A 30-year review of SADC's development into a security community : where is SADC falling short?

Abstract

2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and this occasion provides a good opportunity for conducting a review that focuses on how far the SADC region has come in its quest to develop into a security community. SADC, over the last 30 years, has emerged into and continues to develop into a regional security community that aims to have the capacity to successfully address regional security threats. Since its inception, although SADC has made some modest strides that have signalled and strengthened its development into a security community, its overall successes in this regard have been limited. The limited success that SADC has demonstrated has resulted from the shortfalls exhibited by the SADC Organ and regional agreements and policies. The challenges faced by SADC in developing into a regional security community have hindered the ability of the region to respond to security threats as can be seen in the case of Mozambique and Eswatini. Theoretical frameworks on security communities are applied in this study as a lens through which SADC, its successes, and the challenges it faces, are studied.