Differentiated (Dis)integration and Deinstitutionalization in the African Security Regime Complex

Abstract Differentiated (dis)integration processes of regional and international organizations seem to have grown over the past years. As a continent in which regional integration efforts and institutions mushroomed in the last decades and created a “spaghetti bowl” of regionalism, Africa is highly relevant for examining and explaining these processes. Against the background of a need to assess and conceptualize (dis)integration beyond Europe, we propose deinstitutionalization to grasp the puzzling bypassing of established institutions for, instead, the emergence of more informalized settings. We analyze two of such processes within the African security regime complex: the Western African response to the Boko Haram uprising in the Lake Chad region and the Southern African response to a coup d’état in Lesotho. Identifying evidence of such processes of deinstitutionalization, we argue that specific internal and external factors constitute drivers for this development. Internally, powerful states and regional hegemons favor domestic narratives and interests over regional ones, whereas externally, international partners create (unintended) incentives for extraversion strategies and disintegration practices in subregions. These dynamics can lead to further deinstitutionalization of the African security complex, such as through ad hoc groups, and eventually disintegrate established paths of African regionalism.