%0 Journal Article
%T SECURITY CO-OPERATION IN THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY: INSIGHTS FROM THE NEW INSTITUTIONALISM
%A Anthoni Van Nieuwkerk
%J Scientia Militaria : South African Journal of Military Studies
%D 2011
%I Stellenbosch University
%R 10.5787/34-2-21
%X 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 ¨C 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 ¨C a problematic assumption?
%U http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/21