Abstract
Even though the founding treaties indicate that the sole purpose of African sub-regional organizations: The Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS) and the Southern African Development Community(SADC) are economic in nature, peacekeeping quickly became an important issue for these sub-regional organizations to address since the 1990s. This research project examines how their entry into peacekeeping and subsequent engagement in it has had an effect on their priority given and ensuing ability to make progress in the other policies in their policy scope. Therefore, this study argues that if African sub-regional organizations focus more on peacekeeping, it can lead to a lack of advancement in other core policies that the organization has set out to do. This research project emphasizes the need for a balanced approach towards addressing the goals of policies to ensure that peacekeeping, even though crucial, does not overshadow other important issues. Using the comparative case study method, this research project finds that peacekeeping is not the main reason as to why African sub-regional organizations have a low priority given to other issues but a range of factors that are largely endogenous.
Advisor
Kille, Kent
Department
Political Science
Recommended Citation
Sam, Stacey, "If You Want to Go Fast, Go Alone; If You Want to Go Far, Go Together: Exploring the Institutional Effectiveness of African Regional Organizations From a Peacekeeping Perspective" (2023). Senior Independent Study Theses. Paper 10447.
https://openworks.wooster.edu/independentstudy/10447
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities
Keywords
African regional organizations, economic engagement, high engagement institutional design, low engagement, peacekeeping, priority, regionalism, The Economic Community of West African States, The Southern African Development Community.
Publication Date
2023
Degree Granted
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type
Senior Independent Study Thesis
© Copyright 2023 Stacey Sam