President Faure Gnassingbé has chosen to work on maintaining domestic peace and security while also taking action at the regional and inter-regional levels in Africa.
In the Sahel, Togo has launched a notable diplomatic initiative.
It is detailed in a study published on Friday by the research and analysis center Trends, based in Abu Dhabi.
“The ideals promoted and defended by Togo, which it seeks to export to the Sahel, are the spirit of listening and dialogue, solidarity, reconciliation, and mediation identified as social and political conditions for promoting positive peace,” explains the author of the report, Robert Dussey, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The preventive diplomacy advocated by Togo focuses on the peaceful and political management of conflicts and political antagonisms.
It aims to work upstream, addressing threats to peace and security through consultation, contact, reconciliation of views, dialogue, mediation, and good offices missions.
Here is the strategy initiated by Togo and presented by the Togolese foreign affairs chief. The world’s increasing conflict in the form of terrorism in the 21st century has been accompanied by a growing awareness that we live in a global risk community.
This marks the end of a paradigm, and every state now has the certainty that its domestic stability depends on an international, regional, and inter-regional context that can impact it in various ways and sometimes challenge the acquired balance. The logical primacy of the whole over the part subordinates the stability of states to the stability of the global context, and the intrinsic relationship between the part and the whole makes the safety of the international, regional, and inter-regional environment dependent on the stability of states.
The key lies in the mutual dependence between each state’s specific context and the transnational context that encompasses them. Faced with this challenge, President Faure Essozimna GNASSINGBE has made the conscious choice to work towards maintaining domestic peace and security while also engaging at the regional and inter-regional levels in Africa.
The construction and maintenance of peace in West Africa and the Sahel aim to create a regionally and inter-regionally conducive and humanely flourishing context for the stability of the states in the region. This document presents the vision, foundational values, and key aspects of Togo’s strategy for the Sahel in the fight against terrorism.
I. THE VISION OF THE STRATEGY
The geographical proximity between the Gulf of Guinea region and the Sahel, along with the transnational scope of peace-building and regional and interregional security maintenance, compels us towards solidarity, which is the foundation and guiding value of Togo’s regional and international commitments. Inaction and passive indifference cost more than solidarity and active engagement. In a “finite world” where everything is interconnected, solidarity is a logical and vital necessity. By acting at the national, regional, and interregional levels, we contribute to the defense of peace and the preservation of stability in our regions. Working to preserve peace and stability in Sahel countries is a proactive effort to preserve stability in the Gulf of Guinea region and all of West Africa.
Saving the Sahel means saving the Gulf of Guinea region and West Africa. Therefore, in addition to regional and interregional multilateral cooperation, Togo has resolved, in the name of solidarity and the principle of a shared destiny, to strengthen its involvement in the Sahel region to contribute to the construction of the tower of peace.
II. THE FOUNDATIONAL VALUES OF THE STRATEGY
Values are a set of ideals, perceptions, and beliefs accepted and shared by members of a society or community, whether it be local, national, regional, interregional, or international. They guide the strategy and inform how it is carried out by the actors. Values serve as a motivating factor in the execution of any strategy. Thus, the foundational values of Togo’s strategy for the Sahel are regional patriotism and pan-Africanism, solidarity, peace, action, commitment, a sense of responsibility, and a shared destiny.
III. THE MAIN PILLARS OF THE STRATEGY
Strategy, as Bernard Brodie said, is “how to act,” “guide in accomplishing something and doing it effectively.” It is nothing more than a formalized set of choices and decisions that guide and frame action, directing it toward the realization of a vision. Therefore, Togo’s strategy for the Sahel in the fight against terrorism and for the construction of peace and the preservation of stability is organized around four main interdependent pillars.
The four main pillars of Togo’s strategy in the fight against terrorism and for the construction of peace and the preservation of stability in the Sahel region are:
- Participation in multilateral cooperation for regional and interregional stability;
- Exporting Togo’s vision of peace;
- Supporting political normalization processes, democratic transitions, and national reconciliation efforts through mediation;
- Promoting responsible governance for greater social and political inclusion in the states of the region.
Axe 1: Regional and interregional cooperation for peace and stability.
The presence of terrorist groups and the perpetration of attacks in West Africa have turned the regional community into a community of risk, as Ulrich Beck refers to as a “risk society.” From January 2020 to May 2021, 1,547 attacks were carried out by terrorist groups within the ECOWAS community, resulting in 4,222 fatalities. Countries in the region, once relatively safe, now have a full awareness of their vulnerability. In response to the destabilization threat, existing sub-regional and regional cooperation frameworks, of which Togo is a member, such as the Council of the Entente, UEMOA, and ECOWAS, have taken various countermeasures.
Within the framework of ECOWAS, our states adopted a regional counter-terrorism strategy in 2013, accompanied by an action plan. This strategy, in addition to complementing other strategies in the regional community aimed at combating organized transnational crime in the region, along with the ECOWAS Political Declaration and Common Position on Countering Terrorism, emphasizes cooperation and collective action by different countries in responding to the threat.
