Africa Center for Strategic Studies

By James Cockayne and Phil Williams.  International Peace Institute, 2009. Narcotics trafficking in West Africa threatens to destabilize the sub-region by corrupting its courts, barracks and other public offices.  The international community can help West Africa through the UN Peacebuilding Commission and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. Meanwhile, ECOWAS should establish a Forum on West African Drug Trafficking to facilitate information-sharing and intra-regional coordination. [PDF]

Drug Trafficking in West Africa. By William Wechsler. 2009. Drug trafficking payouts threaten the integrity of West Africa’s military, judicial, and political institutions. While regional security efforts to interdict traffickers and their high-value bribes currently lack needed hardware and assistance, strengthening basic government, law enforcement and military institutions in West Africa is the essential first step to ensure narcotics interdiction can be sustained in the long-run. [HTML]

West Africa's International Drug Trade. By Stephen Ellis. African Affairs, 2009. Recent large-scale hauls of Europe-bound cocaine in West Africa have prompted calls for enhanced counternarcotics efforts to stem a rising tide of destabilization. Yet sophisticated, resilient and effective West African organized crime syndicates have trafficked drugs globally for decades. Counternarcotics strategies face an entrenched threat to security rather than a new phenomenon.  [HTML]

Guinea-Bissau: Beyond Rule of the Gun. By International Crisis Group. 2009. The report outlines the dire, drug-fueled political, economic, and humanitarian situation in the country and concludes with policy recommendations for Bissauian political elites, the military, and other stakeholders. [HTML]