Synopsis ofCommunity of insecurity: SADC's struggle for peace and security in southern Africa

Abstract

This article presents a synopsis of Community of insecurity: SADC's struggle for peace and security in southern Africa, published by Ashgate in 2012. It focuses on SADC's efforts to establish a common security regime; conflict and peacemaking in southern Africa between 1992 and 2011; and the prospects of SADC becoming a security community. It summarises the reasons for SADC's difficulties in the sphere of regional security and politics, namely the weakness of member states, their unwillingness to surrender sovereignty to communal mechanisms, and the absence of common values among them. The main conclusion is that these problems lie primarily at the national level and cannot be solved at the regional level. SADC is a forum of states and it cannot do anything that these states will not permit it to do.

Leverage and linkage: how regionalism shapes regime dynamics in Africa

“…In 2000, Robert Mugabe's government, which had ruled the country since independence in 1980, lost a referendum on changes to the constitution. Such changes would have allowed Mugabe to prolong his term of office, grant members of the state apparatus immunity from prosecution for offences committed during their terms in office, and enable compulsory land acquisition by the state (Nathan 2012). Mugabe's decision to nevertheless advance land reform led to violent seizure of farms and mounting conflict with Britain and other Western countries, and emboldened the previously marginalised political opposition.…”

“…As mechanisms for the implementation or enforcement of these principles are lacking, the principles have to be seen as political commitments and not as binding rules. Still, in contrast to ECOWAS, SADC was established with the explicit objective of building common political values, systems, and institutions (Gandois 2009;Nathan 2012;Oosthuizen 2006; Van der Vleuten and Hulse 2014).…”

Governance Transfer by Regional Organizations

“…Additionally, non-state actors within the region (churches, opposition parties, social movements, trade unions, women's organizations) with a similar background of opposition to institutionalized injustice push for domestic reforms through the regional level. Conversely, the region's Liberation legacy often also hinders the promotion of governance principles, as the experience of colonialism, civil war, and Apartheid has led states to place a high value on the principle of non-interference in each other's domestic affairs (Nathan 2012).…”

African agency? Africa, South Africa and the BRICS

“…And finally, albeit controversially, if we go beyond the 'formal and legal' to 'gangs and guns', we can discover novel forms of African agency particularly in de facto regional conflict zones like the Great Lakes, the Horn of Africa and the Sahel and in the energy and minerals sectors (Besada, 2010;Bagayoko, 2012;Klare, 2012;Nathan, 2012). The most notable form of such agency in response to global drugs supply chains moving to West Africa is the preemptive WACD (www.wacommissionondrugs.org) supported by the Kofi Annan Foundation.…”