CHAPTER 02 : INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 

TOPIC OUTLINE:

i: Introduction,

a) Definition of International Co-operation

b) Background information

ii: Foreign Policy 

a) Definition

b) Tanzania’s foreign policy

iii: Bilateral and Multilateral Co-Operation

1. Bilateral co-operation: Countries with bilateral relations with Tanzania.
2. Multilateral co-operation: Regional Organizations
3. Objectives and implementation of Regional Organizations. [East African Co-operation (EAC), SADC, COMESA & ECOWAS] .
4. Structure, objectives and implementation strategies of AU.
5. Historical background of UN, its structure, objectives and implementation strategies.
6. Objectives of different UN agencies:  ( UNESCO, UNDP, UNICEF, FAO, IMF, WB, UNHCR, WHO, UNEP, ILO etc)
7. International organizations concerned with promotion of peace and understanding. E.g. NAM, Commonwealth, European Union, NATO etc.

iv: International Peace and Understanding.

v: Tanzania’s Foreign Debt.

1. Meaning of foreign debt
2. Origin of Tanzania’s foreign debt
3. Implications of the debt to Tanzania’s development.
4. Solutions to the debt crisis.

International Co-operation

The concept

There is no nation in the world which is endowed with all resources to meet the life and developmental needs of its citizens. For this reason states/ nations have to cooperate in order to meet the national interests and goals, whether political, economic, social or cultural. Relation among states in meeting the national goals can be traced as far as 1648 during the Westphalia treaty. From that time several changes had taken place in modifying the relations among states. These changes were due to improvement in science and technology where it is easier now for the citizens of different states to communicate, since the means of communication and transportation have been improved.

The actors of international co-operation have changed from only sovereign state to other actors, like individual persons, multilateral companies’ e.g. JVC, Coca Cola, Olympics, FIFA and UN agencies such as UNESCO, WHO, etc. All these have enhanced international cooperation. But all in all, necessity for cooperation in the word is increasing day after day, as the world now need to put together efforts to bring world peace, to protect the environment and to fight against poverty;

Therefore, in a nutshell, International Cooperation can be defined as the relation among nations in all spheres of life. This relation can be economic where the states share economic activities and gains, e.g. between China and Tanzania. Diplomatic relations whereby embassies are used in strengthening political and cultural relations among the nations, e.g. Tanzania and Mozambique have cultural relations that involve sports, games and economic ties.

Foreign Policy

There are rules and principles that oversee relations among nations in order to ensure fair play in the international politics. These rules and regulations are known as foreign policy. Foreign policy can be defined as a system established by a country in order to maintain relations with other states. The system acts as a guide of a country in dealing with other actors in international cooperation. Any foreign policy is there to defend national interests. National interests are mainly based on economic, social, security, freedom and national values.

National interests can be grouped into two primary interests, e.g. national security and sovereignty. These are paramount to the state, and they are defended by all means, even war. Secondary interests are the ones which the state ought to get from another states e.g., investment, technology; education, etc.

In other words, foreign polity is the extension of domestic policy. It is the mirror of what the nation is doing and what want to achieve and to be achieved by others. E.g. Tanzania is a peaceful country and is always advocacy of peaceful co-existence of other actors in the international community. Foreign policy is dynamic; it changes according to the global demands.

Tanzania's Foreign policy

Like any other country in the world, Tanzania formulated its own foreign policy to maintain regular political, social and economic affairs with other nations.

Principles of Tanzania Foreign Policy

(i) To promote independence of all Africa states.

(ii) To Maintain the right of every country to self-determination

(iii) To maintain world peace and security by arbitration of conflict through diplomatic means.

(iv) To promote international co-operation and understanding through organizations such as UNO, AU, NAM etc.

(v) To fight for human rights and democracy in the world.

These are the principles that guide Tanzanias foreign policy in th e world arena. Foreign policy is managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations through the Embassies or High Commissions. Our Ambassadors or High Commissioners who have been posted in foreign countries, play the following roles.

(i) To represent Tanzanians in the countries they have been posted.

(ii) To popularize Tanzania’s natural, social and cultural resources.

(iii) To promote and maintain Tanzania’s relations with other international organizations.

(iv) To register and assist Tanzanians who live in foreign countries when there is a need.

(v) To make preparation for and facilitating trips of Tanzania leaders in the foreign countries..

The historical development of Tanzania foreign policy can be traced, into three major levels, these are:

(i) Time soon after independence and before Arusha declaration. This was the time for nationalist straggle in most of the African countries. Tanzania foreign policy by that time supported the liberation struggles and aligned with non-alignment movements that helped Tanzania to pursue her foreign policy in all aspects; social, political, cultural and economic. Tanzania was the leader of the frontline liberation states and its headquarters was in Dar- es- Salaam.

(ii) Time after Arusha declaration to late 1980s. This was the time when Tanzania decided to adopt socialist ideology. Also decided to emphasize on issues of security, defense and liberation as whole. In 1970s several changes occurred in global politics, and affected Tanzania’s pursurence of her foreign policy.

Bilateral and Multilateral Co-Operation

(i) Bilateral cooperation 

This is a type of co-operation which involves the agreement between two states. E.g. Tanzania and Kenya, Zambia, Malawi etc. Countries evolved in this agreement can agree to cooperate in various aspects like economic, cultural, scientific and technological researches, political, security and defense.

(ii) Multilateral co-operation 

This is a type of cooperation which involves a group of nations, E.g. Regional Economic Groupings such as EAC, SADC, ECOWAS, COMESA etc. This can either be for economic or security reasons, like NATO.

Regional Economic Integration: Multilateral Co-Operation

Regional economic integration is the cooperation of several countries for the sake of enjoying economic benefits. There are different forms of Economic Integration. It is classified according to the levels of development, as follows.

i) A free trade area.

An this stage,, member countries eliminate trade barriers/tariff which obstructs free movement of goods and services. But each member county is tree to establish independent tariffs against non member countries.

ii) A custom union.

In addition to having abolished trade restrictions among member countries, members have the common tariff against non - members.

iii) Common Market.

On top of what is in custom union, there is free movement of factors of production among the member countries. People are allowed to work freely within member countries, also are allowed investing within these countries.

iv) An economic community 

This stage comprises all elements in common market, plus instituting joint ownership of certain enterprise, harmonize economic policies, and they may also use the same currency e.g. in the European Union.

v) Total political integration.

It can either be a Union, like Tanganyika and Zanzibar or a Federation like the USA. This level has a supra-national authority, which makes decisions binding to all member countries. It is not necessary for countries to graduate from one level to another. Countries / group of countries may decide to start at any level. For instance, Tanganyika and Zanzibar started at the top level.

EAST AFRICAN CO-OPERATION (EAC)

Historical background

East African Community is a cooperation of five independent states, namely, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. The states are found in the Eastern part of the African continent, with an area of about 1. <8 million kilometers squares. The area has a population of about 130 million people with the growth rate of 2.8% annually that is the highest within the region.

These five countries have enjoyed cultural, political and social relations for a long period. The cooperation of East African states can be traced back to 19th Century; For stance, from 1901 there were several services administered on a joint basis by Kenya and Uganda, like Kenya-Uganda railway.

In 1919, after Germans’ defeat in the First World War, the British government took over Tanganyika as a mandated territory under the League of Nations. The first three countries (Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika) were under one colonial master.

In 1921, the common external tariff for all dependences stated. In 1926, the Governors conference instituted and coordinated common services in East Africa. Furthermore, in 1927, the East Africa common market was established. From 1947 to 1961, the East African High Commission was established. In 1967, the treaty for East African Cooperation was established to control and administer some matters. Arusha municipality was chosen, to be the headquarters of this Community.

Objectives of the Community

Objectives of the East African Community were the following:

• To promote free trade of goods among member countries.
• To provide common services:
• To have a common currency to facilitate movement and exchange of goods.
• To facilitate tree movement of people among member countries.
• Unfortunately, despite these good objectives and strategies that were promulgated by member states, the Community collapsed after ten years.

Reasons for the demise of East African Community

There were several reasons that led to the collapse of East African Community in 1977.

They included the following:-

• First, differences in ideology and economic status among member states, whereby Tanzania adopted socialism, Kenya continued with capitalism, while Uganda was between socialism and capitalism.
• Second, overthrow" of the Ob ore regime by the army. Obote was a close friend of M walimu Nyerere, and therefore, Mwalimu Nyerere decided not to meet the then president (Idd Amin). Later, Mwalimu Nyerere provided support to overthrow the Idd Amin regime. The situation created misunderstandings between Tanzanian and Uganda governments.Therefore, it was very difficult for East African leaders to meet.
• Third, difference in currency, in terms of values. Kenyan currency was higher than the other two currencies of the two member states. 
• Fourth, dissatisfaction among the member states that Kenya was benefiting more than other member states. Kenya was economically more powerful than other members. This made the other two to be a market of her industrial goods.
• Fifth, involvement of citizens was minimal. All decisions were made by the top leadership, the ruled were not consulted. This resulted to a lot of misgivings because of unilateral decisions.
• Sixth, many functions were bestowed upon leaders, such that heads of state were heavily involved in many functions to the extent that it become very difficult for them to carry out all functions properly. 
• Seventh, East African Development Bank failed to meet its founders' expectations. There were many demands but the banks income was unable to meet the demand.
• Eighth, territorial war which errupted between Uganda and Tanzania. 
• Ninth, neo- colonialism and its adverse effects.

Formation of the new East African Community

The collapse of the then East African Community in 1977 was followed by an agreement in 1984 to divide assets and liabilities of the former East African Community The agreement paved the way for new areas of cooperation and strategies to form a new community

By the year 2000, the new East African Community was established by the three heads of the state, namely Benjamin W. Mkapa of Tanzania, Yoweri K. Musseven i of Uganda and Daniel TA.. Moi of Kenya. The new Community identified areas of co-operation.

