REGIONALISATION IN AFRICA
Integration and disintegration
Daniel C Bach (ed)

SMALL ARMS SURVEY 2001
Profiling the problem
A Project of the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva

ZIMBABWE'S PLUNGE
Exhausted nationalism, neoliberalism and the search for social justice
Patrick Bond and Masimba Manyanya

REGIONALISATION IN AFRICA
Integration and disintegration
daniel c Bach (ed)
James Currey Ltd., Oxford, 1999

While this is not a new book, Regionalisation in Africa: Integration and disintegration offers a challenging hypothesis on regional integration in Africa, that is well worth revisiting during the current design of the African Union (AU), NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) and CSSDCA (Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Co-operation in Africa) initiatives.

The book is an edited compilation of 19 papers of varying length and each by a different author, divided into four sections: Regionalism and globalisation in sub-Saharan Africa; States and territories; Regional organisations; and Networks.

The opening premise is that Africa is largely overlooked in the literature on regionalisation. It is widely thought that regional integration efforts have failed in Africa, and that the continent remains fragmented. This book fills the gap by offering an alternative view of African integration, and goes further, by challenging the concept of regionalisation itself.

Bach argues that Africa is experiencing rapid integration like other regions of the world, but it is integration of a different kind:

One that is dependent on the persistence of significant fiscal, tariff and monetary disparities on each side of the borders … far from being an incentive to the disappearance of existing boundary-lines, trans-state regionalisation [in Africa] contributes to their preservation (p 10).

Elsewhere he elaborates:

The continentalisation of trade and financial flows is happening, but as a paradoxical outcome of the preservation of market segmentation and inter-state disparities. Trans-state integration is stimulated by market distortions as opposed to trade liberalisation, a situation which accounts for the failure of the inter-governmental organisations towards market integration (p 12).

This does not bode well for the AU’s ambitious plans for a regional common market. As Walter Kennes advises:

It is important that the agenda for the new wave of regional integration should be realistic. Great care should be taken that the objectives set can actually be attained and can produce visible results (p 39).

Christopher Clapham’s chapter on ‘Boundaries and states in the new African order’ explains the paradox of why Africa’s ‘artificial’ state boundaries are so intractable when the states themselves are weak or collapsing:

African state boundaries were so rigidly maintained because—rather than in spite—of their artificiality. These boundaries defined and legitimated the particular kind of power structure which grew up in post-colonial African states, and provided the framework for the politics of patronage … (p 55).

Bruno Stary illustrates this point with West African case studies. He cites the breakdown of the Senegambian confederation as one such example:

... since their revenues were built upon the disparities between the two countries, they did not want to see them disappear once fiscal and customs tariffs were harmonised (p 177).

Roland Pourtier observes “that borders attract markets is not new … the novelty resides in the magnitude of the phenomenon” (p 135). Walter Kennes points out that the methodology for measuring regional integration by looking at levels of inter-state trade is problematic in Africa, where the volume of unrecorded trade is estimated to exceed official, recorded trade (p 29).

Janet MacGaffrey and Remy Bazenguissa-Ganga provide two case studies of cross-border trade networks in West and Central Africa. These informative contributions address the problem that little is known about informal trade networks. They identify subregional differences in trade networks in Africa. For example, West African networks are more highly structured than Central African trade, which operate at the level of individuals using family and kinship ties.

Contrary to the assumption that strong states are needed to uphold business contracts, is their point that, “confidence between business partners bound by religious or kinship ties holds a guarantee more powerful than anything modern legislation can offer” (p 181). They conclude that “understanding how unofficial trade works may be useful in constructing new policies on local integration in an effort to counter the marginalisation of the continent in international trade” (p 179).
Although this book contains several chapters of excellent quality and insight, it does not sustain this high standard throughout. Bach’s strong opening chapter sets one up for disappointment as other authors are allowed to wander off the point in the middle and leave the reader hanging in mid-air at the end. This is less the fault of individual contributors as the result of sloppy editing and poor selection.

Chapters 6–10 do not add to the central point, but rather cloud the study of regional integration by focusing too specifically on the national politics of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Nigeria and South Africa, and on overly theoretical discussions of democracy and civil society, which are not specific enough. The final chapter on the production and distribution of illicit drugs gives too much detail on the criminal aspects of this issue, instead of filling in more on informal or illicit trade networks in Africa. If it belongs in this volume at all, it does not belong at the end.