There is active cooperation between the security and defense forces of our states, and the need for more interregional cooperation and coordination led ECOWAS and ECCAS to organize a joint summit on peace, security, stability, and the fight against terrorism and violent extremism in Lomé in July 2018, at the initiative of Togo. The joint summit resulted in the Declaration of Lomé on peace, security, stability, and the fight against terrorism and violent extremism.
An extraordinary summit of the ECOWAS Conference of Heads of State and Government, held on September 14, 2019, in Ouagadougou, at which Sahel countries were represented at a high level, reaffirmed our states’ commitment to pooling efforts and coordinating initiatives to combat terrorism.
The same summit called on the United Nations Security Council to give MINUSMA, in which Togo contributes over 1,000 troops, a more offensive mandate in the fight against terrorism in Mali. Furthermore, our states called for the strengthening of operations and actions carried out by the G5 Sahel Joint Force, the Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin, and within the framework of the Accra Initiative.
The Accra Initiative, launched in 2017, brings together Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Togo. It is worth recalling the strategic significance of the extraordinary 2016 African Union summit on maritime security, safety, and development in Africa organized by Togo, given that organized crime, including maritime piracy, drug trafficking, arms smuggling, and human trafficking, can fuel terrorist networks.
Togo remains committed to cooperation and the pooling of efforts in the fight against terrorism and intends to support any collective initiative aimed at promoting regional and interregional peace and stability. Terrorism is a transnational threat, and the response must be regional, interregional, and international. In addition to action within transnational platforms, Togo exports peace.
Axe 2: Exporting the Togolese Vision of Peace: Positive Peace
The ideals promoted and defended by Togo, which it strives to export to the Sahel, are the spirit of listening and dialogue, solidarity, reconciliation, and mediation, identified as social and political conditions for the promotion of positive peace. In an increasingly violent world faced with conflicts of significant transnational importance, the categorical imperative is the pursuit of the political conditions essential for the construction of lasting peace, and Togo has embraced the model of positive peace.
Indeed, peace is often defined in opposition to war, and this negative understanding of peace tends to obscure the positive content of the concept, which is nonetheless fundamental. Peace is, above all, an inherent aspiration of human nature, and it is in the genes of human societies to yearn for peace. No human community wants to be perpetually at war, and there are no human societies whose deep-seated aspiration is not to live in lasting peace. The state of war remains a challenge that we must work to overcome, as a world in search of peace cannot be perpetually at war.
While the military approach to peace (armed interventions, United Nations peacekeeping operations) has its merits, it should not deprive us of exploring the intricacies of positive peace, drawing on the resources of human nature to build a peaceful world. We must explore the positive paths to peace, tap into our societal resources and intelligences to construct a safer world, and this is the path chosen by Togo in its regional and interregional foreign policy.
Togolese diplomacy promotes peace as a value and defends it as a horizon to which reason compels men and states. The irrationality of war and the atrocity of certain contemporary conflicts should persuade various actors to prioritize peaceful and tolerant methods of conflict management and resolution. Preventive diplomacy focuses on the peaceful and political management of conflicts and political antagonisms. It involves working on threats to peace and security through consultation, contact, reconciliation of views, dialogue, mediation, and good offices missions. “Diplomacy is particularly desirable and effective in calming tensions before they lead to conflict or, if conflict has already erupted, to act quickly to contain it and eliminate underlying causes” (United Nations, Agenda for Peace, 1992).
Positive peace and peace through arms are not mutually exclusive or antithetical models. The evidence is that Togo supports various forms of military cooperation in the Sahel and is one of the top contributing countries to United Nations peacekeepers in Mali.
The model of positive peace responds to the need to promote, in addition to armed peace, non-violent mechanisms and means of peacebuilding and construction. This is precisely the dynamic that Togo supports in the processes of political normalization, democratic transition, and national reconciliation in the Sahel.
Axe 3: Support for political normalization processes, democratic transition, and reconciliation efforts through mediation
Transitions are often complex processes with multiple stakes and challenges, offering opportunities for collective imagination and profound sociopolitical transformation, but sometimes also involving uncertainties and various hesitations. It is necessary to support and accompany political normalization, democratic transition, and national reconciliation efforts in Sahelian countries.
The fight against terrorism and for peace must be primarily led by the states in the region, and the states undergoing reconstruction and refoundation processes in the Sahel need economic, political, and diplomatic support. There are internal dynamics within the countries of the region capable of undermining the desired goals of democratic transitions if they are not taken into account with an inclusive approach. Acting in situations of uncertainty and continuous transformation, due to the complex evolution of contemporary societies, demands more energy and leadership from the various stakeholders.
Therefore, Togo’s engagement in the Sahel includes a component related to activating, promoting, and involving endogenous energies and dynamics in national processes of political transformation, normalization, recreation of national solidarities, and reconciliation.
Togo’s diplomacy works in the service of cooperation for peace, contributing, through mediation and the culture of understanding and mutual comprehension, to creating conditions and a space for dialogue wherever it intervenes. The specific objective within this axis of the strategy is to politically and diplomatically support Sahelian countries in democratic transition in repairing their social contract and seeking reconciliation.
