African sub-regional organizations in peacekeeping and peacemaking: the Economic Community Of West African State (ECOWAS)

Abstract

This thesis will examine the emerging role of a sub-regional organization dealing with peacekeeping and peacemaking missions on the post-Cold-War period in West Africa. This examination will focus mainly on ECOWAS and ECOMOG, its military wing, as the most prominent sub-regional organization in conducting peacemaking and peacekeeping missions in Africa. This thesis will focus on the first generation interventions of ECOWAS/ECOMOG in undertaking peacemaking and peacekeeping missions in Liberia (1990 - 1997), Sierra Leone, (1998 - 2000), and Guinea Bissau (1998 - 1999)), and the second generation of interventions in Liberia in 2003 and in CoÌ te d'Ivoire (2003-2004). This examination aimed at assessing ECOWAS' strengths and limitations and comparing to which the second generation interventions have benefited from the lessons of the first.