Areas of co-operation 

(i) Customs co-operation

(ii) Community tariff co-operation

(iii) Monetary co-operation in infrastructure and services

(iv) Co-operation in development of human resources, science and technology;

(v) Free movement of people, labour services and the right to establish residence.

(vi) Agriculture and food security

(vii) Co-operation in tourism and wildlife management

(viii) Co-operation in health and social-cultural activities

(ix) Co-operation in political affairs

(x) Enhancing the role of women in socio-economic development.

Objectives of the Community

The following are objectives of the new East African Community:

• To attain sustain able growth and development of partner states by promotion of a more balanced and harmonious development of the states.
• To strengthen and consolidate the cooperation in agreed fields that would lead to equitable economic development within the partner states, which would in turn, raise people s standard of living and improve their quality of life. 
• To promote good governance and accountability:
• To promote sustainable utilization of natural resources and protect the environments.
• To enhance and strengthen participation of private sectors in the region.

In order to achieve the stated objectives, the Community works under the following principles:

i.Mutual trust between people of East African countries:

ii. Peaceful co-existence and good neighborhood

iii. Peaceful settlement of disputes:

iv. Equitable distribution of resources;

v. Co-operation for mutual benefits.

Achievements of the East African Community

Over ten years since its re-establishment, the new East African Community made several achievements in the following areas:

1. The Community has promoted political relationship within member states. There have been improvements in political relationships. For example, member countries formed the East African Community Parliament which, among other things, discusses political issues. Each member state has a Ministers responsible for East African Community matters. The Community holds regular meetings of I leads of States to discuss issues and make final decisions.

2. Culturally, the Community has succeeded to enhance sports and games. There are several regional competitions that have been introduced, and they are held on rotational basis.

3. There are several projects that have been initiated to improve communication and transportation. For example, road network. In addition, there are several transport companies that are providing services among member countries. For example, Kampala Express, I lood Limited and Akamba Bus Services, to mention just a few. Also there are some radio and television stations that are operating within East Africa.

4. There is an increase in free movement of people and labour between members states. For example, many Tanzanian, youths and pupils are now schooling in Uganda and Kenya. There are many Kenyans and Ugandans who are working here in Tanzania in various sectors, including banking, education, hotel management, industries and tourism. Currently, it is easy for Tanzanians to buy commodities and get services from. Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda.

5. On top of that there is flow of capital. Many companies from Kenya are now operating in Tanzania. Also there are Tanzanian companies that are also providing services and trade in Kenya and Uganda. Such have created employment opportunities and are improving standards of living of all citizens within the Community. Such companies include Uniliver, Cursor Security, and Kenya Commercial Bank.

6. Admission of new members Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan

7. Contribute to peace in the Great Lake Region.

The concept of East African Federation

The East African Community is now looking forward to form East African Federation. In another development, the Community has increased its members from three to five states. The inclusion of these two new members will increase the population to about 120 million people and hence, will widen the market for commodities produced by member countries..

Despite colorful achievements attained by the Community; and the intention to form a federation, it is obvious this intention, is facing many challenges. The challenges are as follows:

1. Despite efforts made by member states in improving the infrastructure, still the link between the these states is highly influenced by the colonial market which was based on exploitation of raw materials. In due regard, roads are unevenly distributed, for example, Kenya and Uganda are more linked than between Tanzania and Kenya. Also not all parts of the Community are easly reachable from one side to the other. This has to be solved if the Community wants to succeed in forming the desired federation. 
2. The headquarters of the Community are in Arusha, Tanzania, but Community Ministers and dignitaries working in the Community operate from their capital cities. It is very difficult for them to handle all issues / matters with poor communication systems. It could be better if their offices were placed at one center to facilitate smooth administration. 
3. Economic imbalances between member countries are not yet solved. There is no effective and sustainable mechanism set to readdress the imbalances. For that case, Kenyan industries and companies claim that Uganda economy is growing at a higher rate than the Kenyan economy, yet the infrastructures and investment opportunities are favoring Kenya compared to other member states. 
4. Security has been a problem to the Community; For instance, in Northern Uganda there are skirmishes between the government and rebel groups. Such civil wars have disturbed the infrastructure, and continue to devastate peoples lives. In Kenya, land conflicts are very common, especially near general, elections.. Ethnic groups fight for their land. In addition, border conflicts between cattle keepers of Kenya and Uganda are not completely solved. In Tanzania, there were some political clashes those in Zanzibar, as well as land use conflicts between pastoralists and farmers in several districts, including Kilosa and Kiteto. In Somalia, the country has been without government for almost two decades, and peace has been a nightmare to Somalis. Such clan conflicts in. Somalia are continuously causing an influx of refugees and widespread ownership of sophisticated weapons to Somalis who use them to harm innocent civilians within the East African region. In Burundi, the situation has just started to calm down after the formation of the national government. But there are still few localized wars, and other groups have not yet signed Dar es Salaam and Arusha peace accords. In Democratic Republic of the Congo, there are guerilla wars that are causing loss of peoples lives and the country's natural resources. All these have caused insecurity in the intercontinental region that includes East African. Yet, the organization structure of East African Community seems to neglect/not to put much emphasis on security issues because the structure lacks a Security Council to address these issues. Although “security1 is well highlighted, in the treaty itself.
5. In the former East African Community, many decisions and functions of the Community were left in the hands of the Supreme Authority. In this case, Heads of State were overworked because they were given too much power to decide over the masses. In this regard, misunderstandings between the Heads of State could lead to the collapse of the Community. Such a case happened in 1977. The same worry seems to hold water, whereas many responsibilities for the Community's organizations are at ministerial level. This pause a problem especially in the current setup were Ministers perform their duties by a "remote control system”. This cause delays in deciding on issues and taking necessay actions. For the desired formation of the Federation to be successful, challenges have to be checked and the mandate for formation of the federation should come from the masses through a referendum.

Towards East Africa Referendum The logic of fast- tracking.

In 1977, the legendary East African Community; which had emerged from the East African Community Services Organization (a successor to the colonial East African High Commission) collapsed. The process of liquidating the organization, however, recommended that options for possible future cooperation should be left open. Thus, revival of the East African Community began in earnest in 1999 when a Treaty on East African Cooperation was adopted by the three partner states and subsequently ratified by the them in 2000.

Ten years before that a process, which sought to re-establish closer links between the three East African countries, begun with a Nairobi Communique on re-establishment of the East African Secretariat. Later on, an agreement was reached between the partner states to reestablish the E.A Secretariat in 1996- From 1997 to 2000, East African. Co-operation was pursued, and at the end of that period, an evaluation exercise came to the conclusion that ".... The implementation of the work programmer had been quite successful, commendable and encouraging This laid the foundation for the signing and subsequent ratification of the treaty. The cost of non-integration was deemed to be high.

The Wako Committee

By 2005, the only visible progress had been made by putting in place a Customs Union Protocol after four years of protracted negotiations. In 2004, there was general dissatisfaction with the rate of progress among the member countries. As a result, they appointed a committee to look into the possibility of fast-tracking the East African federation. The terms of reference were to make appropriate recommendations” ... to expedite and compress the process of integration so that the ultimate goal of political federation is achieved through a fast —track mechanism ...” The committee embarked upon its work on 21" September, 2004 and reported back on 26th November 2004, a relatively short period.

In the course of its work, the Committee examined the following three fast-tracking options:

1) Compression current sequential stages of integration; namely; customs union; common market; monetary union and political federation;

2) Overlapping and parallel processes; and

3) Immediate establishment of East African Federation.

It is important to note that in the course of its deliberations, the Committee emphasized on the importance of a firm foundation for establishment of a political federation, in particular, a solid economy base backed up by popular support across the region. Thus in its recommendations, the report stressed the idea of a concerted effort to educate people and popularize the idea of a political federation including the possibility of holding public referendum to obtain popular consent. This would make political legitimacy for the federation.

In its recommendations, the Committee chose the second option, overlapping and parallel processes of integration. It eschewed the compression and immediate federation options, although it embraced the 2010 target for political federation. Regarding the third option, in particular, the Committee noted the fact that integration of political authority would help to eliminate or at least, minimize the problem of divided loyalties between national and regional interests. That would inevitably lead to inordinate delays in execution of decisions or,, even worse, the virtual paralysis of institutions. 

However, the Committee avoided the third option for the following reasons:

1. The historical legacy of the earlier collapse including fears it may evoke;

2) Past failures of declaratory federations and the problem of sovereignty it was the case of the Ghana-Guinea-Mali federation. Pre-occupation with internal political concerns in the interest of maintaining political power at home; and.

3) Pre-occupation with internal political concerns in the interest of maintaining political power at home; and

4) Economic imbalances between member countries resulting in obstacles to free movement of goods and factors of production.

The report takes into account the visionary purpose of establishment of the East African Federation, which is...” the accelerated economic development for all to enable the East African to move away from the Least Developed Region to a Development Region in the shortest possible time...” Specific recommendations relating to the chosen strategy include leaving the time frame for the Customs Union to last for five years, beginning in January 2005, and the minimum requirements for a common market as well as monetary union are to run parallel in the same period as the customs union. These arrangements include:

• The Protocol on free Movement of Labour)) an 2005-Jun 2005-Jan.2006);
• The Protocol on the Common Market (Jan. 2005-Dec. 2007); and
• The Monetary Policy Co- coordinating Committee (Dec.2005-Dec. 2007)

The overall implementation process was envisioned to take from of strategic interventions sequenced in three phases. The first (preparatory) phase focusing on institutional framework and financial inputs would last from 2005 to 2006. The second (implementation) phase involving implementation of the customs union, common market and monetary union would last from 2006 to 2009. The third (consolidation) phase would begin with launching of the political federation in 2010 and end in 2013 with establishment of an electoral system for the federation. The Committee did not fully subscribe to the idea that all integrative measures are necessarily pre-requisites for political federation. Only essentials were necessary.

