Constructing Politico-Security Regionalism in Southern Africa: The Case of SADC

Abstract

This paper analyzes the mechanisms of politico-security regionalism in SADC with a special focus on the SADC Organ and the emergence of the SADC Mutual Defense Pact in 2003. The primary aim of this paper is not only to investigate the regional organizations methods of how to approach regional security issues, but also to question whether and to what extent SADC provides a regional response to security challenges. In doing so, emphasizing the utility of constructivism, this paper argues that SADC attempts to construct the politico-security regionalism which is made and remade by the regional member states in the post-Cold War era.