SECURITY CO-OPERATION IN THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY: INSIGHTS FROM THE NEW INSTITUTIONALISM

Abstract

This article focuses on the institutional dimensions of security cooperation
as it manifests in the Southern African Development Community
(SADC). As the quotations above suggest, security co-operation, as part of a bigger
project of regional integration, is not obvious. Indeed, should southern Africans
believe their politicians when the latter claim that SADC is ‘forging ahead’ on the
road to formal integration? Slabbert is not convinced. Not only academics, but civil
society increasingly question its raison d’ etre. For many, it is unclear whether or
how SADC provides human security to the people of the region. Instead, SADC
members’ positions on the key regional challenges (trade, growth and development,
security and stability) are driven by national interest rather than regional interest – as
realists argue, national interests (a must-have) are hard and measurable; regional cooperation
(often a nice-to-have) is hard to measure. Or should we accept a regional
consciousness shaped by a shared historical experience – a problematic assumption?