The failure of the SADC organ : regional security arrangements in southern Africa, 1992-2003

Abstract

In the decade following SADC's formation, ... the region remained wracked by violent conflicts, which included the long-running civil war in Angola, a rebellion and full-blown war with state belligerents in the Democratic Republic of Congo and state repression and violence in Zimbabwe. In these circumstances SADC had a woeful record of peacemaking and was distinguished chiefly by its fractious internal quarrels. The major disagreements were around the orientation and strategies of peacemaking and regional security. The formation of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation, a common security regime, was bedevilled by acrimonious disputes among member states over a ten-year period. ... The process of drafting SADC's Mutual Defence Pact was similarly protracted and tortuous.