Working to create conditions for lasting peace through the promotion of reconciliation through mediation and conciliation efforts is to deprive terrorist groups of the political instability they often exploit to carry out their destabilization plans. Terrorist movements take advantage of certain forms of political discord and intercommunal hostilities in the region to establish their authority.
The goal is to deprive them of these favorable factors by mobilizing and involving various political protagonists and other stakeholders through mediation in the processes of consolidating the social contract and political transformation.
This is why Togo supports the Algiers Agreement and the transition in Mali and hosted the second meeting of the Support Group for the Mali Transition in Lomé on March 8, 2021. Togo is working to provide similar support to the ongoing democratic transition in Chad and the future national dialogue process.
Axe 4: Support Responsible Governance for Greater Social and Political Inclusion
The fight against terrorism and for peace in West Africa and the Sahel faces the constant challenge of improving the political governance of states and mechanisms for socioeconomic integration.
The growing gap in relations between the state and the populations, as well as the communities to which they belong, undermines the authority of states. The reduced presence of the state in certain parts of its territory reinforces the marginalization of populations affected by difficult living conditions.
The state’s deficit widens the gap between the center and the periphery, leading some communities to isolate themselves to the detriment of existing social cohesion and solidarity mechanisms. Thus, after the processes of political normalization and democratic transition in Sahel countries, Togo will continue to work with its Sahel partner states to strengthen the presence and authority of the state on national territories and promote public policies for economic and financial inclusion.
The fight against terrorism and for peace in the Sahel is a long-term endeavor, and Togo is ready to participate in this fight alongside the region’s countries.
To defeat terrorism, we must win the battle for human and social development. By offering greater economic inclusion to populations, states will give them reasons to participate in regular political processes and to engage as full and responsible citizens in national development projects. In international forums and bilateral diplomatic meetings, Togo will continue to support the Sahel countries’ advocacy for increased development financing from external partners.
Furthermore, Togo’s involvement in the Sahel is in line with the broader African process of self-responsibility, self-reliance, and the endogenous exercise of Africa’s own responsibilities. Africa can no longer wait for solutions to its problems to come from outside. It must take control of African issues and fully assume its responsibilities. The continent is at a crossroads, and proactive action is essential to address regional and transnational challenges.
Foreign armies deployed in Africa, particularly in the Sahel, do not have the mandate to remain there indefinitely.
The rise of the Taliban and the subsequent collapse of the Afghan state shortly after the withdrawal of most US armed forces has made it clear to Africa, West Africa, the Gulf of Guinea region, and the Sahel region that they must break free from the logic of irresponsible dependence and work resolutely to strengthen African resilience and mechanisms for collective defense and security. The continent and its regions cannot, in terms of security and stability, continue to systematically rely on external allies.
True support is that which enables the beneficiary to move away from a state of dependence and assume their own responsibilities. Africa must enhance its endogenous capacities in promoting peace, defending peace, and ensuring collective security.
The fact that states in the Sahel, the Gulf of Guinea, and West Africa have all committed, without exception, to not tolerate (either passively or complicitly) the activities of terrorist groups on their national territories is a positive sign. Nevertheless, we must actively support the war effort and stabilization in the Sahel.
Through its engagement in the Sahel, Togo aims to raise awareness among Africans of the need to take control of their own destiny in order to protect their populations from terrorism. The responsibility to protect Africans primarily belongs to Africa, and this is the message conveyed by Togo’s commitment to the Sahel.
We have a responsibility not to let the Sahel region become a sanctuary for international terrorism, and to ensure that, even if allied powers manage to withdraw from the region, we can still protect ourselves and contain the terrorist threat.
Ultimately, Togo’s involvement in the Sahel region is a commitment to peace and stability in the spirit of regional patriotism, Pan-Africanism, solidarity, responsibility, and a sense of shared destiny.
Believing that the ambition to achieve peace in Africa depends on the stability of each state and region on the continent, Togo plays the role of a peace servant in the West African regional space and beyond. In West Africa and the Sahel, where threats to peace and stability are evident, Togo seeks to encourage and support preventive diplomacy through innovative initiatives, particularly through mediation efforts, promoting dialogue, tolerance, and mutual understanding.
Efforts for pacification and stabilization in the Sahel demand that we combine military strategies for peace defense with mediation and encouragement of political stakeholders and other actors to engage in dialogue.
The key challenge is to ensure that the current vulnerabilities in a Sahel state do not serve the cause of international terrorism and its destabilization of the Sahel. Togo’s diplomacy works to give peace and stability in the Sahel every chance through mediation efforts.
In the past, it has been a pilgrim for peace in Africa and intends to continue its mission in the service of peace, in constant consultation with African actors and international partners. Because we want peace in West Africa, the Gulf of Guinea region, and the Sahel, we must work for peace.
Prof Robert DUSSEY
Minister of Foreign Affairs