Responses to Wako Committee.

The Wako Committee report was received with a mixture of anxiety, skepticism and, in some cases, complete cynicism. In some cases, it was considered over-ambitious and threatening.The Committee was also accused of pandering to politicians' whims and fancies. However, to be fair, it should be stressed that the Committee was set up to explore ways of accelerating the process and making appropriate recommendations. The issue of whether or not to fast track was outside its mandate.

Nevertheless, it should be pointed out that the Wako report reveals at least two fundamental weaknesses. One weakness is that it does not discuss in depth the rationale for political federation, leave alone, for fast tracking. The second weakness is that the report is largely pre occupied with economic concerns and. even those in a rather narrow framework of gains to parties to the federation. The report hardly touches on the international dimension in terms of addressing challenges posed by globalization. This point is raised though not developed by Present Mwai Kibaki of Kenya who states that”..... I am a firm believer that regional integration in the contemporary world is not a choice but a necessary strategy for rapid  and sustainable development...” Present Museven of Uganda is even more precise when he says that “.... There is a limit to how much you can. with economic integration even, if it succeeds.... You need to go beyond the economic integration to cover some of the targets of security our future, the future of the black people”.... For example, defense and security, especially research .....”

One of the studied and systematic responses to the Wako report was made by TN Kibua and A. Thostensen in a report prepared by the Norwegian government. In this report, authors came to the following conclusion regarding the whole question of fast-tracking:

• That the substance and direction of integration was not in question.
• That most stakeholders favored a gradual building block approach"... in a coherent, complementary and sequential fashion, guided by the development strategy of the EAC.
• That the time frame was unrealistic bearing in mind the complex but necessary negotiations on critical issues, such as free movement of labour.
• That there was lack of popular support for the initiative.
• That each member state had specific political problems impinging upon their freedom to decide and act promptly that needed to be addressed.

The Imperatives of Regional Integration

There is a sense in which the Wako report and responses to it, missed, the essence of regional integration and, even more so, political federation. I have argued elsewhere that there are at lest four types of rationales or imperatives that lie behind formation and sustenance of regional integration schemes. They are affection, gain, threat and power. Imperatives mean kinds of factors or impulses that create the impetus and give rise to the drive as well as yearning for integration among members. They provide the premium mobile that propels regional integration or political union by ensuring sustainability and transformation.

Imperatives may arise from two perceptual domains. They may arise from the domain of choice or they may belong to the domain of necessity. Necessity and choice are dialectically opposed such that the more necessity exerts itself, the less the choice one can make. Thus, it is the extent to which a particular imperative exerts itself upon ones very existence which determines whether it is a choice of imperative or a necessity imperative. The more the imperative impinges upon ones vision, the more it is likely to belong to necessity, rather than choice. This is according to perceptions of those involved in envisioning their future. These visions are usually expressed in preambles of the Treaties establishing integration of schemes.

The affection imperative is essentially emotive. It refers to a situation where countries come into an integration arrangement because they have a lot in common and feel some bonds of affection. It is frequently argued, for example, that because the East African countries are connected by a common language, a common colonial heritage, and cross-border affinities between different ethnic groups, regional integration should automatically follow. The first Article of the preamble to the treaty reads: “... Whereas the United Republic of Tanzania, the Republic of Kenya and the Republic of Uganda have enjoyed close historical, commercial, industrial, cultural and other ties for many years....” Yet it is obvious that if these were the case, collapse of the East African Community in 1977, would not have happened. Therefore, affection does not seem to be a strong imperative. If this so, are we on yet another false start?

Gain is by far the most celebrated imperative held responsible not only for the initiation, but also sustenance of the intergrated, regional schemes. Gain and loss are central tenets of rational choice theory, which contends that individuals and states tend to behave in a manner which maximizes their gains, while minimizing their losses. Beginning with Jacob Viners concerns with trade creation and trade diversion effects, regional integration theories have largely been preoccupied with economic welfare gains from trade within the block or from without. Unequal distribution of gains between members of a block is also held to be a vital source of potential discontent, except, perhaps, if the cost of non- integration is perceived to be extremely high.

Preoccupation with material gain is itself the source of major weaknesses of this approach. One weakness is that it reduces the dynamic of integration to economic motives. The other weakness is that it fails to distinguish between gains cause and gain as consequence of integration. To suggest, for example, that the European Co-operation is the result of gain alone,, is to lose sight of the peace and security imperative that gave rise to formation of the European Coal and Steel Community in the first place. In this case, it may be said that economic gain is a consequence and not vice verse. As Arnold Baker argues: "... Even when FTA (Free Trade Areas) are factors to consider: the existence to community consciousness, the political will, and security interests../

The shared perception of threat and the quest for collective security and protection is, perhaps, the strongest incentive toward integration. This may arise from two distinct situations. One situation is where two or more countries find themselves locked in a mutually threatening relationship and have to reach some compromise leading to peaceful coexistence. This is what lay behind formation of the European Coal and Steel Community by France and Germany in 195 E The other situation is when there exists a perception of a common external threat in which case countries come closer to enhance their capacity to defend themselves. This is what lay behind formation of NATO against the perceived threat from the Soviet Union and her allies. It is this imperative which should inform regional integration in the third, once it is realized that globalization threatens their very continued existence.

Power as an imperative refers to the situation where a regional hegemony forces the neighborhood into an integration arrangement. The most extreme case would he military intervention or regime change to install a compliant leadership. I legemonic integration involves not only existence of a relatively more powerful country in the region, but also the capacity and. inclination on part of that country to meet costs of hegemony by offering incentives for members to stay and imposing sanctions on those who may want to break. To a very large extent, the Comecon countries were brought and held together by Soviet hegemony. Like wise, the NATO block is essentially maintained by the United States of America. 

The hegemonic model is unlikely to work in the East African setting for apparently contradictory reasons. On one hand, there is hardly any country which can be considered a viable hegemony and is able to obtain legitimacy and master requisite resources to pay for costs of maintaining a stable hegemonic arrangement. On the other hand, suspicions of hidden hegemonic motives on part of Kenya, still persist. It is part of such suspicions that brought about collapse of the old East African Community. Fears of unequal distribution of gains and burden sharing also exist. In 2001, Tanzania pulled out of COMESA precisely for fear of losing customs and excise revenue from tariffs. In a hegemonic arrangement, such fears would normally be allayed by the hegemonic partner through compensation. This is also handicapped by imperatives of sovereignty which for small and weak countries, is so passionately guarded that it becomes an additional obstacle to deeper integration.

Diagram 1: Necessity and choice imperatives

The East African Community Imperatives

The Treaty founding the East African Community in its present form was signed by the parties in November 1999 and came into force in July 200. However, the origination itself has a much longer and checkered history dating back to the British Colonial history in East African, going as far back as the early 1920s when Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika united first as, a free trade area, and later (1927), a Customs Union. In the post-WWII period, the Union was transformed into the East African High Commission providing several joint services, including railways, harbors and common currency. This arrangement was to further evolve into the East African Common Services Organization in the post-independence period after efforts to establish an East African Federation had failed in the face of parochial nationalism. The Common Services Organization itself experienced a number of difficulties before being transformed into the first East African Community through the treaty for East African Co-operation in 1967. Owing to persistent problems arising primarily from competing narrow' ‘national’ self-interests, divergent ideologies and parochial sovereignty; the Community finally, collapsed in 1977, triggering a long and quite acrimonious process of distributing assets and assigning liabilities to member states.

The present EAC arose quite literally out to ashes of the collapse one. It was a result of protracted negotiations between the partner states (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) beginning in 1993 when the Heads of State signed an agreement to revive co-operation among the three states. Negotiations were in accordance with Article 14. 02 of the East African Community Mediation Agreement of 1984 which provided for exploration and identification of areas of future co-operation. As if no lessons have been learned from the collapse of the community twenty five years ago, the treaty adopts a gradualist and functionalist approach. Thus, it does not differ fund amen tally from earlier efforts. This is particularly true since the treaty fails to abandon parochial sovereignty in favor of pooled sovereignty, to transcend relative economic gains as the driving force and embrace long-term strategic goal, as well as to meaningfully mobilize and organization the East Africans from below.

The imperatives underlying the renewed East African Community are not very explicit. Basically, the Treaty adopts the affection imperative when, in the first paragraph of Preamble, it invokes the fact that the three countries”.... Have enjoyed close historical, commercial, industrial, cultural and other relations... And proceeds to recount the organizational forms this relationship has assumed since colonial days. It is also inspired by the 'gain’ imperative in so far as it repeatedly stresses equitable sharing of benefit’s between the partner states..

Although the Secretary General’s foreword highlights the recognition "... those small and weak states have no future in this highly competitive world...” (that in the recognition of threat), but is not reflected in the Treaty itself Addressing the issue of collapse of the Treaty for East African Cooperation in 1977 and, therefore, anticipating pitfalls that must be avoided by the current arrangement, the current Treaty identifies the main reasons to include lack of a strong political will; absence of the private sector and civil society participation; disproportionate share of benefits; and lack of policies to redress the situation as it deteriorated. It fails to mention the narrow undiversified production base, dominance of national interests and their collusion with foreign capital, or lack of a clear vision based on a shared perception of threat. It should also be stressed that the proverbial 'political will is, in reality; a function of the members’ interests. It is only to the extent that there is a clearly defined common interest or a convergence of national interests that 'political will’ will be forthcoming.

The Principal objectives of the East African Community include:

• Developing policies and programmes aimed at widening and deepening co-operation among the partner states in political, economic, social, and cultural fields, research and technology; defense, security and justice affairs for their mutual benefit; 

• Establishment, presumably; of a customs union, a common market, subsequently, (sic), a monetary union and ultimately, a political federation. To also reach some compromise leading to peaceful coexistence. This is what lay behind formation of the European Coal and Steel Community by France and Germany in 1951. The other situation is when there exists a perception of a common external threat, in which case countries come closer to enhance their capacity to defend themselves. This is what lay behind formation of NATO against the perceived threat from the Soviet Union and allies. It is this imperative which should induce the formation of a regional integration once it is realized that globalization threatens their very continued existence.

