Responding to War and State Collapse in West Africa. Special Report

摘要

Early last year, the situation on the ground in West Africa looked grim. War raged between Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front and Guinean forces in southern Guinea, and various armed groups staged incursions on both sides of the Liberia/Guinean border. In light of this fighting and the gloomy specter of a growing regional war in West Africa, the United States Institute of Peace formed the West Africa Working Group and convened groups of experts on these conflicts for four meetings between March and August. The primary purpose of the working group was to bring together individuals from various national and international agencies and organizations to shed light on the nature of the conflicts in West Africa and recommend appropriate America responses. This report summarizes the most salient points of discussion and puts forth a dozen recommendations for American policy makers attempting to address the instability.