The Logic of Regional Intervention in West Africa

Abstract

Why do regional organizations intervene in some internal conflicts but not others? What is the underlying logic of multilateral intervention? Drawing on empirical evidence from regional interventions in Africa, this study proposes a conceptual framework that highlights the strategic considerations shaping regional organizations’ responses to various security challenges. I argue that two principal themes underlie the logic of international intervention: regime security and international norms. These factors interact in important ways: in some cases, concerns over regime security align with regional organizations’ commitments to certain norms, motivating the deployment of peace operations; in other cases, military intervention is not pursued because the meaning of the relevant norms is disputed in the context of multilateral intervention, or because regime security is not perceived as an urgent issue. The differences observed across cases are closely associated with the nature of each conflict or crisis. Variations in conflict types can lead to distinct intervention logics. However, current scholarship on multilateral intervention fails to seriously consider the typology of conflicts involving international intervention. To address this gap, I apply the regime security-norms framework to different conflict types, analyzing how their interaction influences international organizations’ decisions to deploy peace operations. Two empirical case studies are presented to illustrate this framework: the Casamance secessionist conflict and the 2016-2017 Gambian political crisis. The first Chapter conceptualizes the logic of regional multilateral intervention and contextualizes the intervention experience of West Africa. Chapter two explains the absence of ECOWAS intervention in the Casamance conflict by putting it in the context of the evolution of African secessionist conflicts. I argue that regime security and sovereignty principles are much more prominent in shaping regional organizations’ attitudes toward secessionist conflicts. Chapter three examines the controversial nature of ECOWAS intervention in Gambia’s political crisis and demonstrates the co-existence of the regime security motivation and normative commitment to democracy behind the multilateral intervention. By integrating conflict typology into the study of multilateral interventions, this dissertation offers a novel perspective on the conditions under which regional organizations choose to engage in peace operations.