Theorizing Regional Integration Among Southern African States And Their Relations With The European Union

The central argument of this dissertation is that the regional integration among Southern African states is in a continuous constitution and re-constitution process. In these processes of constitution and re-constitution, the European Union (EU) has three effects on the integration aspirations of Southern African states: neutral, integrating and disintegrating. First, by critiquing the compartmentalized, epistemological pluralism of regional integration studies and looking at historical accounts and aspirations of Southern African states, this dissertation argues for re-conceptualization of integration as emancipation. In the Southern African context and this new conceptualization of "regional integration as emancipation," the EU has a neutral effect in regional integration aspirations of Southern African states. Second, this dissertation argues for recognition of "norms of solidarity" as dominant picture of foreign policy making among Southern African states. "Norms of solidarity" portray a combination of ideational and material factors that define the value and identity of African-ness in the foreign policy making of Southern African states. At the moment, the degenerative state of feelings of African-ness or "norms of solidarity," and fear of loss of access to European markets, have overshadowed ideational concerns in contemporary Southern African negotiations with the EU. Furthermore, the EU's push for liberalized trade arrangements in its relations with Southern African states has shifted or minimized Southern African states' ambitions for emancipatory regional integration. In other words, contemporary EU - Southern African states relations has resulted in making ideational concerns - that of the past in foreign policy making of Southern African states. Third, in the constitution of regional integration, the EU had integrating effect. European colonial and racial domination was the central driving force for Africa's integration. By using historically sensitive methodologies, this dissertation deconstructs Eurocentric conceptions and engages in construction of Africanist conceptualizations of regional integration. In conclusion, this dissertation is an attempt at theorizing regional integration through historically sensitive methodologies and from Southern African perspectives