The Southern African Development Community

Description

This book explores regionalism in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and highlights the influence of the European Union (EU) as an extra-regional actor on the organization and integration process. The analysis is guided by theory and explains the emergence, institutional design and performance of SADC's major integration projects in the issue areas of the economy, security and infrastructure. It provides in this way a profound assessment of the organization as a whole. The study shows that South Africa plays a regional key role as driver for integration while external influence of the EU is ambivalent in character because it unfolds a supportive or obstructive impact. The author argues that the EU gains influence over regional integration processes in the SADC on the basis of patterns of asymmetric interdependence and becomes a "game-changer" insofar as it facilitates or impedes solutions to regional cooperation problems. 1. Introduction: Research Interest and Research Questions2. Theoretical Approach: The Situation Structural Model as an Analytical Tool to Explain Regionalism3. The Southern African Development Community (SADC): An analytical Overview of its History, Policies and Institutional Framework4. The Protocol on Trade and the Creation of the SADC Free Trade Area5. Exogenous Interference: The European Union's Economic Partnership Agreements and the stalled SADC Customs Union6. Regional Security Cooperation and SADC's Organ for Politics, Defence and Security: A Picture of mixed Performance7. The SADC Standby Force and its Regional Peacekeeping Training Centre: Uncertain Operational Readiness and Future of an externally fuelled Brigade 8. The Southern African Power Pool: An Electrifying Project with untapped Potential9. Conclusion