ABSTRACT

This study analyses ECOWAS’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic under its extant peace and security architecture and how effective these have been. It examines the West African security environment, the evolution of the security architecture of the West African REC, and analyses its capability to respond effectively to health emergencies in West Africa, including the COVID-19 pandemic in the subregion. The study evaluates the REC's responses to earlier epidemics, in particular the Ebola Virus, in comparison to its current efforts. It observes that the region's security architecture is dominated by military approaches that are more effective in addressing military rather than non-military threats. The article therefore contends that in order to better address these new, mutating and emerging threats, a review of the ECOWAS security framework is imperative. The work proffers ways and means to strengthen the REC's capacity to deal with health emergencies, including a re-engineering of ECOWAS itself.

摘要

这项研究分析了西非国家经济共同体在其现有的和平与安全架构下对COVID-19大流行的反应以及这些反应的有效性。它研究了西非安全环境，西非REC安全体系的演变，并分析了其有效应对西非突发卫生事件的能力，包括该次区域的COVID-19大流行。与目前的研究相比，该研究评估了REC对早期流行病，特别是埃博拉病毒的反应。报告指出，该地区的安全体系结构以军事方式为主导，这种方式在应对军事威胁而非非军事威胁方面更为有效。因此，该文章认为，为了更好地应对这些新的，变异的和正在出现的威胁，必须对西非国家经济共同体的安全框架进行审查。这项工作提供了加强REC处理突发卫生事件的能力的方法和手段，包括对西非国家经济共同体本身的重新设计。