The New Regionalisms of State Policing in Africa

This book is a first attempt to systematically study the emergence and institutionalisation of international and regional police cooperation in Africa. It does so by weaving together the processes of regionalisation observed in the making of the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO). Through a process-oriented research practice that has seen the researcher move back and forth between theory and empirical observations, the final study represents a reconstruction of SARPCCO as a regional police organisation and a regional police space in the making. The work attempts to address the underrepresentation and under-theorisation of African regional police organisations in "regionalism studies" and "police studies in Africa", as well as in the emerging field of "global policing". It furthers knowledge on: i) the regional logic of international police cooperation in the post-Cold War security environment from an African perspective; ii) the emergence of regional policing in the post-Apartheid regional security landscape in Southern Africa; and iii) some of the most prominent actors engaged in regionalising state policing in Africa. This study is of interest to scholars in international relations, regionalism studies, global studies, transnational policing as well as area-studies specialists who focus on Africa.