Citation :

Maryam Bashir Aliyu, Ogundare, Yemi Daniel, 2025. "Authoritarianism and Regional Security Complexes in West Africa: A Case Study of Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso" ESP International Journal of Science, Humanities & Management Studies(ESP-IJSHMS)  Volume 3, Issue 2: 87-96.

Abstract :

This development of authoritarianism in West Africa, through recent military coups in Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso, raises important questions to the security and democratic strength in the region. The given article investigates the dynamics between authoritarian reversals and the logic of Regional Security Complexes (RSCs) in West Africa based on the Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT) of Buzan and Waeaver. The conceptual and comparative analysis in the paper questions the ways in which internal power grab in fragile state systems are affected and how they in turn affect transnational security threats, political instability, and changing regional norms. It investigates the two-way correlation between domestic authoritarian entrenchment and insecurity in the region, and in the Sahel in particular: the state unravelling, violent extremism, and anti-democratic regress work in a mutually supportive way. The paper identifies how ECOWAS and other regional organizations have not been able to act coherently in reacting to these problems usually hampered by the competing interests of regional security and notional demands of democratic governance. Through synthesis of available theoretical and empirical literature, as well as contextualizing the incidents of Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso in terms of greater regional patterns, the paper also helps to comprehend authoritarianism rather as regionalized security issue that is more of an international problem than national one. Its conclusion is that the sustainable solutions need the re-conceptualization of the regional responses in terms of security-governance nexus that both considers spatial diffusion of authoritarianism as well as the interdependency in West African state and regional security.

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Keywords :

Authoritarian Reversal, Regional Security Complex, West Africa, ECOWAS, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Military. Democracy.