SADC: Towards a Security Community?

The Southern African sub-region has had a long history of conflict as well as efforts to create some sort of inter-state institutional arrangements designed to mitigate conflicts and enhance collaboration on a wide range of socio-political and economic dimensions. Although this road has been long and hard, indications thus far show a concerted effort to create a viable collaborative security arrangement. The vibrant discussions at the summit level, establishments of protocols as well as the Strategic Indicative Plan for the Organ and the draft Mutual Defence Pact are evidence of this. This paper concludes that the SADC region is indeed moving towards a security community.