Prospects of the Economic Community of West African States Standby Force

The problems that transcend West Africa over the last decade have been economic deprivation and insecurity due to an increase in surrogate and civil wars. Political instability, conflicts and economic deprivation breeds failed states. In addition to wanton human sufferings, failed states can provide safe havens for terrorist and other international crime. The traditional conflict resolution mechanisms employed by West African leaders to solve the problems have proven futile. Thus, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), in 1990, resorted to using the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) as a security model for peace support operations in the subregion. This security mechanism has been described as the most advanced and tested in the sub-Saharan Africa. The African Union (AU) is working to live up to its expectation with respect to the maintenance of peace and security in the region by approving the "Roadmap to the Operationalization of the ASF" concept, which calls for establishment of standby forces to consist of standby brigades in each of the five economic regions. To make the dream of the ASF a reality, the subregions must meet the requirements in the roadmap. Though ECOWAS has made significant progress towards establishing a viable subregional peace support capability it needs to improve on its operational capacity. This research is therefore intended to make strategic and operational recommendations to the ongoing process undertaken by ECOWAS to meet the requirements in the AU's roadmap. The major recommendations are that ECOWAS should address the problems that it encountered during previous ECOMOG missions and also use the P3 initiative as a platform to synchronize external support for ECOWAS peace support operations.