Power as an imperative refers to the situation where a regional hegemony forces the neighborhood into an integration arrangement. The most extreme case would be military intervention or regime change to install a compliant leadership. I legemonic integration involves not only existence of a relatively more powerful country in the region, but also the capacity and inclination on part of that country to meet costs of hegemony by offering incentives to members to stay, and imposing sanctions on those who may want to leave.

To a very large extent, the Comecon countries were brought and held together by Soviet hegemony. Like wise, the NATO block is essentially maintained by the United States of America. The hegemonic model is unlikely to work in the East African setting for apparently contradictory reasons. On one had. there is hardly any country which can be considered a viable hegemony and is able to obtain legitimacy and master requisite resources to pay for costs of maintaining a stable hegemonic arrangement. On the other hand, however, suspicions of hidden hegemonic motives on part of Kenya, still persist. It is part such suspicions that brought about the collapse of the old East African Community. Fears of unequal distribution of gains and. burden sharing losses. In 2001, Tanzania pulled out of COMESA precisely for fear of losing customs and excise revenue fro m tariffs. In a hegemonic arrangement, such fears would normally be allayed by the hegemonic partner through compensation. Such fears are also handicapped by imperatives of sovereignty, which for small and weak countries, is so passionately guarded that it becomes an additional, obstacle to deeper integration.

It is instructive to note that objectives articulated in the Treaty are fairly conventional, in the sense that they are not innovative in any fundamental way, except, perhaps, the provision for formation of a political federation.. Moreover, there is no attempt to link these objectives directly with the EAC objectives. Unlike the Abuja Treaty, the EAC does not establish a clear time -table for implementation. Indeed, this has already raised many problems, particularly with regard to signing of the East African Customs Union Protocol. It was to be signed in November 2003. Finally it was signed in March 2004 and set for implementation in July, 2004. Reasons for the delay are unlikely to go away any time soon, because, quoting the Chairman of the East African Business Council, James Muiwana, . It is going to create a very big shock to the business community ...” He wanted implementation delayed for three to five years.

Organs or institutions established under the Treaty echo those established under the EAC and later the AU, albeit with some significant differences. They include the Summit; the Council; the Co-ordination Committee; the Sectoral Committee; the East African Court of Justice; the East African Legislate Assembly; the Secretariat, and such other organs as may be established by the Summit. These institutions are fairly standard, but it is interesting to note that the EAC does not have other important organs: the peace and security council; and the economic and social council, although these issue areas are highlighted in the Treaty itself. Regional, peace and security, for example, is provided for un der Articles 124 and 125, but no framework for defense co-operation has been worked out so far.

It is over ten years since the I leads of State of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda met in Arusha and signed an agreement to revive East African Co-operation, and over five years since the signing of the Treaty. From that time, considerable progress has been made in building institutions and establishing procedures to implement the Treaty. Notable among these institutions is the nomination of 27 and 3 ex-officio members of the East African Legislative Assembly which was inaugurated in November, 2001. It is significant to note that members of the house are drawn from national parliaments, and not popularly elected by East Africans. This runs against the goal of enhancing civil society participation in activities of the Community. It also denies the Assembly the kind of legitimacy which would lend authority to its decisions.

Writing in 2002, Mohabe Nyirabu was not at all optimistic about future prospects of the Community. Of the three possible paths he postulates, namely, closer economic integration, an East African federation and building of common institutions, he only sees some prospects in the first one. lie is skeptical about a political federation and equally doubtful about the possibility of effective and sustainable common institutions. Even with economic integration, Nyirabu feels that trade integration cannot be sustained without transformation of production in the region. This is because"... past economic practice is not encouraging and therefore, current optimism that creating a trade regime to remove tariffs will increase trade integration, is not convincing..."

The Logic of Political Federation

From our discussion of imperatives of integration, it is clear that what drives integration initiatives, include the following:

1. Perceptions of the political leadership on a scale of necessity and choice and a shared vision of the future;

2. A clear understanding of the preponderance of common interests over individual interest;

3. Definition of goals to be accomplished including prioritization and sequencing; and 4. An acknowledgement of relative ineffectiveness of "national sovereignties and a commitment to 'pooled sovereignty to enhance capacity to defend collective interests.

The quadrant above depicts the relationship between, choice (freedom.) and necessity. Briefly, what it suggests is that the more an integration arrangement is driven, by imperatives of necessity, the greater the need for centralized political authority. East Africa and. indeed, Africa as a whole, faces challenges of marginalization of the region, disintegration of societies and fragmentation of communities under globalization. At the same time, Africa’s resources are being accessed at a faster pace and their exploitation is being intensified in an inverse relationship with exclusion and impoverishment of its people. Endemic poverty and violent conflicts are products. These challenges are threatening the very continued existence of African countries as we know them to-day. These challenges cannot be adequately addressed through gradual functionalist economic integration, but by bold political decisions and trade integration in the region.

SOUTHERN AFRICA DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY (SADC)

What is SADC?

This is an economic grouping that brings together countries of Southern and Central. Africa. This association consists of fourteen countries. The member states are: Angola, Botswana, Congo (DRC), Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kingdoms of Swaziland and Lesotho. A treaty to establish the SADC was signed in Windhoek, Namibia in August, 1992. The treaty came into force in September, 30th 1993. The headquarters are in Gaborone, Botswana.

The origin of SADC

SADC originated from the former Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference (SADCC) which was established in April 1980 by governments of the nine southern African countries: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Later on, the SADC leaders had come to realize that although the coordination conference had served them well, time had come to give the organization a legal and more formal status. Hence establishment of SADC.

Objectives of SADC. 

i) To promote sustainable and equitable economic growth and socio-economic development that will ensure poverty alleviation with the ultimate objective of its eradication, enhance the standard and quality of life of the people in the region, and support the socially disadvantage through regional integration.

ii) To promote common political values, systems and other shared values that are transmitted through institutions that are democratic, legitimate and effective.

iii) To promote self-sustaining development on the basis of collective self-reliance and the interdependence of member states.

iv) To achieve complementarity between national and regional strategies and programmes.

v) To promote and maximize productive employment and utilization of resources in the region.

vi) To achieve sustainable utilization of natural resources and effective protection of the environment. The region is very rich of natural resources.

vii) To strengthen and consolidate the long standing historical, social and cultural affinities and links among the people of the region.

viii) To combat HIV/AIDS and other deadly or communicable diseases..

ix) To mainstream gender in the process of community building.

Principles:

SA DC and its member states act in accordance with, the following principles:-

• Sovereign equality of all member states.
• Solidarity, peace and security
• Human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
• Equity, balance and mutual benefit; and
• Peaceful settlements of disputes.

Organs and institutions: their powers and functions

a) The following are institutions of SADC:

• The summit of Heads of State or Government
• The organ on Politics, Defense and Security Cooperation
• The Council of Ministers
• The Integrated Committee of Ministers
• The Standing Committee of Ministers
• The Secretariat
• The Tribunal; and
• SADC National Committees.

b) Troika.:

The term "TROIKA” applies with respect to the following institutions:

i. The summit

i) The organ

ii) The council

iii) The integrated committee of ministers and

iv) The standing committee of officials..

Institutions and organs

The TROIKA of the Summit:

It consists of:

i) The Chairperson of SADC.

ii) The Incoming Chairperson of SADC who is the Deputy Chairperson of SADC;

iii) The Outgoing Chairperson of SADC.

The respective offices of the TROIKA Summit are being held for a period of one year.

The TROIKA of the Organ

i) The Chairperson of the Organ

ii) The Incoming CZhairperson of the Organ who shall be the Deputy Chairperson of the

Organ; and

iii) The outgoing Chairperson of the Organ.

The TROIKA of the Council, the Integration Committee of Ministers and the Standing Committee of officials correspond to the membership and term of office of the Troika of the Summit.

The Heads of State of SADC countries

Functions and powers of Troika:

1. The Troika of each institution functions as a steering committee of the institution and is, in between the meetings of the institution, responsible for:

a) Decision-making

b) Facilitating the implementation of decision;

c) Providing policy directions.

2. The Troika of each institution has the power to create relevant committees.

3. The Troika of each institution determines its own rules of procedure.

4. The Troika of each institution may co-opt other members as and where required.

A: The summit

Consists of the Heads of State and Government of all member states, and is the supreme policy-making institution of SADC.

Responsibilities:

• Is responsible for the overall policy direction and control of the functions of SADC
• Adopts legal instruments for the implementation of the provisions of this treaty
• Provided that the summit may delegate this authority to the Coun cil or any other institution of SADC, as the summit may deem appropriate.
• Elects a Chairperson and a Deputy - Chairperson of SADC from among its members for one year on the basis of relation.

« The Summit meets at least twice a year.

• The summit creates committees, other institutions and organs as deemed necessary;

« The summit appoints the Executive Secretary and the Deputy Executive Secretary, on the recommendation of the Council.

• Subject to Article 8 of the Treaty, the Summit decides on the admission of new members.

« The decisions of the summit are taken by consensus and are binding.

B: The organ on politics, defense and security co-operation

Consists of a Chairperson and a Deputy Chairperson, both elected by the Summit on the basis of rotation from among the members of the summit.

• The term in office of both Chairpersons is one year.
• The Chairperson of the Organ consults with the Troika of the summit and reports to the summit.

There is a Ministerial committee of the Organ consisting of Ministers responsible:

a) Foreign Affairs

b) Defense

c) Public Security; or

d) State Security.

• The Secretariat provides secretarial services to the organ

• Decisions of the Organ are taken by consensus.

