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9781138348325

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Dr. Balogun has written a very important book with an unambiguous argument: approaches to regional integration that attribute the survival of ECOWAS to the desire of self-interested heads of states and government who want to raise their formal status and maintain existing regimes, rather than serve public interests, are patently anachronistic. Instead, anyone looking for a systematic study of the people-centered region-building and integration role of international bureaucrats working with an inclusive cast of multiple stakeholders across scales of governance and how the said inclusivity enhances actor agency in Africa should read this book. Dr. Balogun painstakingly weaves together the trials and tribulations of a regional integration organization that has from its inception to the present era of democratic regression in West Africa engaged in a convergence process to develop regional identity and community by bringing in multiple regional stakeholders, rather than just states and governments driven by realpolitik, into the regional governance space. This is a major contribution to the growing scholarship on private authority and regional governance in Africa, as well as a refreshing African voice in the new regionalism and comparative regionalism literature. - Okechukwu Iheduru, School of Politics and Global Studies, Arizona State University A must read for scholars and practitioners alike, Balogun's novel application of practice theory, agential constructivism, and historical institutionalism provides a compelling analysis of the processes and implications of region-building in West Africa. - J. Andrew Grant, Department of Political Studies, Queen's University, Canada

Dr. Balogun has written a very important book with an unambiguous argument: approaches to regional integration that attribute the survival of ECOWAS to the desire of self-interested heads of states and government who want to raise their formal status and maintain existing regimes, rather than serve public interests, are patently anachronistic. Instead, anyone looking for a systematic study of the people-centered region-building and integration role of international bureaucrats working with an inclusive cast of multiple stakeholders across scales of governance and how the said inclusivity enhances actor agency in Africa should read this book. Dr. Balogun painstakingly weaves together the trials and tribulations of a regional integration organization that has from its inception to the present era of democratic regression in West Africa engaged in a convergence process to develop regional identity and community by bringing in multiple regional stakeholders, rather than just states and governments driven by realpolitik, into the regional governance space. This is a major contribution to the growing scholarship on private authority and regional governance in Africa, as well as a refreshing African voice in the new regionalism and comparative regionalism literature. - Okechukwu Iheduru, School of Politics and Global Studies, Arizona State University

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Emmanuel Balogun is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and affliate faculty in Black Studies at Skidmore College.

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