ABSTRACT
This chapter lays out theoretical assumptions that explain how states choose their bilateral strategies in their promotion of regional integration in the EAC. States’ decision whether to support regionalism through their bilateral institutions, a non-profit company, or the Partnership Fund, are expected to be explained by foreign policy analysis approaches based on power, interests and norms/identity. These selected approaches are deduced from international relations theories of neorealism, neoliberal institutionalism, and constructivism, respectively. The chapter analyses in detail each of these theoretical perspectives and develops assumptions on why states chose specific bilateral strategies over others when engaging with the EAC outside the EU multilateral channel. At the end of the chapter, further details on the data analysis in the second part of the book are provided.
