SADCC and the Future of Southern African Regionalism

Since the 1960s, Southern Africa’s regional alliance patterns have been primarily determined by South Africa’s military and economic dominance of the region. Not surprisingly, divisive and conflict-ridden relations between South Africa and the less powerful majority-ruled states characterized interstate relations in the region throughout this period. In the 1970s, the latter’s collective and individual opposition to an apartheid-dominated regional order gave rise to two competing regional blocs: the South African-led Pax Pretoriana and the Frontline States (FLS) informal diplomatic alliance, which became the nucleus of the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC).