دانلود کتاب فراتر از کشورهای عضو – پویایی سیاسی و حقوقی ایجاد فراملی گرایی قاره ای در آفریقا

Africa is currently experiencing one of the most consequential phases of its integrative development. Since 2015, there have been increasing activities around the development of policies and practices around enhancing the African Union (AU) with more assertive powers to coordinate and make binding rules regarding the regional integration process. In other words, these processes aim to cloth the AU with supranational powers, like those exercised by the European Union (EU), which, despite its internal problems, remains the most successful experimentation of supranationalism in the world. This has included efforts such as the decision to finance the AU through an 0.2% tax levy on eligible imports into member states, the decision to reduce the number of AU Commission portfolios from eight to six, the adoption and entry into force (on the 30th of May 2019) of the much touted Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the adoption of the Protocol to the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community Relating to Free Movement of Persons, Right to Residence and Right of Establishment, and the adoption of the AU Agenda 2063 policy framework in 2015. How these processes will change the direction of regional integration in Africa is dependent on the existence of quality endowed and driven institutions. These developments are consequential for several symbolic and practical reasons. Firstly, is that they represent the translation of decades of expressions on the need for stronger regionalism. This is not to say that there have not been other momentous occasions in the history of regionalism but the adoptions of instruments on continental free trade area (and the speed in which it was adopted and eventually ratified by member states) and free movement of persons exhibit some level of traction that has rarely been witnessed before now. Secondly, the fact that moves towards enhanced regionalism in Africa is happening amidst turbulent global dynamics (Brexit, the rise of fascist political parties and elements in Europe and the U.S., and the U.S.—China trade dispute) posit some form of resilience, which if properly managed could prove beneficial. Thirdly, these developments have serious implications for Africa’s global positioning, particularly in the context of the rapidly increasing interest (or what some call the new scramble for Africa) of traditional and emerging powers in Africa’s geo-strategic advantage. Lastly, these developments speak directly to the possibility of endowing the AU with the much-needed binding and assertive powers to compel member states to act according to organisational norms. The importance of the AU in the matrix of achieving effective continental supranationalism in Africa cannot be overstated. The AU is the largest regional organisation in the world, composed of all the 55 countries on the continent. Despite its many shortcomings, it has come to symbolise the institutionalisation of the vision of an integrated continent through its organs and normative documents. As Edozie puts it, the AU has become a vehicle through which Africans are marking their own impact on globalization as they forge a trans-cultural social network of African values, identities and cultures embodies in the symbol of pan-Africa for Africans and African descendants. Similarly, Tieku highlighted seven areas that have defined the importance and success of the AU thus far. These are: the enhancement of African agency on the world stage; the steady socialisation of the African political class to accept liberal values and norms as the basis for interstate cooperation; the changed attitudes of many governments in Africa from a culture of indifference to a new culture of caring about the African peace and security as a whole; the creation of low-cost, agile, and innovative international decision-making bodies in wide range of issues/areas; success in making international laws that have shaped national legislation and policies; developing wide ranging and effective normative standards in a relatively short period of its existence; and the fact that it has made significant inroads in the areas of nudging African governments to behave appropriately. Also, Wiebusch et al. noted that AU’s adoption of more than 40 treaties in less than two decades of its existence (2000–2018) “reflects a greater institutionalization of continental governance mechanism through law. It also suggests a level of confidence within the AU system in the ability of law to engineer social change”.