C: The Council

• The Council consists of one Minister from each Member state, preferably a Minister responsible for foreign or external affairs:

Council responsibilities:

i) Oversee the functioning and development of SADC

ii) Oversee the implementation of the policies of SADC and the proper execution of its programmes..

iii) Advise the summit on matters of overall policy, efficient and harmonious functioning and development of SADC.

iv) Approve policies, strategies and work programmes of SADC

v) Direct, co-ordinate and supervise the operations of the institutions of SADC subordinate to it.

vi) Create its own committees as deemed necessary;

vii) Recommend for approval to the summit the establishment of directorates, committees, other institutions and organs.

viii) Determine the term and conditions of services of the SADC staff.

ix) Develop and implement the SADC common agenda and strategic priorities.

x) Convene conferences and meetings as appropriate for purposes of promoting the objectives and programmes of SADC.

xi) Perform such other duties as may be assigned to it by the summit or the treaty;

• Recommend and consider application for membership to the summit.

• It is responsible to the summit to meet at least four times, decisions are taken by consensus.

The Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the council are appointed by the member states.

D: Integrated Committee of Ministers

Consists of at least two Ministers from each Member state.

Responsibilities:

Oversee the activities of the core areas of integration, which include:

i) Trade, industry; finance and investment.

ii) Infrastructure and services

iii) Food, agriculture and natural resources

iv) Social and human development and special programmes

v) Monitor and control the implementation of the Religion Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) in its area of competence.

vi) Provide policy guidance to the Secretariat

vii) Make decisions on matters pertaining to the directorates

viii) Monitor and evaluate the work of the directorates

ix) Create such permanent or ad-hoc subcommittees as may be necessary to cater for cross-cut ting sectors.

Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the Committee are appointed from the member states holding the chairpersonship respectively of the council.

Meet at least once a year and reports to the Council. Decision is taken by consensus.

The committee has powers to make decisions to ensure rapid implementation of programmes that would otherwise wait for a formal meeting of the council.

E: The Standing Committee

i) Is a technical advisory committee to the council

ii) Process documentation from the integrated Committee of Ministers to the council.

iii) Report and is responsible to the council.

The chairperson and Vice-Chairperson are appointed from the Member States holding the chairpersonship and the u-Chairpersonship, respectively, of the council Meet at least four times a year and decisions are taken by consensus.

F: The Secretariat 

Is the principal executive institution of SADC?

Responsibility

i) Responsible for strategic planning and management of the SADC.

ii) Implement decisions of the summit. Troika of the summit, organ on Politics, Defense and Security Co-operation, Troika of organ on Politics, Defense and Security, Council, Troika of the council, and. Troika of the Integrated Committee of Ministers.

iii) Organization and management of SADC meetings.

iv) Financial and general administration

v) Representation and promotion of SADC

vi) Co-ordination and harmonization of the policies and strategies of member states.

vii) General mainstreaming in all SADC programmes and activities

viii) Submission of harmonized policies and programmes to the council for consideration and approval.

ix) Monitoring and evaluating the implementation or harmonized policies and programmes

x) Collection and dissemination of information to the community and maintenance of a reliable database.

xi) Development of capacity; infrastructure and maintenance of in tra-region al information and community technology;

xii) Mobilization of' resources, co-ordination and harmonization of programmes and projects with co-ordination and harmonization of programmes and projects with cooperating partners.

xiii) Devising appropriate strategies for self-financing and income generating activities and investment.

xiv) Management of special programmes and projects

xv) Undertaking research on community building and the integration process; and preparation and submission to the Council for approval administrative regulations, standing orders and rules for management of the affairs of SADC

The Secretariat is headed by the Executive Secretary. 

The Executive Secretary

Is responsible to the Council. His/her responsibilities:

i) Consultation and co-ordination with the Governments and other institutions of member states

ii) Pursuant to the directions of the council or summit or on his/her own initiative, aimed at promoting the objectives of SADC.

iii) Promoting of co-operation with other organizations for the furtherance of the objectives of SADC.

iv) Organizing and servicing meetings of the summit, the council, the standing committee and any other meetings convened on the direction of the summit or the council.

v) Custodianship of the property of SA DC

vi) Appointment of the staff of the secretariat in accordance with procedures, and under terms and conditions of service determined by the council.

vii) Administration and finances of the Secretariat..

viii) Preparation of Annual Report on the activities of SADC and its institutions.

ix) Preparation of the Budget and Audited Accounts of SADC for submission to the council.

x) Diplomatic and other representation of SADC.

xi) Public relations and promotion of SADC; and

xii) Such other functions as may from time to time, be determined by the summit and the council.

The Executive Secretary and Deputy Executive Secretary are appointed for four years, and are eligible for re-appointment for another period not exceeding four years.

G: The Tribunal

1. Constituted to ensure adherence to and the proper interpretation of the provisions of the treaty establishing the SADC; and subsidiary instruments and to adjudicate upon such disputes as may be referred to it.

2. The composition, powers, functions, procedures and other related matters governing the Tribunal is prescribed in a Protocol which shall, notwithstanding the provisions of Article 22 of the treaty from an integral, part of the treaty.

3. Members of the Tribunal, are appointed for a specified period.

4. The Tribunal shall give advisory opinions on such matters as the summit or the council may refer to it.

5. The decisions of the Tribunal shall be final and binding.

II: SADC National Committees

1. Each Member State creates a SADC National Committee

2. Each SADC National Committee consists of key stakeholders e.g. Government, private sector, civil society, NG Os, etc. Each SADC National Committee in its composition, reflect the core areas of integration and co-ordination referred to Article 1.12 of the treaty.

Responsibilities of SADC National Committee

i) Provides input at the National Level, in the formulation of SADC policies, strategies and programmes of action.

ii) Co-ordinations and oversees, at the national, level, implementation of SADC programmes of action.

iii) Initiates projects and issues papers as an input to the preparation of the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan, in accordance with the priority areas set out in SADC Common Agenda.

iv) Creates a national steering committee, sub-committees and technical committees.

Responsibilities of Member State:

Creates a national secretariat to facilitate the operation of the SADC National Committee

Provides funds for the operation of its national secretariat.

Each SADC National Committee meets at least four times a year. Each National Committee consists of the chairperson of three SADC National Committee and the Chairpersons of Sub-committees and technical committees. SADC National Committees operate at ministerial and official levels.

Achievements:

i) Establishment of Regional Fund for HIV/AIDS; Approximately 15 million people in SADC region are HIV positive. (According to the 23rd SADC summit Anniversary

ii) Improvement in food security, the number of people who need food assistance decreasing e.g. March 2002 the number was 15.2 million, in January; 2004 is expected to drop up to 7 million.

iii) Peace stability — since the Angola Peace Accord in April 2002 and installation of transitional government in Democratic Republic of Congo, the region has enjoyed a certain degree of political stability.

iv) Economic growth — the GDP has increased from 2.7 per cent (2002) to 3-2 per cent. (2004).

v) Women representation in political and decision-making positions is progressing very fast in the SA DC member states. The target was to get 30 per cent of women representation in politics by 2005- Some member states have already reached the target e.g. South Africa (31-3), Mozambique (313), Tanzania (20) etc.

vi) Adoption of Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) to oversee, the strategies; programme, and activities to be developed by the SADC over next 15 years.

ii) Sovereignty and nationalistic interests undermine regional interests. 

Challenges

i) Lack of enthusiasm and slow pace in executing regional projects. 

iii) Different level of economic development, e.g. South Africa is more developed economically than other member states.

iv) Lack of enough qualified and skilled manpower to run it.

v) Weak financial base — the member states rely on foreign aid, the same problem affect the Association from becoming self-reliant.

vi) HIV/AIDS, Malaria and tuberculosis

vii) Lack of economic diversity — member states produce similar goods, mostly agricultural goods.

viii) Social conflicts still prevailing in some areas e.g. DRC and Zimbabwe.

Activity

1. To what extent Southern African Development Community (SADC) differ from the former Southern African Co-ordination. Conference (SADCC)

2. Explain the objectives of SADC. To what extent have these objectives been realized

3- Analyze the achievements and problems of SADC.

THE COMMON MARKET FOR EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICA (COMESA)

Whar is COMESA?

COMESA means Common Market for Eastern and Southern African States. It was established in December 1994 to replace the former PTA. COMESA is an organization which promotes cooperation on human resources, promotes peace and improve economic status of the member states.

The history of COMESA began in December 1994 when it was formed to replace the former Preferential Trade Area (PTA) which had existed from 1981. COMESA (as defined by its Treaty) was established as an organization of free independent sovereign states that have agreed to co-operate in developing their natural and human resources for the good of all their people. As such, it has a wide-ranging series of objectives that necessarily include in its priorities, the promotion of peace and security in the region..

However, due to COMESA's economic history and background, its main focus is on the formation of a large economic and trading unit which is capable of overcoming some of the barriers faced by individual states. COMESA's current strategy can thus be summed up in the phrase "economic prosperity through regional integration'. With its 21 member states, and the population of over 385 million and annual, import bill, of around US$32 billion COMESA, forms a major market place for both internal and external trading. Its area is impressive on the map of the African Continent, and its achievements to date have been significant.

Apart from economic progression other objectives are:

• Introduction of a computerized system of trade and promoting trade liberalization.

• Enhance the communication system among the countries.

• Encouraging the private sector and creating a legalized system of work.

Establishing a harmony between the macroeconomic and monetary policies in the region

A Free Trade Area

The COMESA states, in implementing a free trade area, are well on their way to achieving their target of removing all internal trade tariffs and. barriers, an exercise which was planned to be completed by the year 2000. Within 4 years after that COMESA will have introduced a common external tariff structure to deal with all third party trade and will have considerably simplified all procedures..

Trade Promotion

Other objectives that were to be met to assist in the achievement of trade promotion include:

i. Trade liberalization and Customs co-operation, including the introduction of a unified computerized Customs network across the region.

ii. Improving the administration of transport and communications to ease the movement of goods, services and people between the countries.

iii. Creating an enabling environment and legal framework which will encourage the growth of the private sector, the establishment of a secure investment environment, and the adoption of common, sets of standards.

iv. The harmonisation of macro-economic and monetary policies throughout the region.

