Faced with armed conflicts within its borders, ECOWAS has chosen to work towards silencing the weapons. It has adopted a protocol on democracy and good governance, in addition to the protocol on the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security. The additional protocol was adopted with a view to promoting democracy in the West African sub-region. ECOWAS sees democracy as a means of peacefully organizing political power in order to prevent wars, since wars—notably the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone—were connected to the struggle for control of power. All in all, the peace and security gains achieved under the Additional Protocol are mixed. Thanks to regular electoral processes, some countries have been able to ward off the spectre of war. On the other hand, where electoral processes have been biased, war has continued to rage.