The strategic culture of foreign and security policymaking: examining the Southern African Development Community

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	The strategic culture of foreign and security policymaking: examining the Southern African Development Community
Author:	Van Nieuwkerk, Anthoni
Year:	2014
Periodical:	African security (ISSN 1939-2214)
Volume:	7
Issue:	1
Pages:	45-69
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Southern Africa
Subjects:	SADC regional security foreign policy
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19392206.2014.880031
Abstract:	This article explores the effects of strategic culture on the parameters of the decisionmaking elite in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). By examining the contemporary southern African foreign and security decisionmaking track record, it also addresses the question of convergence. The article examines the theoretical and conceptual state of research relating to strategic culture and adopts a constructivist understanding of the concept. Before applying it to the SADC case, it examines the context of African decisionmaking by highlighting a range of issues that act to constrain choices, and it explains the SADC decisionmaking structures and examines the state of research relating to SADC members' foreign policy and national security policy behaviour. The article finds that despite signs of extensive convergence, in reality, SADC exercises partial convergence, frequent but mostly unsystematic interaction characterized by partially compatible interests. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]