Description
Over the past two decades, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States have significantly advanced peace and security in Africa. This progress has resulted in a notable increase in African interventions compared to stagnating UN peace operations. However, existing intervention research has largely overlooked this shift. While African interventions are often perceived as less coercive and more legitimate by those affected, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the actual coerciveness of these interventions. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the concept of coercion: what constitutes coercion for whom and under what conditions? Drawing on ethnographic elements, interview and focus group research in The Gambia conducted from 2021 to 2023, this paper investigates the experiences of Gambian citizens with AU and ECOWAS interventions post-2016. The findings (1) delineate the relational and intricate nature of perceptions of coercion in regional interventions and (2) challenge the predominant negative interpretation of coercion, highlighting its ambivalent nature. In so doing, this paper enhances our understanding of how regional interventions are employing coercive strategies, how they are received and the circumstances under which coercion in these interventions is deemed legitimate by those most impacted.
