Author: James D. Sidaway.

Although mindful of the context of debates about a global tendency towards the formation of regional communities [of which the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), and the European Union (EU) are examples] the author focuses on the nature of regional integration in Southern Africa. In turn, however, the example of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is used to reflect on a number of broader theoretical issues concerning discourses and processes of regional integration. The author notes how, in the early 1980s, the forerunner to the SADC was born (in part) out of a struggle against the apartheid regime in South Africa. Today, the organisation includes the 'new' (postapartheid) South Africa and has accordingly shifted its avowed rationale away from an alliance against apartheid towards a scheme for regional integration, 'development', and reconstruction. Moving beyond these claims and drawing on interviews, journalistic sources, and official documentation the author seeks to understand the SADC's role as a diplomatic entity&emdash;and as operating within the same logics of power as the postcolonial African state.