Nigeria, Sept. 3 -- West Africa is navigating one of its most turbulent democratic cycles in decades. Coups in Mali, Guinea, Niger, and Burkina Faso have challenged regional stability, while civiliangovernments elsewhere face rising discontent and shrinking legitimacy. Civil discontent in Togo threatens national stability, and in Cote d'Ivoire President Alassane Ouattara's is potentially bidding for a fourth term, amid a constricted political space, which threatens to reopen old wounds.

This fragility is unfolding just as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) moves to validate its long-awaited Standby Force Training Policy. The irony is stark: while the bloc is strengthening its security muscle, the political terrain it ...