Abstract
This chapter considers how and why ECOWAS decided to take on peacemaking in the Liberian Civil War which began in December 1989 when the Charles Taylor-led National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) launched an attack on the Liberian-Cote d’Ivoire border. Within five months, the NPFL controlled more than 90 percent of the country, and the conflict quickly deteriorated into unspeakable levels of violence and ethnic genocide. After an ECOWAS Standing Mediation Committee failed, an ECOWAS Cease-fire Monitoring Group was created to intervene militarily. This is an example of an REO taking on peacemaking as a result of the failure of Great Power interest and global governance. Most agree that leadership in the Liberian Civil War represented a turning point in ECOWAS’ institutional development.
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Notes
- 1.
This chapter is a revised version of Dennis and Brown (2003).
- 2.
Peace and conflict theorists distinguish among peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding. Peacemakers seek to forge a settlement between disputing parties. While this may be done in direct negotiations among disputants, it is often also undertaken with a third-party mediator who assists with process and communication, and helps the parties draft a workable peace accord. Achieving a peace accord is, however, just the beginning. Peacekeeping refers to efforts to sustain peace by placing a barrier between disputants. Often this barrier is made up of neutral soldiers (peacekeepers) from the UN or a group of willing states. Peacekeepers are not tasked with settling disputants’ differences or helping negotiate a peace agreement—they simply keep the two sides apart. Long-term peacebuilding, that is, the process of normalizing relations and reconciling differences among warring parties to build a lasting peace, is the final challenge of conflict resolution (See Kirchner and von Stein 2009; Ker-Lindsay 2010; Sisk 2013).
- 3.
At one point, Taylor has been Director-General of the General Services Agency in the Doe government. He was charged with embezzlement, fled to the United States, and was arrested in Massachusetts. He escaped from jail while awaiting extradition to Liberia (Levitt 1999, 9). Taylor found refuge in Libya where, as Muammar Gaddafi’s protégé, he received guerrilla warfare training. It is generally accepted that Gaddafi supported Taylor’s uprising against the Doe government in 1989.
A post-script to this inquiry—Taylor served as President of Liberia between 1997 and 2003. On 26 April 2012, the Special Court for Sierra Leone convicted him of 11 counts of “aiding and abetting” war crimes and crimes against humanity, and he was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
- 4.
Mauritania withdrew from ECOWAS membership in December 1999.
- 5.
See http://documentation.ecowas.int/download/en/legal_documents/protocols/Protocol%20on%20Non-aggression.pdf (last accessed 16 July 2017).
- 6.
See http://documentation.ecowas.int/download/en/legal_documents/protocols/Protocol%20Relating%20to%20Mutual%20Assistance%20on%20Defence.pdf (last accessed 16 July 2017).
- 7.
The history of the Republic of Liberia can be traced to an 1822 effort of the American Colonization Society (ACS), who believed blacks would have better chances for freedom in Africa than in the United States. Liberia’s leaders, largely Americo-Liberians, initially established political and economic dominance in the coastal areas purchased by the ACS and maintained economic ties with the United States. In the mid-20th century, Liberia gradually began to modernize with American assistance. The United States made major infrastructure improvements to support its military efforts in Africa and Europe in the run up to and during World War II. For example, the United States built Freeport of Monrovia and Roberts International Airport under the Lend-Lease Program before the war. As was noted, as a strategic partner against the spread of communism, Liberia received significant funding from the United States during the Cold War.
- 8.
After 1993, the ECOWAS would create partnerships with the OAU and the UN to bring peace to Liberia.
- 9.
The civil war in Sierra Leone lasted for 11 years (1991–2002), resulted in the death of an estimated 50,000 to 300,000 persons, and the internal and external displacement of 2.5 million (Gberie 2005, 6).
- 10.
Senegal received US$10 million from the United States and contributed 1600 troops for two years of the ECOWAS operation.
- 11.
Elite socialization, organizational learning, and discourse may also be added to this list of potential ideational and social factors. Nationalism certainly may have featured to some degree on Member States’ willingness to consider military intervention. While it cannot be said that ECOWAS Member States were significantly influenced by public opinion, there was increasing press attention to the hostage taking and plight of their nationals in the Liberian conflict. Nondemocratic leadership is not immune to the nationalistic urges when their citizens are taken hostage and/or treated inhumanely abroad.
- 12.
Bundu’s term as ECOWAS Executive Director ended in 1993.
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Brown, M.L. (2018). The 1990 Economic Community of West African States-Liberian Civil War Challenge. In: Regional Economic Organizations and Conventional Security Challenges. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70533-0_4
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