COMESA’s Institutions

Several institutions have been created to promote sub-regional cooperation and development.

These include:

L The COMESA Trade and Development Bank in Nairobi,. Kenya

ii. The COMESA Clearing House in Harare, Zimbabwe

iiii. The COMESA Association of Commercial Banks in I larare, Zimbabwe

iv. The COMESA Leather Institute in Ethiopia

v. The COMESA Re-Insurance Company (ZEP-RE) in Nairobi, Kenya

In addition, a Court of Justice was also established under the COMESA Treaty and became formally operational in 1998. Further initiatives exist to promote cross border initiatives, to form a common industrial policy; and introduce a monetary harmonization programme.

What COMESA offers

COMESA offers its members and partners a wide range of benefits, which include:

i. A wider, harmonized and more competitive market

ii. Greater industrial productivity and competitiveness

iii. Increased agricultural production and food security

iv. A more rational exploitation of natural resources

v. More harmonised monetary, hanking and financial policies

vi. More reliable transport and communications infrastructure

vii. Use web pages or write to us to find out more about all of these.

The Decision making process

COMESA has evolved a comprehensive decision making structure at the top of which is the Heads of State of the 21 member countries. There is then a Council of Ministers responsible for policy making, 12 technical committees and a series of other advisory bodies (including specific relations with partner countries and the business community). In addition, each member state appoints liaison persons in their appropriate ministries who form part of the day-to-day communication process.

Overall co-ordination is achieved through the Secretariat, based in Lusaka, Zambia.

Challenges of COMESA

• Internal conflicts among the member states e.g. political crisis in Zimbabwe, Ethnic conflicts in Sudan, endless clan war in stateless of Somalia.

• Environmental hazards like floods e.g. the floods of 2000 in Mozambique and droughts in. various parts of COMESA member countries.

• Disparity in economic levels among the member states. Some countries are poorer than others, or have very high lamentable inflation rates e.g. Zimbabwe.

• Three — quarters of the people in the member states live below the World Bank poverty threshold level of one US Dollar a day.

• Member counties modules the sawed type of products (raw mate rias like minerals or crops). There are many competitions for the available market.

• Multi - membership among the member states is another challenge. Member countries are members of other regional integrations like,. EAC and SADC, were in some cases mult-membership create problems.

TANZANIA AND COMESA

In 2000 Tanzania pulled out from COMESA, but is still enjoying two of its services:

i) Banking services

ii) Insurance senices.

Reasons for Tanzania to pull out of COMESA,

• Claims from manufactures who said that there were a lot of cheap products getting to the country and this could lead to the decline of the local, industries, that produce products at very high costs.
• COMESA members decided to lower their tariffs so as to facilitate movement of their goods, but at the same time Tanzania had very low rates, by accepting lowering tariffs means to reduce the revenue and incur loss.
• Tanzania was the member of other regional organizations such as EAC and SADC that their objectives are similar to those of COMESA. This could have created conflicts of interest.
• Failure to realize its goals that are to strengthen, develop and positively maintain socioeconomic relations with other countries.. The situation was evidenced by low level of Tanzania trade. Tanzania became a looser for five years. It experienced deficit by exporting less and importing a lot. This forced the country to explore more strategies of expanding trade in this sub-continent.
• Lack of seriousness among the members in implementing settled objectives. Much was planned with little or no implementation. The reasons behind this were poor infrastructure, e.g. communication and transport networks, plus poor economic base among the members.
• The other reason for Tanzania to withdraw from COMESA was the influence of South Africa government where it was discouraging countries to join COMESA, but at the time convincing them to join SADC, in order to create free trade in area. 

By the fact that Tanzania withdrew' from COMESA in 2000, the following had happen in the country.

• Smuggling of goods has increased, especial in the border between Tanzania and member countries. The commodities involved include food staffs. This created loss of government revenue and jeopardized the country’s economy. 
• Tanzania lost the qualification to get credits from COMESA. 
• Possibility of Tanzania suffering from high tariffs imposed, on our goods. This is more serious to the private sector.

THE ECONOMIC COMMUNITY OF WEST AFRICAN STATES (ECOWAS)

Historical background

The idea to create West African Community goes back to President William Tubman of Liberia, who made the call in 1964. An agreement was signed between Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in February 1965, but it did not succeed. In April 1972, General Gowon of Nigeria and General Eyadema of Togo re-launched the idea, drew up proposals and toured 12 countries, soliciting for acceptance of their plan from July to August 1973, A meeting was then called at Lome in December 1973 which studied a draft treaty This was further examined at a meeting of experts and jurists in Accra in January 1974, and by a ministerial meeting in Monrovia, January 1975. Finally, 15 States (Treaty of Lagos) on 28 May 1975. The protocols launching ECOWAS were sign in Lome, Togo on 5 November 1976.

In July 1993, a revised ECOWAS Treaty designed to accelerate economic integration and to increase political co-operation, was signed.

Member states:

ECOWAS consists of the following members Benin Guinea Niger Burkina Faso Guinea-Bissau Nigeria Cape Verde Liberia Senegal Cote d’Ivoire Mali Sierra Leone, Ghana Mauritania Togo. In December 1999, Mauritania announced that it would withdraw from ECOWAS as a result of its disagreement with some of the decisions taken at the Summit.

Objectives

ECOWAS aims to promote co-operation and integration in economic, social and cultural activities, ultimately leading to the establishment of an economic and monetary union through the total integration of the national economies of member states. It also aims to raise the living standards of its peoples, maintain and enhance economic stability, foster relations among member states and contribute to the progress and development of the African Continent. ECOWAS integration policies and programmes are influenced by the prevailing economic conditions in its member countries, the need to take the principal provisions of the AEC Treaty into account, and relevant developments on the international scene.

The revised treaty of 1993, which was to extend economic and political, co-operation among member states, designates the achievement of a common market and a single currency as economic objectives, while in the political sphere it provides for a West African parliament, an economic and social council and an ECOWAS Court of Justice to replace the existing Tribunal and enforce community decisions. The treaty also formally assigned the Community with the responsibility of preventing and settling regional conflicts.

Structure

The Community consists of the Authority of Heads of State and Government, the Council of Ministers, the Community Tribunal, the ECOWAS Parliament, the Executive Secretariat and six Specialized Commissions.

Conference of leads of State and Government

The Authority of Heads of State and Government of Member States are composed of Heads of State and /or Government of Member States. The Authority is responsible for the general direction and control of the Community and takes all measure to ensure its progressive development and the realization of its objectives.

The Authority

• Determines the general policy and major guidelines of the Community, gives directives,

• Harmonizes and co-ordinates the economic, scientific, technical, cultural and social policies of Member States;

• Oversees the functioning of Community institutions and follow-up implementation of Community objectives;

• Prepares and adopts its Rules of Procedure;

• Appoints the Executive Secretary in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty;

• Appoints on the recommendation of Council, the External Auditors;

• Delegates to the Council, where necessary; the authority to take such decisions as stipulated in the Treaty.

• Refers where it deems necessary any matter to the community Court of Justice when it confirms, that a member State or institution of the community has failed to honour any of its obligations, or an institution of the Community has acted beyond the limits of its authority, or has abused the powers conferred on it by the provisions of the Treaty, by a decision of the Authority, or a regulation of the Council; Requests the Court of Justice as, and when necessary, to give advisory opinion on any legal issues. Exercises any other powers conferred on it under the Treaty, The Authority meets at least once a year in ordinary session. An extraordinary session, may be convened by the Chairman of the Authority or at the request of a Member State, provided that such a request is supported by a simple majority of the Member States. The office of the Chairman is held every year by a Member State elected by the Authority

Council Of Ministers

The Council comprises the Minister in charge of ECOWAS Affairs and other Minister of each Member State. Council is responsible for proper functioning and development of the Community. To this end. unless otherwise provided in the Treaty or a Protocol, Council shall:

• Make recommendations to the Authority on any action aimed at attaining the objectives of the Community. 
• Appoint all statutory appointees, other than the Executive Secretary;
• By powers delegated to it by the Authority issue directives on matters concerning coordination and harmonization of economic integration policies;
• Make recommendation to the Authority on the appointment of the External Auditors; 
• Prepare and adopt its rules of procedure; 
• Adopt the Staff Regulations and approve the organizational structure of the institutions of the Community;
• Approve the work programmes and budgets of the Community and its institutions;
• Request the Court of Justice, where necessary to give advisory opinion on any legal questions;
• Carry out all other functions assigned to it, under this Treaty, and exercise all powers delegated to if by the Authority.

The Council meets at least twice a year in ordinary sessions. One of such sessions shall immediately proceed the ordinary session of the Authority uAn extraordinary session may be convened by the Chairman of Council or at the request of a Member State, provided that such request is supported by a simple majority of the Member States. The office of Chairman of the Council is held by the Minister responsible for ECOWAS Affairs of the Member State, elected as Chairman of the Authority.

Tribunal

The treaty provides for a Community Tribunal, whose composition and competence are determined by the Conference of Heads of State and Government. The Tribunal interprets the provisions of the treaty and settles disputes between member states that are referred to it.

.Executive Secretariat

The Executive Secretary is elected tor a four-year term., which may be renewed once only. ECOWAS is undergoing a process of reform, which has seen the post of financial controller being scrapped off, while two positions of deputy executive secretaries have been created for economic co-operation and policy harmonization, respectively. The restructuring of the Executive Secretariat was approved at the Summit in December 1999.

Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, Peace and Security The Mechanism has a Council of Elders, as well as a Security and Mediation Council. The ECOWAS Summit of December 1999 agreed on a Protocol for the Establishment of a Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, Peace and Security.

