ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the evolution and transformation of regional economic co-operation and integration, in particular the expansion of the frontiers of economic integration into security regionalism.1 The transformation of contemporary world politics since the early 1990s, allied with the effects of globalisation, have converted West Africa into the new theatre of violent intra-state conflicts, with devastating consequences for regional peace, security, economic development and social progress. Civil wars and conflicts have reversed the developmental and economic gains of decades of regional integration and co-operation (Sahel and West Africa Club 2002). These have not only stretched the capacity of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) (the region’s foremost institution for economic integration) in managing and resolving these intra-state conflicts, but have also undermined the possibility of achieving the common market objectives of the regional organisation.
