As part of the "peace dividend" at the conclusion of the Cold War, Western nations largely withdrew their resources from African states that had previously participated as proxies. As a result, many of these African states collapsed, and a number of intractable civil wars ensued. In an attempt to manage and resolve these conflicts, the mandates of nascent African regional organizations shifted to include a focus on securitization; they claimed a mandate to militarily intervene in the internal affairs of failed or failing sovereign member states.