ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to establish if other motivations also have an impact on the decision to intervene. It presents chapter enlightens one prominent example of international norm evolution. The chapter addresses the question of a possible 'actor quality' of international organizations. It contributes to the question under what conditions regional organizations (ROs) will react to unconstitutional power changes and can therefore inspire practical solutions in other regions. The chapter explains the type of intervention by Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). In the realm of democracy promotion, ECOWAS's main focus lies on the unconstitutional access to or prolongation of power. A preliminary analysis allows determining whether a coup was an unconstitutional power accession or prolongation, and thereby might have warranted a reaction by ECOWAS. By contrast, the AU, United States and the EU unequivocally condemned the coup and urged ECOWAS to intervene, the AU even suspending Guinea's membership.
