RESEARCH SEMINAR: Constructing the East African Community. Diffusion from African and European Regional Organizations - Mariel Reiss

In her book Constructing the East African Community Mariel Reiss, UNU-CRIS Visiting Research Fellow, discusses the establishment and the ways in which the eastern African regional organization was inspired by a variety of organizations from Africa as well as Europe. At this research seminar taking place on Tuesday, 27 September 2022 at 11.00, Mariel Reiss will present the main findings of her new book as well as engage in a discussion with the audience, the event will be moderated by Frank Mattheis. 

The book provides a systematic analysis of the establishment and decision-making processes concerning the institutional design of the East African Community throughout the 1990s and discusses to what extent these were impacted and inspired by other regional organizations from Africa and Europe. Analysing the decision-making processes that led to the set-up of the EAC, the book explores the extent to which they were impacted by several other regional organizations, namely the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the European Union (EU), and the first EAC. The findings indicate that the relevant east African state and non-state actors adopted substantial aspects from the first EAC, the EU, and the COMESA and adapted them to set up the current EAC. 

This book demonstrates that the perception of other regional organizations and their institutional design considerably effected the construction of the EAC; here, its own past provided crucial learning objectives, which challenges the notion of mimicry or replica regional organizations of the EU in the Global South.

Mariel Reiss
Philipps University Marburg, Center for Conflict Studies
UNU-CRIS Visiting Research Fellow

Tuesday, 27 September 2022

11.00 - 12.30

Please register below before 23 September 2022 23.59 CET
 

Please click here to register.