Envoy Diplomacy in a Fractured Region: Ghana’s Appointment of Larry Gbevlo-Lartey, As Special Envoy to the Sahel and Its Implications for ECOWAS Security Architecture

Abstract

This article examines Ghana’s appointment of Larry Gbevlo-Lartey as Special Envoy to the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) on 21 January 2025, shortly before Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger formally withdrew from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It asks how a nationally appointed diplomatic channel operates within a regional security architecture marked by institutional rupture and continuing interdependence. A qualitative documentary case study draws on eight dated public records concerning the AES, ECOWAS and the envoy’s reported activities through 30 March 2026, interpreted alongside regional legal instruments and recent scholarship. Regional Security Complex Theory explains the persistence of cross-border interests despite political separation; norm subsidiarity is examined as a possible, but not automatically established, explanation of Ghana’s diplomatic agency. Public records document the envoy’s involvement in trade and transit discussions, the reception of a released Nigerian aircraft and crew, and subsequent Ghana–Burkina Faso contact. They do not disclose a comprehensive formal mandate or demonstrate improvements in intelligence sharing, border security or ECOWAS institutional coherence. The article finds evidence of diplomatic adaptation and functional contact, while identifying institutional complementarity and competing national mandates as alternative, untested trajectories. It concludes that transparent coordination, rather than envoy diplomacy alone, is the key policy issue for Ghana and ECOWAS.