Nation-States and the challenges of Regional Integration in West Africa

The positive role of ECOWAS and its military-security arm ECOMOG in bringing
to an end the decade-long bloody civil war in Sierra Leone, restoring
democratic governance and the rule of law, has brought to the fore the value,
legitimacy and impact of regional integration and co-operation in West Africa.
Insimple terms, ECOWAS and ECOMOG are widely (though not universally)
acclaimed as ""saviours"" and ""heroes"" in Sierra Leone. But despite this
popular acclaim, no serious effort has been made by researchers, political
actors, policy practitioners or regional leaders to engage, on a long-term
basis, with how regional integration could be used as an engine of national
and regional development, faced with the opportunities and challenges of
contemporary globalisation; how to identify the critical everyday issues that
affect the human and societal security of the local populace; or how to use
the regional integration processes to find solutions to the myriad problems
faced on a daily basis by people of the sub-region. Infact, as Sierra Leone
celebrates the 50th anniversary of political independence from British
colonial rule, there is a noticeable absence of any focus on ECOWAS and West
African integration and co-operation by the political leaders and academic
community.

The general lack of policy dialogue and critical engagement among researchers,
political actors, policy practitioners and regional leaders has made it
difficult, if not impossible, for rigorous evidence-based research to
influence policy on the West African integration processes. Under the auspices
of UNESCO's Management of Social Transformations (MOSn Programme, a series of
multidisciplinary seminars took place in each of the fifteen ECOWAS states to
foster dialogue between resear­ chers and political, economic, and social
decision-makers for a better understanding of the issues at stake. This book
is the result of one such seminar, and of a series of separately commissioned
papers by Sierra Leonean researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds.
Edited by Professor David Francis, Professor of Peace Studies at the
University of Bradford, it is based on extensive field research over a number
of years, the assessment of primary source and secondary materials relating to
ECOWAS integration, as well as to Sierra Leone's foreign, security and
development policy approach to regional integration and cooperation.