International Organizations, States, ad hoc Coalitions and the Distribution of Tasks: Exploring the Multi-Actor Peace Operation in Mali

This paper scrutinizes the multi-actor peace operation in Mali and seeks to identify factors, which explain why the specific constellation of actors and specific distribution of tasks among them came about since the operation started in 2013. Thereby, this paper is particularly interested in addressing the following set of questions: who decides with which intentions, at what point in time which international organization, individual state, or ad hoc coalition was assigned a specific task within the multi-actor peace operation in Mali? Hence, this contribution focusses on the one hand on the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, the European Union, the United Nations, as well as France and ad hoc coalitions like the “G5 Sahel,” with the latter comprising of the regional states Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, as well as Niger. On the other hand, it scrutinizes the motives of those states that arranged the specific sequence of actions and distribution of tasks among the international organizations, individual states, and ad hoc coalitions. Drawing on the literature on institutional choice, this paper argues that states at times shy away from creating new institutions if they deem the available ones unable to deal with the tasks ahead. In such cases, they instead opt to either act alone as France has done in Mali or set up an ad hoc arrangement like the G5-Sahel to fulfill specific tasks. With this focus, this paper aims to generate theory-driven hypotheses that will give deeper insights into state-driven institutional choice that adds ad hoc coalitions to the picture.