Region-Building in Southern Africa

Region-Building in Southern Africa
Author: Chris Saunders
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2013-07-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1780321813

How successful have Southern African states been in dealing with the major issues that have faced the region in recent years? What could be done to produce more cohesive and effective region-building in Southern Africa? In this original and wide-ranging volume, which draws on an interdisciplinary team of mainly African and African-based specialists, the key political, socio-economic, and security challenges facing Southern Africa today are addressed. These include the various issues confronting the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and its institutions; such as HIV/AIDS, migration and xenophobia, land-grabbing and climate change; and the role of the main external actors involved with the region, including the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, and China. The book also looks at the Southern African Customs Union and Southern African Development Finance Institutions, including the Development Bank of Southern Africa and Industrial Development Corporation, and issues of gender and peacebuilding. In doing so, the book goes to the heart of analyzing the effectiveness of SADC and other regional organisation, suggesting how region-building in Southern Africa may be compared with similar attempts elsewhere in Africa and other parts of the world.

Region-Building in Africa

Region-Building in Africa
Author: Daniel H. Levine
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2016-05-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1137586117

This landmark book is the first of its kind to assess the challenges of African region-building and regional integration across all five African sub-regions and more than five decades of experience, considering both political and economic aspects. Leading scholars and practitioners come together to analyze a range of entwined topics, including: the theoretical underpinnings that have informed Africa's regional integration trajectory; the political economy of integration, including the sources of different 'waves' of integration in pan-Africanism and the reaction to neo-liberal economic pressures; the complexities of integration in a context of weak states and the informal regionalization that often occurs in 'borderlands'; the increasing salience of Africa's relationships with rising extra-regional economic powers, including China and India; and comparative lessons from non-African regional blocs, including the EU, ASEAN, and the Southern Common Market. A core argument of this book, running through all chapters, is that region-building must be recognized as a political project as much as if not more than an economic one; successful region-building in Africa will need to include the complex political tasks of strengthening state capacity (including states' capacity as 'developmental states' that can actively engage in economic planning), resolving long-standing conflicts over resources and political dominance, improving democratic governance, and developing trans-national political structures that are legitimate and inclusive.

Region-building

Region-building
Author: Ludger Kühnhardt
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 507
Release: 2010-07-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1845458389

After two centuries of nation-building, the world has entered an era of region-building in search of political stability, cultural cohesion, and socio-economic development. Nations involved in the regional structures and integration schemes that are emerging in most regions of the world are deepening their ambitions, with Europe’s integration experience often used as an experimental template or theoretical model. Volume I provides a political-analytical framework for recognizing the central role of the European Union not only as a conceptual model but also a normative engine in the global proliferation of regional integration. It also gives a comprehensive treatment of the focus, motives, and objectives of non-European integration efforts. Volume II offers a unique collection of documents that give the best available overview of the legal and political evolution of region-building based on official documents and stated objectives of the relevant regional groupings across all continents. Together, these volumes are important contributions for understanding the evolution of global affairs in an age when power shifts provide new challenges and opportunities for transatlantic partners and the world community.

Community of Insecurity

Community of Insecurity
Author: Dr Laurie Nathan
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2013-04-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1409476677

Exploring the formation, evolution and effectiveness of the regional security arrangements of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Nathan examines a number of vital and troubling questions: ∗ why has SADC struggled to establish a viable security regime? ∗ why has it been unable to engage in successful peacemaking?, and ∗ why has it defied the optimistic prognosis in the early 1990s that it would build a security community in Southern Africa? He argues that the answers to these questions lie in the absence of common values among member states, the weakness of these states and their unwillingness to surrender sovereignty to the regional organization. Paradoxically, the challenge of building a co-operative security regime lies more at the national level than at the regional level. The author's perspective is based on a unique mix of insider access, analytical rigour and accessible theory.

Transnational Activities of Women-Focused Civil Society Actors in Southern Africa

Transnational Activities of Women-Focused Civil Society Actors in Southern Africa
Author: Cecilia Lwiindi Nedziwe
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2023-06-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3031295374

This book focuses on southern Africa by engaging with ‘norms’ from various perspectives and how they have proliferated within a neo-liberalising context since the 1990s. It particularly examines gender norms in relation to agency, influence and their impact. Despite growing transnational activities, regional studies analyses have so far maintained a primarily linear logic not incorporative of the increasing interface between state and non-state regionalism in a transnational context since the advent of liberalisation and democratisation. Increasing non-state activities, and their connection to state processes involved in norm creation, adaptation, diffusion and implementation around broad questions of security (including gender security), amount to regional thickening. The book’s analytical approach is informed by alternatives to mainstream approaches, emphasising processes rather than linearity inherent in regional international relations studies. The research reveals that transnational activities and regionalisation of gender and women-focused civil society actors are critical for advocacy and diverse representation within intergovernmental policymaking structures at the regional scale.

