David against Goliath in Cote d'Ivoire? Laurent Gbagbo's war against global governance

Abstract

While a doctrine of liberal interventionism seems to be gaining acceptance, it remains constrained by the resilience of state sovereignty and by the resistance of internal elites to externally driven prescriptions. This article looks at Côte d'Ivoire's tortuous peace process and at the recent post-electoral crisis, exploring how former Ivoirian President Laurent Gbagbo developed strategies for neutralizing the threat that international peacemaking and peacekeeping intervention posed to his rule. It is argued that a particular ideological discourse played a crucial role in Gbagbo's struggle against ‘global governance’. Such a discourse combined the legalistic exaltation of state sovereignty, a fierce anti-colonial nationalism, and religious overtones in portraying the Ivoirian crisis as a ‘war of second independence’ against a wide range of international enemies. While nationalist rhetoric had been toned down after the conclusion of the Ouagadougou Political Agreement in 2007, the confrontation between Gbagbo and the international community reignited during the 2010–11 post-electoral crisis. A series of new developments – in particular the UN's certification mandate – rendered Gbagbo's political tactics and the recourse to nationalism ineffective and contributed to his fall.