A Security Complex In Transformation: The Case Of Southern African Development Community (Sadc) As A Nascent Security Community

Abstract  

The key argument of this thesis is that the southern African region is historically a security complex that is undergoing meaningful transformation however, towards a security community. The study harnesses a social constructivist perspective to draw on the works of the Copenhagen School of International Relations on regional security complexes. Applying the regional security complex theory with poststructuralist categories, the study shows that the region has historically been characterised by conflict-generating relations between its key political actors (the Frontline States and the South African-led white minority regimes), which it largely attributes to the bankruptcy of the orthodox power-dilemma approaches to International Relations.  The study further argues that in the post-Cold War, post-Apartheid era, the regional security dynamics have changed from interstate to intrastate, and that this, together with the historical development of Southern African Development Community as a hegemonic intervention, suggest the region is undergoing fundamental and positive transformation. The study applies Adler and Barnett's security community framework to argue that this transformation places the region on track towards a security community, where there may be dependable expectations for peaceful change. However, still short of being a mature security community, SADC needs to guide its Member States through the outstanding issues in their democratic transitions towards its consolidation. The nature of this regionalisation, however, is a negotiated process which cannot be fast-tracked without penalties on regional integrity.