Military spending and regional integration in southern Africa: paper was presented at ‘Business and Management Conference’ held at the University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, South Africa.on the 28th-30th September 2011.

Abstract

Military expenditure in developing countries and Africa in particular has over the years produced a varying mix of positive and negative economic development effects across countries. In Africa milex and conflict had an overall negative impact on economic growth and development. Conflict also negatively affects efforts at consolidating regional integration in general. The negative effects are most pronounced in countries facing legitimacy and security crises like Zimbabwe and the DRC. Countries afflicted by conflict and poverty pay higher economic costs for their national security. The paper explores the effect of regional integration on military expenditure in Southern Africa. The basic premise of the research is that economic integration reduces conflict and eventually military expenditure. In addition regional security integration (via a peace dividend) may have positive economic externalities through uninterrupted trade been member states in regional groupings. There is dearth of studies that focused on the relationship between conflict or military expenditure and regional integration in southern Africa. Most of the studies focus on the benefits and strategies that enhance regional integration, without analyzing the importance of regional integration to security sector developments. Security sector studies have in general ignored the importance of economic and regional integration in ensuring reduction in military spending while consolidating peace. The results of this study show that regional integration has a negative impact on military expenditure in southern Africa.