Leadership and construction of the African Economic Community (AEC)

Abstract

After the unsuccessful implementation of various exogenous and endogenous development programs, African leaders decided on June 3, 1991 to establish the African Economic Community (AEC) through the Abuja Treaty. This document defines a set of steps to be carried out before leading to the effective establishment of AEC by 2034. In order to catalyze the process of building the AEC, some states with the relevant material capabilities do not hesitate to deploy as pivotal state on the continental scene. Others, on the other hand, see the regional bloc as the space best suited to play the prestigious role of structural power. Therefore, this thesis tends to highlight the decisive contribution of leadership in the process building of AEC. Based on empirical evidence obtained through qualitative data collection processes, evaluative analysis, a sub-variant of content analysis, allows the study to be subdivided into two parts, each with two titles. On the one hand, it is about exploring the different conceptual aspects of leadership without forgetting the evolution process of the AEC. It is also a question of reviewing all the initiatives concerning structuring regionalism carried out by major actors at the continental level and in the regional blocs. On the other hand, this work examines the various obstacles to the assertion of leadership in African community building. We draw a parallel between these obstacles and the relative evolution of the progressive path towards the AEC. From a prospective perspective, the thesis proposes some measures likely to facilitate the reconfiguration of the operating methods of leadership in African regionalism. Furthermore, the study presents complementary pathways capable of supplementing the action of benevolent hegemony. In order to build credible epistemological knowledge, structural realism, the Pan-Africanist current and the managerial grid constitute the main theoretical postulates which guide the debates in progress i