Transfrontier Regionalism. The Revival of Regional Integration in Africa

Transfrontier Regionalism. The Revival of Regional Integration in Africa
Author: A.I. Asiwaju
Publisher: Institut français de recherche en Afrique
Total Pages: 106
Release: 1999
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

The views and perspectives adopted by A.I. Asiwaju and D. Bach appear sufficiently distinct, yet they converge on several key issues: i.e., the informal achievement of regionalization in Africa through kinship and other non-state networks; the resistance of Africans to boundaries inherited from the colonial period; and the consequences of the arbitrariness of these boundaries. Anyone who has ever crossed the Seme border between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic of Benin cannot but subscribe to the perceptions shared by the two authors. Whatever the purpose of the trip, travellers crossing the border share the experience of being in a lawless area: the occasional traveller who behaves suspiciously will immediately attract the attention of the immigration officer who begins to search through his papers scrupulously, looking for any error; on the other hand, the market woman, who knows the system, crosses with ease. The popularization of these border scenes by novels and video productions is significant evidence of the intensity of transborder movements in West Africa, and of the constraints as well as the resources offered by the borders. This dual reality of what appears as an obstacle to the implementation of institutionalized regional integration schemes and as the booster of an informal market-driven trade flow, is widely documented and discussed in the two papers.

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.

The Comfort of Strangers

The Comfort of Strangers
Author: Folajinmi Olabode Adisa
Publisher: Unchs (Habitat)
Total Pages: 118
Release: 1996
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

The Comfort of Strangers gives detailed information on the background to the Rwandan refugee problem and a vivid portrayal of the effects of the mass exodus of Rwandans into Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Zaire. The global community has, over the past eighty years, put in place an international refugee regime to regularize the status and provide for the control of stateless people ail over the world. Although host communities may initially open their doors to large numbers of people fleeing from their homelands, the long-term impact on the host countries is usually devastating and not often taken into account. This includes environmental dégradation, diminishing food security, dépréciation of the infrastructural base, pressure on the social and health sectors 3nd security risks. These Iead to sympathy fatigue and resentment. This book embodies an in-depth report made for UNCHS (Habitat) on the Rwandan refugee crisis and makes recommendations for its resolution, including compensation for host communites to enable them restore basic infrastructures and increase administrative capacity. Dr. Adisa also calls for a more efficient and humane treatment of the refugees and for their assisted resettlement.

The New Regionalism in Africa

The New Regionalism in Africa
Author: Fredrik Söderbaum
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2017-03-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1351885014

This edited volume transcends conventional state-centric and formalistic notions of regionalism and theorizes, conceptualizes and analyzes the complexities and contradictions of regionalization processes in contemporary Africa. The collection not only unpacks and theorizes the African state-society complex with regard to new regionalism, but also explicitly integrates the often neglected discourse of human security and human development. In so doing, the book moves the discussion of new regionalism forward at the same time as it adds important insights to security and development. It is organized into three parts. Part I theorizes, conceptualizes and analyzes the new regionalism in Africa from the point of view of the region (e.g. West, East, Central and Southern Africa). The national perspectives in Part II focus on the new regionalism in Africa from the point of view of particular countries or specific state-society complexes, such as Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the enclave of Cabinda, Angola and Zambia. Part III contains two concluding chapters that tie the main threads of the volume together, theoretically and empirically, and discuss the contribution of the analytical framework, the new regionalism approach (NRA) to the larger study of regionalism.

Trans-Border Studies

Trans-Border Studies
Author: Labo Abdulahi
Publisher: Institut français de recherche en Afrique
Total Pages: 59
Release: 2000
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9782015717

This report is a pilot study - a fuller picture will emerge after more data shall have been collected, analysed and explained. Borders are artificially constructed, geographic or astronomic lines that form the boundary of a nation. Within this delimited boundary, a nation exercises power and jurisdiction and carries out its activities. In accordance with the sovereignty of the State, the central government can curtail, restrict or totally ban the unauthorized movement of goods and people across such lines. Borderlands are defined as extending beyond the delimited border, covering an area that marks a nation's sphere of influence. Hanse (1981) describes it as 'the sub-national areas whose economic and social life is directly and significantly affected by proximity to an international boundary'. Contiguous countries have closely linked borderlands separated by an international boundary. The three operational terms used in the study are border, movement and trading. The last two are essential to our understanding of the processes that make a border - not an imaginary, artificial line that divides, but a link or a bridge spanning border areas of adjoining countries.

