EJIROGHENE OGHALE EMUEDO

The focus of this study is on the effect of conflicts on economic integration of West African States. This is premised on the fact that almost all the States in the sub-region have been engulfed by one form of conflict at one time or the other, some of which have resulted in State collapse. Empirical data were gathered from relevant sources during the course of this research. For developing countries, regional integration is far more than just market integration. Thus, integration in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has become synonymous with economic development, with enhanced intra-regional trade being only one component of such development. ECOWAS ought to have been the mechanism for galvanising the West African sub-region into the globalisation phenomenon. However, the organisation is making little efforts in its realistic integration efforts after more than two decades. This state of affairs is attributable to the strife-torn inter-state
relationships characterising the sub-region. Thus, coups, fratricidal conflicts and insurgency have become implacable words in the political discourse of the sub-region. The study concludes that the preponderance of conflicts in the sub-region, which are mostly offshoot of regional leaders’ fixation on the Clausewitzian concept of security (state-centric conception of security), has negatively affected integration efforts of the sub-region