Towards a new southern Africa: The challenge of regional economic co‐operation and integration

Abstract

This paper focuses upon an evaluation of the principal factors determining the nature and evolution of Southern African regionalism in the twenty‐first century. It is argued that regional integration will be determined by the interplay of circumstances that are both global and regional in character; multilateral liberalism and intense regional inequalities. A central contention underpinning this paper is that there is a fundamental conflict between these global and regional pressures. Translating the widespread desire for some form of regional integration into an effectively functioning institutional reality is, therefore, going to be a slow, and potentially acrimonious, process. This assertion is discussed further through an analysis of the arguments surrounding the Southern African Customs Union renegotiation process.