The Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the European Union (EU)

This book explores regionalism in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and highlights the exertion of influence by the European Union (EU) as an extra-regional actor on the organization and integration process. The SADC, an ambitious organization that promotes cooperation in a number of different policy areas, is a case study on how successful regionalism can serve as a strategy for political security and economic prosperity, similar to the successful example of the European integration process. Muntschick's 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 as well as obstructive impact on regionalism in SADC. 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 either facilitates or impedes solutions to regional cooperation problems.

Johannes Muntschick is Lecturer and Post-doc Research Fellow in the Department of International Relations at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany, and Research Associate at the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence EU in Global Dialogue (CEDI).