Transregional Conflicts and the Respatialization of Regions ‘At Sea’: The Yaoundé Process in the Gulf of Guinea

Abstract

Since the 2000s, actors in but also beyond West and Central Africa have increasingly identied the Gulf of Guinea as a space of strategic importance, beset by “maritime insecurity” reaching across established regional boundaries. Consequently, especially ECOWAS, ECCAS, and the Gulf of Guinea Commission, their member states, and “international partners” have sought new ways of transregional cooperation, leading to the creation of the Yaoundé Process in June 2013. Responding to a lack of attention to maritime issues / sea space in security studies and regionalism literature, this article analyzes the Yaoundé Process. Applying a spatial perspective, the articletraces its origins / emergence, main actors and entanglement in trans-more global dynamics. It argues that this process has intimately linked to the formatting and ordering of trans- and interregional space(s) both “at sea” and “on land”.

Biographical Note

Dr. Jens Herpolsheimer (SFB 1199)

Jens Herpolsheimer studied African Studies in Leipzig, Bordeaux, and Lisbon. Subsequently, continuing research initiated during his master’s, he worked on cooperation dynamics at the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP). Since 2016, he is a researcher at the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB 1199) “Processes of Spatialization under the Global Condition”, at Leipzig University. In this context, he has completed his PhD, focusing on intervention practices of African regional organizations and their spatializing effects. Since January 2020, Jens Herpolsheimer is a postdoctoral researcher at the SFB 1199, studying the practices of inter-regionalism between different actors at African regional organizations and the European Union. These issues reflect his more general research interests, among other things, including the politics and practices of peace and security in Africa, Lusophony, and comparative regionalism.