The Gambia, Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Senegal

The ten members of the latter are the Foreign Ministers of the following states:

Benin Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia,  Mali (Chair), Togo

Specialized Commissions

The following Technical Commissions are established, within the ECOWAS:

L Food and Agriculture;

ii. Industry, Science and Technology and Energy;

iii. Environment and Natural Resources;

iv. Transport, Communications and Tourism;

v. Trade, Customs, Taxation, Statistics, Money and Payments

vi. Political, Judicial and Legal Affairs, Regional Security and Immigration;

vii. Human Resources, Information, Social and Cultural Affairs;

viii. Administration and Finance Commission.

The Authority may, wherever it deems appropriate, restructure the existing Commissions or establish new ones. Each Commission shall comprise representatives of each Member State. Each Commission may, as it deems necessary, set up subsidiary commissions to assist it in earning out its functions. It shall determine the composition of any such subsidiary commission.

Court of Justice

In October 1999, ECOWAS decided to establish a Court of Justice following a two-day meeting of Justice Ministers in Abuja. The Court will address complaints from member states and institutions of ECOWAS, as well as issues relating to defaulting nationals. The court has a president, chief registrar and seven, judges and. is a permanent institution. Draft rules of procedure for the Court are in place.

The ECOWAS Parliament convened in May 2002, with 115 MPs representing all the member states, except Cote d’Ivoire. Togo, Liberia, Cape Verde, Guinea Conakry, Guinea, Bissau, Republic of Benin, the Gambia and Sierra Leone have 5 Parliamentarians each; Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Senegal have 6 Parliamentarians each; Cote d'Ivoire is entitled to 7 representatives; Ghana has 8 and Nigeria has 35. Membership is constituted from the membership of the national parliaments of each member state.

Should the member lose his or her seat in the national parliament, they automatically lose their seats in the regional parliament. The ECOWAS Parliament is situated in Abuja, Nigeria and at present only acts in a consultative and advisory capacity. Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Professor AJi Nouhoum Diallo, has expressed the intention of the Parliament to acquire legislative powers in the future, as well as to institute directly elected representatives.

Because of distressing events in several of its Member States, ECOWAS soon realized that the case of economic development and progress can only be pursued in an environment of peace and stability It found that it had to involve itself in conflicts in Member States to ensure that an environment conducive to the implementation of its economic programmes was maintained.

Meeting in Lagos on 22 April 1978, ECOWAS Member States had earlier adopted a Protocol Relating to Non-Aggression (PNA) which enjoined Member States to Refrain from the threat and use of force or aggression’' against one another.. Article 5 (2) of the PNA stated that" Any dispute which cannot be settled peacefully among Member States shall be referred to a Committee of the Authority, In the event of failure of settlement by the ..... Committee the dispute shall finally go to the Authority [i.e. Heads of State] A subsequent Protocol Relating to Mutual Assistance on Defense (PMAD) was sign in Freetown, Sierra Leone on 1981 and became effective five years later. PMAD committed the ECOWAS member states to a collective deference treaty by accepting that armed threat or aggression against one, constituted a threat or aggression against the community, and resolved to give mutual aid and assistance for defense. The Protocol provides for a collective response where a member state is a victim of internal armed conflict that is engineered and supported actively from outside,, and which is likely to endanger the peace and security of other member states. Both these Protocols have been subsumed as part of the new ECOWAS Mechanism.

During the 1990s ECOWAS activities were increasingly dominated by its efforts to secure peace in Liberia, in particular through the involvement of ECOMOG (ECOWAS Cease- Fire Monitoring Group) which was dispatched to Liberia in August 1991. The ECOWAS regional mechanism for conflict resolution provides a framework for regional intervention force.

Subsequent security-related agreements include the ECOWAS Conventions on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters and on Extradition, signed in Darkar on 29 July 1992 and in Abuja on 6 August 1994, the Declaration on the Moratorium on the Importation, Exportation and Manufacture of Light Weapons, adopted by the ECOWAS Heads of State in Abuja on 30-31 October 1998 and the Programmer for Co-ordination of Assistance for Security and Development (PCASED), HELD IN Bamako o 24 March 1999. Meeting in Abuja on 9 July 2001, ECOWAS heads of state and government extended the moratorium for another 3 years.

The ECOWAS Declaration of Political Principles in 1991 set out member states commitment to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law.. This was taken further in December 2001, with declarations on Child Rights and Human Trafficking, and most importantly, the Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, which addresses root causes of conflicts, such as corruption and instability. This is a supplementary protocol to the Protocol on the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, Peace and Security, and deals with issues such as free and fair elections, civilian control of the military and unconstitutional, changes of government.

Plans for the establishment of a regional criminal investigation and intelligence bureau were considered at meetings of the ECOWAS Police Chiefs on 23 September 2002 and the Interior Ministers on 26 September 2002 as part of efforts to combat cross-border criminal activities.

ECOMOG

ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) operations started in Liberia to prevent the overthrow of the unpopular government of President Samuel. Doe by the National. Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) led by Charles Taylor. Doe called on the Community for help. His request would eventually split the Community when the Anglophone countries, led by Nigeria, decided to assist, while the Francophone countries largely opposed the military intervention.

The intervention force that landed in Liberia on 24 August 1990 consisted of troops contributed by Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone and the Gambia. Successive fighting, looting and killing were temporarily halted by a number of short-lived peace accords until the fourteenth peace accord was signed in Abuja in August 1996. ECOMOG oversaw the subsequent elections on 19 July 1997 that swept Taylor to power in a landslide victory. The Group departed in February 1998, having earned grudging respect for its role in the latter years.

The barbarity and cruelty seen in the NPFL operations in Liberia were mirrored in those of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) under Foday Sankoh in neighboring Sierra Leone from Liberia. RUF operations started in March 1991. In 1994 the Sierra Leonean and Nigerian governments signed a defense pact, and ECOWAS soon extended the mandate of ECOMOG in Liberia to include Sierra Leone, and moved its headquarters from Monrovia to Freetown. A cease-fire between the government and the RUF eventually came into effect on 24 May 1998, followed with a peace deal on 7 July 1999. ECOMOG would eventually reinforce its troops to almost 15,000 before the United Nations Assistance Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), took over in accordance with the Lome Accords.

ECOMOG has played a lesser role in Guinea-Bissau where President Vieira called on ECONOMIC to intervene and help put down the rebellion in his country in 1998 led by the former Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Brigadier Ansumane Mane. The first cease fire of 26 July 1998 would eventually lead to a peace agreement signed on 1 November in Abuja that called for a 600 man ECOMOG force to police the withdrawal of Guinea and Senegalese soldiers and hold elections.

The ECOWAS Foreign Ministers recommended, on 3 March 1998 in Yamoussoukro, Cote d’Ivoire, that ECOMOG formally become responsible for peacekeeping operations in West Africa and sought to provide a clearer command chain in the light of the often complex relationship between ECOMOG and ECOWAS. The Yamoussoukro decision reflected not only the reality of ECOMOG, but served to recognize the dominant role of Nigeria, although the decision provided for the broadening of the troop contributions and a rotating Force Commander, as opposed to predominantly Nigerian commanders. Although Nigeria has carried the lions share of ECOMOG, with a civilian government in power since the end of May 1999, Nigerian President Obasanjo made it clear that Nigeria could not continue to do so in future.

The ECOWAS Defense and Security Commission meeting in Abidjan from 14-18 August 2002 approved a harmonized training programme for ECOMOG stand-by units in three training schools in the regional. The three schools are: the Peacekeeping School in Zambakro, Cote d'Ivoire, the Kofi Annan International Training Centre in Accra, Ghana, and the National War College in Abuja, Nigeria. They would respectively handle tactical, operational and strategic training programmes. It would become compulsory for each.

Member state to have standby units, to be inspected regularly by the Commission. Plans are also underway to the set up two military bases for the storage of common user equipment and other items recovered from past operations. These bases would be established in. one coastal country and one landlocked country in the region. Proposal for the financing of ECOMOG peacekeeping developments include a 0. 5% levy on import duties collected in the ECOWAS region.

Since September 2002, a military rebellion in Cote d'Ivoire has drawn ECOWAS into peacekeeping duties in that country A meeting of the Mediation and Security Council of the ECOWAS Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resource and Security met on 26 October and agreed to the deployment of some 2,396 West African troops to monitor a ceasefire signed on 17 October. So far, Benin, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo and the Gambia have pledged troops to the force.

The ECOWAS Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management,

Resolution and Security

In July 1991, while endorsing the ECOWAS Revised Treaty, the Authority of Heads of State and Government adopted a declaration of political principle to promote mutual collaboration in defense and security issues. A subsequent extraordinary ECOWAS summit in December 1997 in Togo established a Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution and Security. This was followed by the Yamoussoukro meeting of Ministers of Defense, Interior and Foreign Affairs in March 1998, and the ministerial and experts meeting in Banjul during July 1998. The document was finally accepted and endorsed by the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government at the Abuja summit in August 1999 and sought to institutionalize structures and Government that would ensure consultation and collective management of regional security issues. In the process the Protocol effectively replaced the ECOWAS Protocols Relating to Non-Aggression (PNA) and Mutual Assistance on Defense (PMAD)

The Heads of State and Government of Member States, the Authority' is the highest decision marking body of the Mechanism but, without prejudice, has delegated it powers in terms of Article 7 of the Treaty to the Mediation and Security Council-an innovative approach yet to be copied by other sub-regions. The Mediation and Security Council serves as the equivalent to the UN Security Council at sub-regional level and meets at ambassadorial, ministerial and Heads of State level. Acting on behalf of the Authority of Heads of State, it takes decisions on all issues relating to peace and security of the sub-region.

a) The Committee of Ambassadors of the nine elected Member States of the Council meets each month to review issues of peace and security.

b) The Committee of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defense, Internal Affairs and Security meets at least every 3 months” .... To review the general political and security situations in the sub-region.”

c) The Heads of State of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council meets at least twice a year, and has the authority to make final decisions on the appropriate measures, policies and mandates to be taken with regard to situations under consideration with a two-thirds majority vote of the Members present.

