Regional Organizations and Conflict Management: A Critical Discourse analysis of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). : Why did ECOWAS’s AFISMA fail to Resolve the Malian Conflict between 2012 and 2013 ?

Abstract: This paper seeks to investigate why did ECOWAS’s AFISMA fail to resolve the Malian conflict between 2012 and 2013. The idea is not to go over the different challenges that ECOWAS faced in handling the Malian conflict but to instead establish the single main challenge that inhibited ECOWAS from achieving its desired goals in resolving and managing the crisis in Mali. This thesis employed the theoretical framework of neoliberal institutionalism. Methodologically, this thesis has utilised critical discourse  analysis method.  The paper will analyse data from both primary sources (i.e ECOWAS’ policy documents, United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions on the Mali crisis, AU documents, Mali’s government documents, speeches and reports) and secondary sources (i.e news articles and media reports). This paper is arguing that the reason why ECOWAS’s AFISMA failed to resolve the Malian conflict with regards to its conflict management quest in Mali is the community’s lack of ownership of its military intervention initiative in the country. In agreement with its hypothesis the paper concluded by positing that indeed the ‘reason why ECOWAS’s AFISMA failed in its conflict management quest in Mali is the community’s lack of ownership of its military intervention initiative in the country’.