Paper Titles & Abstracts

Common identities are a source of legitimacy and power for political actors. This is the case for nation states, but also regional organizations. Much has been written on the EU and the emergence of a 'European' identity, but there is little research on whether regional organizations in other parts of the world engage in the deliberative construction and intra-regional diffusion of common identities. This paper seeks to explore how and why the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) attempt to construct particular notions of a common 'Southern African' or 'West African' identity. The persuasion model of transnational identity formation perceives of (regional) institutions as 'active agents of change', which make deliberate efforts to build social identification through the creation of symbols of collective identity (Herrmann and Brewer, 2004). Constructing common regional identities can serve two purposes: 1) it reduces the potential for intra-regional conflict situated around issues of citizenship and (national) identity, and 2) it enhances the legitimacy and importance of the regional organization itself. Findings suggest that ECOWAS invests more in transnational identity formation due to the region's history of identity-based conflict. The ability of national politicians to exploit ethic, religious, linguistic and national differences has been a contributory factor in many of West Africa's conflicts. As part of ECOWAS' mandate to provide regionalized security solutions and foster peace and democracy, it has a vested interest in constructing and diffusing the notion of a common West African identity, in the hope it could help to reduce the potential for conflict.