Africa’s RECS—Promise and Peril, Pandemic Slips and Possible Futures

This chapter reflects on the salient elements discussed throughout the book. It includes key take-aways and chief highlights of each REC. The 1st chapter outlines major reasons for undertaking the project and the structure of subsequent chapters. The conceptual frameworks address current IR theories and their assumptions, challenging the idea of understanding Africa's regionalism and RECs through major foreign policy theories, e.g., neoliberal institutionalism, complex interdependence and decentralized cooperation theory. Then, a rival explanation is proposed, based on Kuhnian paradigm shift: that communitarian, African societal traditions, are a more useful explanan of regional integration and REC formation. The next chapters trace the development of regional (and continental) cooperation through RECs in the context of the 1981 Abuja Accord and the ‘pillars’ of African Economic Community (AEC). Whether Africa's RECs are norm entrepreneurs and influence the behavior of member states is contemplated, and if RECs do enhance regional integration and increase trade, given that most African nations have (mostly) predominantly agrarian economies. REC membership and frequency are interrogated for correlations with, and impact on governance, conflict reduction and pacific behavior, and fostering socio-economic development, finding that while these may not be the most important REC contributions, RECs have achieved other noteworthy outcomes.