This research project focused on African militaries and democratic transitions in West Africa. The research looked at specific cases of recent political transitions in West Africa, where the involvement of the army has had a notable outcome. The research sought to highlight comparative responses and approaches that might have helped with designing successful frameworks for transitions in Benin and Ghana vs. Togo. This research
• Helped advance the understanding of the role of the military in contemporary politics and society in West Africa;
• Assessed the relationship between the militaries’ interjections into the polities and the country’s level of political instability; and
• Highlighted institutional policy reforms ( e.g. education, fiscal, and/or land reforms); as well as incentive-based approaches (e.g. amnesties) that may have opened the path to Benin’s and Ghana’s peaceful political transitions as opposed to Togo’s path
Drawing on the available literature on democratic transitions, the paper proposed preliminary policy evaluative lessons, discussed implications for reforming, including solutions for ‘de-ethnicising’ African armies, and argued for the creation of a ‘new generation of African militaries’.