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The establishment of the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) in 1990 marked a significant structural evolution in the organization's operational mandate. In what fundamental way did ECOMOG alter the primary scope of ECOWAS beyond its original 1975 founding treaty?

  1. It broadened the community's operational scope from strictly economic integration to include military peacekeeping and regional security intervention.Answer
  2. B
    It stripped sovereign member nations of their domestic legal authority and transferred supreme legislative power to a central supranational parliament.
  3. C
    It replaced the Authority of Heads of State and Government with a military defense council as the highest decision-making organ of the community.
  4. D
    It established a mandatory single monetary union and centralized financial authority governing all member states.

Answer

The establishment of ECOMOG broadened the community's operational scope from strictly economic integration to include military peacekeeping and regional security intervention.
The creation of ECOMOG in 1990 to intervene in the Liberian civil war represented a key transition for ECOWAS, expanding its focus beyond trade and economic cooperation to active peacekeeping, security enforcement, and regional conflict resolution.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the primary objective of ECOWAS under the 1975 Treaty of Lagos.
The 1975 Treaty established ECOWAS primarily as an economic union designed to promote intra-regional trade, industry, and economic self-reliance among West African states.
Establishing the original baseline mandate clarifies what the organization was initially structured to address.
2
Examine the context and consequence of creating ECOMOG in 1990.
Faced with severe civil conflict in Liberia, ECOWAS leaders established ECOMOG as an ad-hoc military peacekeeping arm, formally introducing security enforcement and conflict management into the community's institutional framework.
This step identifies the major shift in functional responsibilities beyond purely economic matters.

Key Concept

Evolution of ECOWAS mandate from economic cooperation to regional security and military peacekeeping through ECOMOG.
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Topics

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

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