Politics and Pan-Africanism

Politics and Pan-Africanism
Author: Dawn Nagar
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2019-12-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1786726394

Offering an examination of the diplomatic and economic regional power structures in Africa and their relationships with each other, Dawn Nagar discusses the potential and future of pan-Africanism. The three primary regional economic communities (RECs) that are recognised by the African Union as the key building blocks of a united Africa are examined - these are the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). These RECS include Africa's major economies – Egypt, South Africa, and Kenya but are also home to Africa's most conflict prone and volatile states – the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi, South Sudan, Somalia and Lesotho. Providing a detailed overview of the current relationship between these power blocs, this book provides insight into the current state of diplomatic and economic relations within Africa and shows how far there is to go for a future of Pan-Africanism.

Developmental Regionalism and Economic Transformation in Southern Africa

Developmental Regionalism and Economic Transformation in Southern Africa
Author: Said Adejumobi
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2020-09-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1351053566

Interrogating the notion of developmental regionalism as applies to Southern Africa, this volume explores the policy options and interventions necessary to ensure a peaceful and stable regional development process. With a focus on the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the contributions explore how regional institutions such as this can be drivers of developmental regionalism. Institutional architecture, along with key policy priorities, and implementation strategies in areas such as trade, industry, agriculture, private sector development and conflict management are analysed, and the ramifications of regional interventions for peace building and regional security in post-conflict Southern African countries are explored. Drawing on this analysis the book proffers key policy options and strategies for how developmental regionalism can be both consummated and sustained, ultimately driving economic transformation. Illustrating to policymakers, scholars and development practitioners how regional institutions can be engines or facilitators of regional development, the book will be of interest to researchers in a broad range of areas including development studies, public policy and African studies.

Nigeria-South Africa Relations and Regional Hegemonic Competence

Nigeria-South Africa Relations and Regional Hegemonic Competence
Author: Oluwaseun Tella
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2018-11-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3030000818

This book examines the relations between Nigeria and South Africa and their implications for regional influence across the African continent. With the largest and third largest economies in the region and a historical status as the major peacemakers on the continent, it is often argued that Africa’s fate is directly linked to the success or failure of these regional powers. While there is widespread reference to each state’s capabilities and regional influence in the extant literature, little analysis is offered on relations between Nigeria and South Africa and their impact on regional governance and provision of public goods on the continent. This book attempts to fill the gap by engaging issues such as the hegemonic competence of the states, their credentials for a permanent seat at the UNSC, their efforts towards regional integration, and their efforts towards combating the dark side of globalization including climate change, drug trafficking and xenophobia. It also engages a gender perspective to these states’ relations as well as their experiences of transitional justice. Providing an in-depth comparative analysis of the two so called African powerhouses, this volume will be of interest to policy-makers, academics and students interested in Nigeria and South Africa’s foreign policy, regional powerhood, and the African peace, security, and development agenda.

Rethinking and Unthinking Development

Rethinking and Unthinking Development
Author: Busani Mpofu
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2019-03-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1789201772

Development has remained elusive in Africa. Through theoretical contributions and case studies focusing on Southern Africa’s former white settler states, South Africa and Zimbabwe, this volume responds to the current need to rethink (and unthink) development in the region. The authors explore how Africa can adapt Western development models suited to its political, economic, social and cultural circumstances, while rejecting development practices and discourses based on exploitative capitalist and colonial tendencies. Beyond the legacies of colonialism, the volume also explores other factors impacting development, including regional politics, corruption, poor policies on empowerment and indigenization, and socio-economic and cultural barriers.

Regional Integration in Africa

Regional Integration in Africa
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 203
Release: 2020-04-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004417818

In Regional Integration in Africa: What Role for South Africa, Henri Bah, Siphamandla Zondi and André Mbata Mangu reflect on African integration and the contribution of post-Apartheid South Africa. From their different scientific backgrounds, they demonstrate that despite some progress made under the African Union that superseded the Organisation of African Unity, Africa is still lagging behind in terms of regional integration and South Africa, which benefitted from the rest of the continent in her struggle against apartheid, has not as yet played a major role in this process. Apart from contributing to advancing knowledge, the book is a recommended read for all those interested in African regional integration and the relationships between Africa and post-Apartheid South Africa. Contributors are Henri Bah, André Mbata Mangu and Siphamandla Zondi. Foreword by Eddy Maloka.