Chapter 3 details the transition of ECOWAS from economic integration project to regional security mechanism. Chapter 4 presents ECOWAS’s first foray into conflict as ECOMOG in Liberia in 1990. Chapter 5 proceeds with a description and analysis of the ECOWAS mission in Sierra Leone. The chapter builds on the data from Liberia and begins to show how ECOMOG fared in a new but similar conflict arena. Chapter 6 highlights how the absence of Nigeria can have both positive and negative effects and how the Francophone/Anglophone schism can be detrimental to peacekeeping. The chapter examines the ECOWAS missions in Guinea Bissau and Cote d-Ivoire. Chapter 7 demonstrates the evolution of ECOWAS. Here we observe the return of ECOWAS to Liberia,which entails some of the same old problems, but also an increase in professionalism of the troops and in coordination with the United Nations (UN). Chapter 8 focuses on post-ECOWAS peacebuilding efforts in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Chapter 9 presents the new institutional structures that ECOWAS has developed to increase its effectiveness. Finally, the conclusion recapitulates the core findings and argues for even more coordination and cooperation between regional security organizations and the UN in order to boost credibility, and to address the problems of limited resources and financial capacity.

Each chapter is a solid and systematic exploration of the theories and cases put forth. And overall, the weaknesses of Kabia’s project are minimal and do not undermine his theses. First, the information in chapter 9 on post-ECOWAS peacebuilding is misplaced. While the information is valuable to Kabia’s project, it would have been better to have integrated this material into previous chapters on Sierra Leone and Liberia. As a stand-alone chapter, it tends to pull attention away from the main arguments. Second, the concluding paragraph addresses areas for further research. This section is brief (three sentences). It either should have been expanded or left out. As is, it is  perfunctory. Again, though, these critiques are minor. If Kabia’s goal was to analyze the value of regional security mechanisms in CPEs, then he has succeeded. ECOWAS has certainly received much criticism, but Kabia makes evident that regional security mechanisms are essential for peace and well worth the investment.

Notes

[1]. Complex political emergencies are defined as “protracted political crises resulting from sectarian or predatory indigenous response to socio-economic stress and marginalization.... [They] have a singular ability to erode or destroy the cultural, civil, political or economic integrity of established societies,” Mark Duffield, “Complex Political Emergencies and the Crisis of Developmentalism,” IDS Bulletin 25 (1994): 37-45; 38, quoted in Kabia, 15. 

[2]. See Robert Mortimer, “From ECOMOG to ECOMOG II: Intervention in Sierra Leone,” in Africa In World Politics: The African State System in Flux, ed. John W. Harbeson and Donald Rothchild (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000), 188.

[3]. See Ismail Rashid, “West Africa’s Post-Cold War Security Challenges,” in West Africa’s Security Challenges, ed. Adekeye Adebajo and Ismail Rashid (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004), 386.

[4]. See Mortimer, “From ECOMOG to ECOMOG II,” note 2; and Joseph Bangura, “The Anatomy of Peacekeeping: ECOMOG’s Role in the Sierra Leone Civil War,” in Sierra Leone Beyond the Lomé Peace Accord, ed. Marda Mustapha and Joseph J. Bangura (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 35-38.

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Citation: Robert Tynes. Review of Kabia, John M., Humanitarian Intervention and Conflict Resolution in West Africa: From ECOMOG to ECOMIL. H-Human-Rights, H-Net Reviews. October, 2010.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=30175

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