Interrogating the Relevance of the ECOWAS in Global Political Economy (original) (raw)
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The international system is in a period of state expansion, or at least attempted expansion. More entities are trying to assert their independence now than at any time since the decolonization era of the 1950s and 1960s. In the process the state is being battered as both a concept and a legitimate reservoir of popular allegiance. The supposed benefits of national sovereignty are being challenged in a variety of ways throughout the world. States, in their traditional sense, are becoming both smaller and larger, and both less and more than was expected of them during the first half of the twentieth century. New organizations — regional associations both within and among traditional states, economic associations, social, ethnic and religious communities, affiliations based on interests or purpose rather than geographic propinquity — are all challenging the traditional role and sovereignty of the state in international politics. This article attempts to shed some light on what is happen...
A regional integration by its very nature integrates its members into an economic union and acts as a bloc on matters affecting its members vis-a-vis other regional blocs and non members. Its hegemonic nature of hedging its members against all forms of exploitation and intimidation by other regional blocs and non-members and its desire to stem the tide of trade diversion, and to create and foster intra-union flow of trade, factors and investment at the exclusion of non-members and other regional blocs run contradictory to the aims and objectives of the globalization process which is the integration of the world economy through the breaking down of trade and investment barriers worldwide. Given these contradictory objectives of the regional blocs and the globalization process, this study examines the roles of the ECOWAS as an agent in the globalization process in the West African sub-region, its constraints, and solutions to the problems.
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The New 21st Century World Order
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