Digital Diplomacy and Military Coup in Africa: Empirical Analysis of ECOWAS Intervention in Niger and Burkina Faso

Abstract: The rise of military coups in Africa in recent times, especially in West Africa has intensified, raised concerns about the capacity of regional institutions like ECOWAS to uphold democratic governance amid deep-seated socio-political crises. The adoption of digital diplomacy by ECOWAS along the traditional method of diplomacy, calls for serious interrogation, with regards to its effectiveness in addressing the military coup in members states of Burkina Faso and Niger Republic. Anchored on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) of Fred Davis (1985), utilizing the secondary method of data collection and the content analysis. The study found that military coups in Burkina Faso and Niger Republic were orchestrated by enduring structural weaknesses in governance and security, prompting ECOWAS to utilize digital diplomacy as a crucial tool to inform and engage stakeholders while asserting its role in upholding democratic norms. Despite ECOWAS's swift use of digital platforms to condemn the coups, impose sanctions, and encourage dialogue, the formal withdrawal of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger from ECOWAS signals a significant challenge to regional cohesion and the limits of ECOWAS’s digital diplomacy in preventing and resolving deep-rooted political crises. The study therefore recommends among others that ECOWAS needs to move beyond digital diplomacy of condemning military coups, imposing sanctions, and invest in proactive measures like early-warning systems, local peace building, and community empowerment to tackle the root causes of military coups in West Africa.