This project asks whether transformations in the geographical boundaries of West African security regionalism are a functional
adaptation to fluctuating boundaries of criminality and terrorism, or the result of actors’ struggles for legitimacy and to impose
diverging security priorities. It analyses the politics of regionalism through the interactions between international and West
African actors: the competition around the definition of legitimate security knowledge and of the spatial confines of the region. It
analyses the adverse and unintentional effects of these transformations on the (des)institutionalisation of West Africa, the
balance between security and development, and the re-shaping of intervention practices.