Though several regional organizations in Africa were formed following the post-colonial era, their contributions towards regional economic and political integration have been minimal. Their importance in this regard had been insignificant both regionally and internationally until recently. Evidently, this decline has had direct consequences against regional organizations, which had been in hibernation state for the last few decades. However, during the long period of inactive role in the economic and politico-security landscape, the period offered exceptional opportunities to ECOWAS, which managed to survive the Cold War period and laid down frameworks for greater cooperation and integration among its member states. ECOWAS's revival is impressive, as the author notes, considering the Anglophone-francophone division that affected the possibility of socio-economic and political integration in the region.

Chalachew's book "Regional Security in West Africa: Building a Regional Security Architecture under ECOWAS in the Post-Cold War Era" revisited the historical evolution of ECOWAS as an economic integration organization and how its ad hoc security architecture has been reconfigured to meet the politico-security challenges of member states in the post-Cold War era. The author has attempted to show the difficult roads that ECOWAS travelled in the early 1990s in the absence of a security dimension in its founding charter in the mid-1970s. In the face of the international community's disengagement from Africa and the decline of West Africa as a ground for competition for geopolitical interests of major powers, and the changing nature of conflicts from inter-state to that of intra-state, ECOWAS found itself that it had to take matters into its own hands, thereby paving the road for the popular motto of "African solutions for African problems." By critically evaluating the performances of ECOWAS in the security arena, the author has demonstrated the relevance of regional organizations to deal with intra-state conflicts, which could also have regional dimensions.

The book also sheds light on the expansion of ECOWAS's mandate and scope so as to link security, development, and democracy. It analyzes how the security of the region has been intimately related to the lack of good governance, democracy and the prevalence of underdevelopment in the region. And it gives much emphasis to ECOWAS's determination to emerge as a pioneer organization to kick start a holistic approach to the region's problems. It has depicted the significant shift ECOWAS made from the previously military-oriented approach to a new and multidimensional meaning of security that includes conflict prevention, management, resolution and peacekeeping. The book has also emphasized ECOWAS's venture on the adoption of protocols on good governance, democracy and control of flow of arms. By so doing, as the author rightly explained, ECOWAS has established a security regime characterized by not only physical military structures but also certain common norms and practices.

And the book has presented a fair evaluation of the performance of ECOWAS in dealing with security issues (peacekeeping and peace enforcement), which could have detrimental effects on its economic agenda (as states often and naturally are against intervention in their internal affairs) for the time being, although ultimately security became a core component of economic integration. ECOWAS's active military/security role in West African conflicts ignited some momentum, and increased the importance of regional bodies in security arena. The author underscores that ECOWAS has become the leading security actor in initiating a new wave of regionalism, which could well become an alternative to the UN approaches in tackling conflicts across the world that have been highly criticized for its sluggishness and ineffectiveness.

The book detailed the challenges ECOWAS has faced as its mandate and priority shifted, and stepped into previously uncharted waters of conflict management and peace enforcement. Lack of resources, lack of well-organized and sustainable partnership with major powers, lack of formal and clear division of labor with the African Union and the UN, lack of democracy and socio-economic development within the region, absence of focus on conflict prevention, etc have continued to challenge it. Yet, as the author rightly states, its relevance to the region's security challenge in the post-Cold War era is beyond question. The author took ample time to address those challenges that are still imminent to deter the progress of ECOWAS and achieve its multifaceted mandates. The book also identified and put in context the available opportunities considering those changes that are happening both at local, regional, and global levels. The book also provided the future prospects of ECOWAS as a security actor in the security arena.

This book may interest political science and history students, who have interest in studying regional security issues in West Africa in particular and Africa's affairs at large. It may also interest policy makers and analysts at national, regional, and international level. It is a well researched and articulated book. I really encourage you to read and learn lots of stuff about the importance regional approach to security problems (which has become a growing area of study) and the pioneering experiment that ECOWAS has launched in the post-Cold War era.

Note: You can find the book from Amazon...