Strategic Implications of Emerging Threats to West African Countries.

摘要

One of the most challenging issues West African countries are facing at the beginning of the 21st Century is their common security. Located in the western most region of the African continent, West Africa includes 16 countries in an area of approximately 6 million square km. During the past twenty years, this region has been subjected to major conflicts, several insurgencies, and five military coups or attempted coups. While this regional turmoil has more or less been successfully handled, either by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) or the United Nations Organization (UN), West Africa is far from being out of trouble. Indeed, due to the political, economic and security weaknesses of many countries, new pernicious and opportunistic threats are emerging throughout the region. The purpose of this paper is to study the specificity of these new threats, the strategic implication for West African Countries, what responses have so far been brought and their effectiveness and how policies might be explored or improved to address them.