The Lomé Convention from Inception to the Dynamics of the Post-Cold War, 1957-1990s

Abstract

From the early 1960s through the late 1980s, Lomé Convention, the chief achievement of Euro-African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries' entente, has been an interdependent form of partnership that has offered ACP states a privileged position in the European Economic Commission's Market. Although considered a cornerstone and model for Europe's North-South economic cooperation, changes that occurred in the aftermath of the Cold War had drastic effects on the nature of this historic partnership. In the period between 1989 and 1995, profound changes occurred in international relations following the end of the Cold War, followed by the subsequent liberalization of East European states' economies, the creation of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, and the restructuring of Europe's internal as well as external policies, in part, affected the ACP's privileged position in the European Union. The concept of Cold War context used in this article will be narrower (economic implications) rather than that commonly employed in the study of superpower rivalry. The framework employed throughout the paper is a conceptual and critical survey of the Lomé Convention's history, from its inception to the changing dynamics of the post Cold-War world. The paper critically examines the divergence of interpretations of the relevance and obsolescence of the Convention in the post-Cold War context. "The World is changing. It has changed for the ACP States; it will change for the Community; it is changing all around us."