Presentation by Daniel Bach, CNRS and Sciences Po Bordeaux, at the 2017 European Conference on African Studies (ECAS) in Basel, Switzerland. The presentation took place on 30 June during the special presentation of the SWAC/OECD publication "Cross-border Co-operation and Policy Networks in West Africa".

1. REGIONALISM, REGIONAL
INTEGRATION AND
REGIONALISATION IN WEST
AFRICA
Basel, 30 June 2017
Daniel Bach
CNRS Director of research (Emeritus)
Emile Durkheim Centre and Sciences Po Bordeaux

2. • Regionalism/regionalisation vs integration/cooperation
• The EU as a contested global prototype
• Mental maps and identities (regionalism as socially constructed)
• Network-led and open-ended regionalisation processes
• History and genealogies matter!
The ‘world of regions’ is entangled with a world of
regionalisms

3. • Integration as a legacy : WAEMU/UEMOA and the CFA monetary
zone
• Pan-African ideals and holistic
agendas: the ECOWAS
West Africa’s institutional landscape

4. • Regionalisation as an impediment to region-building
• The warehouse-state template
• The extraction of (cross-border) dividends through violence
and insecurity
• Integration through ‘defragmentation’
• The dilution of frontiers between national, regional and
global integration
• Hard and soft infrastructures
• Technological leapfrogging and connectivity
• Regionally endorsed programmes
• Policy networks and cross–border cooperation
The dynamics of cross-border interactions (‘the
lure of the border’)

5. http://www.oecd.org/swac
Thank you
https://sciencespobordeaux.academia.edu/DanielBach