IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/121593.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Naviguer dans les rivalités: perspectives de coexistence entre la CEDEAO et l'AES en Afrique de l'Ouest
[Navigating Rivalries: Prospects for Coexistence between ECOWAS and AES in West Africa]

Author

Listed:
  • Kohnert, Dirk

Abstract

The Alliance of Sahel States (AES), created in September 2023 by the three military governments of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso as a counterweight to ECOWAS and the post-colonial influence of France and other Western countries, announced the creation of a confederation of its three countries in July 2024. The AES have more in common than the other countries of the Sahel. First, they are the centre of the Sahel and most vulnerable to jihadism. They are also landlocked countries with vast desert areas, making them more vulnerable to climate change. Finally, they are the countries with the highest population growth in the Sahel, with an average of six children per woman. The creation of the AES came amid a decade of escalating unrest in the Sahel, fuelled by the aftermath of the NATO-led intervention in Libya in 2011. The resulting instability caused rampant arms trafficking and the rise of armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. AES counterinsurgency operations will focus on the Liptako-Gourma region, the vast and porous border area where the three states meet, a borderland notorious for its instability. Previous leaders have often put French interests ahead of those of their own people, allowing the continued exploitation of the region's natural resources, including uranium, gold and manganese, without much benefit to the local population. In the face of critical comments from the AU about the AES countries' exit from ECOWAS, the former rejected any interference in their internal affairs. The AES confederation will expand the operational space of the junta alliance and consolidate its military and economic partnership with Russia and China, as well as Turkey and Iran. However, the AES secession undermines the legitimacy of ECOWAS by hindering regional economic and security integration and further complicating the return to democratization. The confederation will seek to absorb new members such as Chad, Guinea and Sudan to further strengthen its power and legitimacy as an alternative regional bloc. However, a divided Sahel will make tackling regional challenges even more difficult. If the AES were to replace the CFA franc with its own currency, as announced, and other Francophone countries in the UEMOA were to follow suit, this would require a fundamental restructuring of both the UEMOA and ECOWAS and finally also call into question the introduction of the ECO, the new common West African currency, planned for 2027.

Suggested Citation

  • Kohnert, Dirk, 2024. "Naviguer dans les rivalités: perspectives de coexistence entre la CEDEAO et l'AES en Afrique de l'Ouest [Navigating Rivalries: Prospects for Coexistence between ECOWAS and AES in West Africa]," MPRA Paper 121593, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:121593
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/121593/1/MPRA_paper_121593.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kohnert, Dirk, 1993. "'Wir sind alle abgewertet!' Zur Anpassungskrise von Währung, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft in der CFA-Zone," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 35-45.
    2. Kohnert, Dirk, 2022. "Outside sources of terrorist threats in West Africa," MPRA Paper 115338, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kohnert, Dirk, 2023. "Will the UEMOA survive the rise of anti-French sentiment in West Africa?," MPRA Paper 118357, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Kohnert, Dirk, 2022. "Domination française des marchés en Afrique francophone : Le post-colonialisme à son meilleur ? [French domination of Francophone African markets: Post-colonialism at its finest?]," MPRA Paper 112051, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Kohnert, Dirk, 2024. "Les mesures internationales contre le blanchiment d’argent et l’évasion fiscale, ont-elles un impact significatif en Afrique subsaharienne ? [Money laundering and tax evasion : Do international mea," MPRA Paper 121355, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Kohnert, Dirk, 2024. "Élargir les horizons: les engagements stratégiques de l'Iran en Afrique subsaharienne – Études de cas d'Afrique du Sud, du Nigeria et de Tanzanie [Expanding Horizons: Iran's Strategic Engagements i," MPRA Paper 121666, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Kohnert, Dirk, 2023. "L'UEMOA, survivra-t-elle à la montée du sentiment anti-français en Afrique de l'Ouest ? [Will the UEMOA survive the rise of anti-French sentiment in West Africa?]," MPRA Paper 118358, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Kohnert, Dirk, 2022. "French domination of markets in Francophone Africa: Post-colonialism at its finest?," MPRA Paper 112024, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Alliance des États du Sahel; Afrique de l'Ouest; Sahel; CEDEAO; UEMOA; Djihadisme; Décolonisation; Nationalisme; Souveraineté; Développement durable; Gouvernance; Franc CFA; Mali; Niger; Burkina Faso; Guinée; Nigeria; France; Russie; Chine;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • F35 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Aid
    • F52 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - National Security; Economic Nationalism
    • F53 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Agreements and Observance; International Organizations
    • F54 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - Colonialism; Imperialism; Postcolonialism
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism
    • N17 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Africa; Oceania
    • N47 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Africa; Oceania
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:121593. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.