Afro-regions

Afro-regions
Author: Fredrik Söderbaum
Publisher: Nordic Africa Institute
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2008
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

This collection focuses on the making and unmaking of cross-border micro-regions in Africa. Its main emphasis is that micro-regions are not givens, but are constructed and reconstructed through social practice, political economy and by a variety of states, corporations and non-state actors. The region-builders are the focus—that is, those actors that build and make micro-regions and their associated region-building strategies. Key research questions are: for whom, for what purpose and with what consequences are micro-regions being made and unmade? There is also special emphasis on how people on the ground and local communities create their own region-building strategies and how they respond to the region-building strategies of others. The case studies—by leading scholars of African studies and the result of extensive fieldwork—include a wide selection of micro-regions all over Africa, such as the Maputo Development Corridor, the Zambezi Valley region, the Zambia-Malawi-Mozambique Growth Triangle, Walvis Bay, the Sierra Leone-Liberia border zone, cross-border micro-regions on the Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes region, North Africa, and more.

Regionalism in Africa

Regionalism in Africa
Author: Daniel C Bach
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2015-12-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317557212

Africa, which was not long ago discarded as a hopeless and irrelevant region, has become a new 'frontier' for global trade, investment and the conduct of international relations. This book surveys the socio-economic, intellectual and security related dimensions of African regionalisms since the turn of the 20th century. It argues that the continent deserves to be considered as a crucible for conceptualizing and contextualizing the ongoing influence of colonial policies, the emergence of specific integration and security cultures, the spread of cross-border regionalisation processes at the expense of region-building, the interplay between territory, space and trans-state networks, and the intrinsic ambivalence of global frontier narratives. This is emphasized through the identification of distinctive 'threads' of regionalism which, by focusing on genealogies, trajectories and ideals, transcend the binary divide between old and new regionalisms. In doing so, the book opens new perspectives not only on Africa in international relations, but also Africa’s own international relations. This text will be of key interest to students and scholars of African politics, African history, regionalism, comparative regionalism, and more broadly to international political economy, international relations and global and regional governance.

The National Conference as a Model for Democratic Transition : Benin and Nigeria

The National Conference as a Model for Democratic Transition : Benin and Nigeria
Author: Wuyi Omitoogun
Publisher:
Total Pages: 32
Release: 1996
Genre: Benin
ISBN:

The aim of this study is to examine critically the possibility of institutionalizing the national conference as a model for transition to democracy in Africa. There are basically two types of national conference: one with limited autonomy and the other with soveragrt powers. The Benin Republic instituted a national conference with sovereign powers which culminated in political democracy for the country; Nigeria opted for a national conference with limited autonomy. This analysis focuses primarily on the experiences of these two countries. Reference is, however, made to other countries where these models have been tried, to enrich our understanding of this method of democratization.

21st Century Cooperation

21st Century Cooperation
Author: Antoni Estevadeordal
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2017-05-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 135173556X

This edited volume explains the importance of regional public goods (RPGs) for sustainable development and shows why they are particularly important in the context of 21st-century international relations. By presenting a new and original data set and by presenting original essays by renowned scholars, this book lays the foundation for what will become an increasingly important focus for both economic development and international relations as well as for their intersection. The volume contains four parts. The first introduces the core issues and concepts that are explored throughout the book as well as a new and original data set on RPGs. The second part further develops specific concepts important for understanding 21st-century RPGs: regional leadership, alliances, networks, and outcomes. The third examines how cooperation takes place worldwide for a range of important RPGs. Finally, the fourth part discusses how public goods are produced in specific regions, stressing that each region has a distinct context and that these contexts overlap in a decentered "multiplex" manner. Global economic cooperation will be different in the 21st century, and this volume will be of interest to students and scholars of global governance, economic development, international political economy, sustainable development, and comparative regionalism.