ABSTRACT
Regionalism embraces two movements: transnational relations across a region; and cooperative forms of policy-coordination and integration by nation-states. This chapter addresses the varied forms and changing nature of decision-making within the Southern African Development Community (SADC). It does so by looking at the environmental context of inter-state foreign policy decision-making, its structure and political culture. Comment is then made about the quantity and quality of decisions informing a greater regionalism in Southern Africa at the beginning of the millennium. The SADC as a regional organisation evolved out of the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC). The SADC is a traditional inter-governmental organisation. Its character is defined by the nature of its membership and reasons for existence. The origin of a regional definition of security lies in the constitution of the Front Line grouping of states to coordinate a policy response to an apartheid South Africa 1979-1992.