The book needs a strong concluding chapter by Bach himself, drawing the threads together and taking his hypothesis further. The closest it comes to a conclusion appears in chapter 13, Roland Pourtier’s point that:

Such a pattern of integration raises the problem … there is a school of thought that is inclined to see in the informalisation of the economy and society a panacea for the Africa crisis— a model that would replace failed states with something that works. This line of reasoning is somewhat precipitate: the informal is at best a last resort, a response to circumstances in the face of state deficiencies … its proliferation may further weaken the states … ex-Zaire provides an example of an informalisation so profound that the state has dissolved in it. This is certainly not the example to follow … Merchant networks do not function without the complicity of public sector actors. Nor do they have the capacity to take the place of the state in … infrastructural development or socio-educative programmes … it would be wiser to rediscover the ways of the state … (p 136).

Clearly, informal integration is no substitute for formal regional integration. To the contrary, the public sector rent-seeking and clientalism which accompanies informal or illicit cross-border trade, lines the pockets of political elites while blocking the trade liberalisation and formal integration which could benefit the societies and economies of Africa as a whole. Regionalisation in Africa: Integration and disintegration provides thought-provoking impetus for change.

Kathryn Sturman
Institute for Security Studies (ISS)

SMALL ARMS SURVEY 2001
Profiling the problem
A Project of the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva
Oxford University Press, 2001

After 40 years of global Cold War, small arms trafficking, the disintegration of superpower control flooded a changing market. The rapid globalisation of the 1990s connected buyers and suppliers with unprecedented ease, setting the stage for conflicts in which the lines between political, religious and criminal violence are consistently distorted. It is only recently that the proliferation of small arms has emerged as an independent issue on the global disarmament agenda, edging out a long-standing preoccupation with conventional arms and weapons of mass destruction. Because small arms and light weapons are much more difficult to trace, and because the stakeholders in modern conflict are often non-state actors, the international effort to curb small arms proliferation is working with at best imperfect knowledge. Accounts of regional disarmament programmes’ successes and failures, statistics (particularly in developing countries) and basic information concerning the production, transfer, stockpiling and use of small arms and light weapons around the world are sparse.

The ongoing Geneva-based Small Arms Survey project has the potential to broaden the general knowledge base and connect researchers and activists around the globe for a more efficient approach to the problem. The 2001 Survey—the project’s first visible product—compiles much of the existing information in the small arms debate and focuses on framing the issues. This approach has strengths as well as pitfalls: while juxtaposing every facet of the debate clarifies the issues, very little new information comes to light.

The Survey goes about ‘profiling the problem’ by dividing it up into broad sections: production, stockpiles, brokers, legal and illicit transfers, effects of small arms on human security and a brief look at multilateral measures and initiatives.

Chapter 1 concentrates on production; identifying countries that produce small arms, light weapons and associated ammunition. Although this chapter provides useful background information on the profile of companies and countries currently involved in small arms and light weapons production, there is an over-reliance on one or two sources of data. Further, it lacks the most interesting piece of information it could have produced: an estimate of the global value of annual production. Production statistics exclude major producers such as China and Russia, shying away from even an estimate of how these countries contribute to global supply.

Chapter 2 estimates global stockpiles of small arms and light weapons and re-examines current assumptions. It is not military, police or insurgent weapons that constitute major weapons stockpiles, but legal private weapons. It would have been useful to provide a picture of the dynamic link between legal and illegal arms, and to examine the success of programmes that disrupt circulation of existing stocks through destruction.

Chapter 3 explores the role of brokers, dealers, transport agents and their associated networks in arms movements. The globalisation theme comes into play, with rapid market liberalisation and decreased border control, giving distribution networks more freedom to move. Typically, there are many questions left unanswered. The demand side is largely ignored throughout the survey. What primary factors keep the dealers in business? How do legal arms transfers end up with unauthorised end-users? These questions continue to go unanswered in chapters 4 and 5, legal and illicit transfers.

Despite its stated wish to be an “independent transparency mechanism that serves many audiences”, some bias inevitably comes through in the way information is presented. Chapter 6, titled ‘After the smoke clears: Assessing the effects of small arms availability’, contains a discussion of the ‘accessibility thesis’, which claims that the availability of guns is a risk factor for armed violence.

The pro-gun lobby’s argument that ‘it is not the weapons, but the people who do the killing’ is presented as a segue to research findings that show “overwhelming evidence that various types of violent crime are positively associated with gun ownership rates and availability”. The ‘impartial information’ regarding the effects of small arms on human security and development will be useful mostly to organisations and governments working from a gun-control perspective.

One of the project’s goals is to “serve as the nexus for an international network of researchers, research institutes, and NGOs working on small arms issues”. It seems that the gun lobby, which does complete quite a bit of its own research each year, will not be included in this group.

Rather than a grand bird’s eye view of the global situation, the book ends with a cut and dried look at international, national, regional and sub-regional efforts to curb proliferation. Future editions could include a more in-depth view of why these measures are succeeding or failing, and what could be done to avoid repeating failures. The 2001 Survey makes few new or groundbreaking conclusions. In general, the descriptive slant to the writing belies the lack of quantitative information available, a situation that, hopefully, the project is working to change. The authors acknowledge the shortcomings of the first edition, pointing out that it raises as many questions as it addresses. As a baseline for future expansion on targeted issues, however, it is a success.

Taya Weiss and Thokozani Thusi
ISS Arms Management Programme

ZIMBABWE'S PLUNGE
Exhausted nationalism, neoliberalism and the search for social justice
Patrick Bond and Masimba Manyanya
University of Natal Press, 2002

The crisis in which Zimbabwe is caught up has manifested itself in many ways and at many levels. Its economic, social and political dimensions are so evident as not to require elucidation, although it may well be that the crisis has not fully unraveled. Yet the underlying history of the crisis is rarely articulated. Recent initiatives to do this have largely been partisan, and frequently dishonest.

The majority of economic analysts are agreed that, in the absence of a dramatic change of economic policies, the crisis is likely to continue beyond this decade. Zimbabwe’s Plunge attempts to draw a link between the contemporary turbulence and Zimbabwe’s evolving economic history. It maps out the external and internal constraints that have been influential in getting the country into the current predicament. In particular, the book analyses the role played by key personalities and institutions, in partnership with the ruling ZANU(PF) and independently of it. Bond and Manyanya highlight the disparity between the radical rhetoric which always characterises responses to economic downturn and actual official action. Perhaps no single episode illustrates this more than the decision to adopt the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) in 1991.

Predictably, the implementation of ESAP carried a political and social price, whose magnitude eventually precipitated an ideological confusion of monumental proportions for ZANU(PF), and triggered a chain of events leading to the knee jerk reaction of farm invasions. Arguments rage as to the cause of the failure of the Zimbabwean variant of ESAP. At one end is a school of thought which holds that given the emerging forces unleashed by economic globalisation, ESAP had no hope of succeeding in the time envisaged. At the other, there are proponents of the view that Zimbabwe failed because of a commitment deficit on the part of government, in complying with prescriptions and manageable targets. The authors examine in some detail the validity of these arguments. They go beyond the ESAP debate, to attempt regime comparisons in macro-economic management, between the sanctions-besieged UDI economy and the current ESAP-intoxicated one. While there are remarkable similarities in terms of strategic positions, there is a glaring difference in outcome.
As Bond and Manyanya point out, the UDI economy grew at nearly double digit rates each year for a decade. The authors seek to provide answers to the paradox, and to use lessons drawn from the comparison to formulate suggestions for positive change to the structuring of the economy in Zimbabwe.

Written in a style which is relatively easy to follow for a book on economics, Zimbabwe’s Plunge consists of five chapters. After a brief history of pre-independence political economy, the book explores the constraints to equitable growth that existed at independence. The authors consider three levels of constraints, at the economic level, the political level, and as imposed by the pressures of globalisation. None of these constraints has remained static, so it was imperative for the authors to trace the evolution of each, which they seem to have done fairly accurately.

Chapter 5 is devoted to a postulation and discussions of possible ways of getting around the identified constraints. At the same time, commentary on the views of the authors regarding some of government’s responses to the deepening crisis is provided, for example in respect of the controversial currency pegging, which has been in place since 1999.

Charles Goredema
ISS