The Council can authorize all forms of intervention, including the decision to deploy political and military mission, inform the UN and the AU of its decisions, provide and review mandates and terms of reference, appoint force commanders, etc. The Council can therefore, amongst others, appoint a Special Representative as Chief of a Mission, appoint a force commander and deploy ECOMOG. Other components of the Mechanism include the Defense and Security Commission, Executive Secretary, Council of Elders and ECOMOG.

The Executive Secretary has the power to initiate fact finding, mediation, facilitation, negotiations and reconciliation actions in the effective and management of conflicts in the sub-region. The office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Political Affairs, Defense and Security supervises the Departments of Political Affairs, Humanitarian Affairs, Defense and Security and the Observation and Monitoring Centre. The Centre is the hub of the Early Warning System which has four Observation and Monitoring Zones within the sub-region. During May 2001 ECOWAS signed an agreement with Benin to establish an observation zone in Cotonou whose role would be to signal potential of- conflicts in Benin, Nigeria and Togo. This would be the fourth zone. The others are in Banjul (Gambia), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) and Cotonou (Benin) established to collect data on potential disputes for transmission to the central ECOWAS observatory in Abuja. The first agreement was signed with Burkina Faso.

The Mediation and Security Council of the Mechanism was officially launched in Monrovia during May 2000. The meeting, which marked the first ordinary session of the council, followed two special sessions held in Bamako, Mali, and discussed the transfer of power of the different ECOWAS mediation committees to the Council. At the time the members of the Council comprises Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo.

THE AFRICAN UNION (AU)

The advent of the African. Union (AU) can be described as an event of great magnitude in the institutional evolution of the continent. On 9.9.1999, the Heads of State and Government of the Organisation of African. Unity issued a Declaration (the Site Declaration) calling for the establishment of an African Union, with a view, inter alia, to accelerating the process of integration in the continent to enable it play its rightful role in the global economy, while addressing multi faceted social, economic and political problems compounded as they are by certain, negative aspects of globalization.

The main objectives of the OAU were, internalize, to rid the continent of the remaining vestiges of colonization and apartheid; to promote unity and solidarity among African States; to coordinate and intensify cooperation for development; to safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Member States and to promote international cooperation within the frame work of the United Nations.

Indeed, as a continental organization, the OAU provided an effective forum that enabled all Member States to adopt coordinated positions on matters of common concern to the continent in international forums and defend the interests of Africa effectively. Through the OAU Coordinating Committee for the Liberation of Africa, the Continent worked and spoke as one with undivided determination in forging an international consensus in support of the liberation struggle and the fight against apartheid.

Quest for Unity

African countries, in their quest for unity, economic and social development under the banner of the OAU, have taken various initiatives and made substantial progress in many areas that paved the way for the establishment of the AU. Noteworthy among these are: Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) and the Final Act of Lagos (1980); incorporating programmes and strategies for self-reliant development and cooperation among African countries. The African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Nairobi 1981) and the Grand Bay

Declaration and Plan of Action on I luman Rights:, the two instruments adopted by the OAU to promote Human and Peoples Rights in the Continent. The Human Rights Charter led to the establishment of the African Human Rights Commission located in Banjul, Gambia. Africa's Priority Programme for Economic Recovery (APPER) — 1985: an emergency programme designed to address the development of crisis in the 1980s, in the wake of protracted drought and famine that had engulfed the continent and the crippling effect of Africa's external indebtedness.

OAU Declaration on the Political and Socio-Economic Situation in Africa and the Fundamental Changes taking place in the World (1990): which underscored Africa's resolve to seize the imitative, to determine its destiny and to address the challenges to peace, democracy and security The Charter on Popular Participation adopted in 1990: a testimony to the renewed determination of the OAU to endeavour to place the African citizen at the center of development and decision-making.

The Treaty establishing the African Economic Community (AEC) - 1991: commonly known as the Abuja Treaty, it seeks to create the AEC through six stages culminating in an African Common Market using the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) as building blocks. The Treaty has been in operation since 1994.

The Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution (1993): a practical expression of the determination of the African leadership to find solutions to conflicts, promote peace, security and stability in Africa.

Cairo Agenda for Action (1995): a programme for relaunching Africa's political, economic and social development. African Common Position on Africa’s External Debt Crisis (1997): a strategy for addressing the continents external debt crisis. The Algiers Decision on Unconstitutional Changes of Government (1999) and the Lome Declaration on the Framework for an OAU Response to Unconstitutional Changes (2000).

The 2000 Solemn Declaration of the Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation: establishes the fundamental principles for the promotion of Democracy and Good Governance in the Continent. Responses to other challenges: Africa has initiated collective action through the OAU in the protection of environment, in fighting international terrorism, in combating the scourge of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, malaria and tuberculosis or dealing with humanitarian issues such as refugees and displaced persons, landmines, small and light weapons among others.

The Constitutive Act of the African Union: adopted in 2000 at the Lome Summit (Togo) entered into force in 2001. The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD): adopted as a Programme of the AU at the Lusaka Summit (2001).

Advent of the AU

The OAU initiatives paved the way for the birth of AU. In July 1999, the Assembly decided to convene an extraordinary session to expedite the process of economic and political integration in the continent. Since then, four Summits have been held leading to the official launching of the African Union. The Sirte Extraord in ary Session (1999) decided to establish an African Union The Lome Summit (2000) adopted the Constitutive Act of the Union.

The Lusaka Summit (2001) drew the road map for the implementation of the AU The Durban Summit (2002) launched the AU and convened the 1st Assembly of the Heads of States of the African. Union. 

The Vision of the AU

The AU is Africa’s premier institution and principal organization for the promotion of accelerated socio-economic integration of the continent, which will lead to greater unity and solidarity between African countries and peoples. The AU is based on the common vision of a united and strong Africa and on the need to build a partnership between governments and all segments of civil society, in particular women, youth and the private sector, in order to strengthen solidarity and cohesion amongst the peoples of Africa.

As a continental organization it focuses on the promotion of peace, security and stability in the continent as a prerequisite for the implementation of the development and integration agenda of the Union.

The Objectives of the AU

i. To achieve greater unity and solidarity between the African countries and the peoples of Africa;

ii. To defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its Member States;

iii. To accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the continent;

iv. To promote and defend African common positions on issues of interest to the continent and its peoples;

v. To encourage international cooperation, taking due account of the Charter of the United Nations and rhe Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

vi. To promote peace, security, and stability on the continent;

vi To promote democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance;

viii. To promote and protect human and peoples' rights in accordance with the African Charter on human and Peoples Rights and other relevant human rights instruments;

ix. To establish the necessary conditions which would enable the continent to play its rightful role in the global economy and in international negotiations;

x. To promote sustainable development at the economic, social and cultural levels as well as the integration of African economies;

xi. To promote co-operation in all. fields of human activity to raise the living standards of African peoples;

xii. To coordinate and harmonize the policies between the existing and future Regional Economic Communities for the gradual attainment of the objectives of the Union;

xiii. To advance the development of the continent by promoting research in all. fields, in particular in science and technology;

xiv. . To work with relevant international partners in the eradication of preventable diseases and the promotion of good health of the citizen.

The Organs of the AU

Assembly

Composed of Heads of State and Government or their duly accredited representatives. The  Assembly of Heads of State and Government is the supreme organ of the Union.

Executive Council

Composed of Ministers or Authorities designated by the Governments of Members States. The Executive Council is responsible to the Assembly

The Commission

Composed of the Chairperson, the Deputy Chairperson, eight Commissioners and Staff members; Each Commissioner shall be responsible for a portfolio.

Permanent .Representatives Committee

Composed of Permanent Representatives of Member States accredited to the Union. The Permanent Representatives Committee is charged with the responsibility of preparing the work of the Executive Council.

Peace and Security Council (PSC)

By decision Al IG/Dec 160 (xxxvii) of the Summit of Lusaka. July 2001, a decision was made for the creation within the African Union, the Peace and Security Council. The Protocol establishing the PSC is in the process of ratification.

Pan-African Parliament 

A Pan-African Parliament and organ to ensure the full participation of African peoples in governance, development and economic integration of the Continent. The protocol relating to the composition, powers, functions and organization of the Pan-African Parliament has been signed by Member States and is in the process of ratification

CECOSOC

The Economic, Social and Cultural Council, an advisory organ composed of different social and professional groups of the Member States of the Union. The statutes determining the functions, powers, composition and organization of the Economic, Social and Cultural

Council have been prepared and will be submitted to Maputo Summit. A Court of Justice of the Union shall be established. The statutes defining the composition and functions of the Court of Justice have been prepared and will be submitted to the Assembly in Maputo.

Specialized Technical Committees

The following Specialized Technical Committees are meant to address sectoral issues and are at Ministerial Level:

• The Committee on Rural Economy and Agricultural Matters;
• The Committee on Monetary and Financial Affairs;
• The Committee on Trade, Customs and Immigration Matters;
• The Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, Energy; Natural Resources and Environment;
• The Committee on Transport, Communications and Tourism;
• The Committee on I lealth, Labour and Social Affairs; and
• The Committee on Education, Culture and Human Resources.

The Financial Institutions

• The African Central Bank
• The African Monetary Fund
• The African Investment Bank

Progress in the implementation of the Constitutive Act

Since the Lusaka Summit decisions on the transition from OAU to AU, progress has been made ” follows:

The preparation and adoption of the Legal Instruments for the operationalization and the launching of the 4 principal organs: The Assembly, The Executive Council, The Commission and the Permanent Representatives Committee. The elaboration of the Structure of the Commission and the conditions of service of staff.

Completion of the Studies and Legal Instrument for the operationalization of ECOSOCC Completion of the studies on the financing of the AU Preparation of the statutes of the Court of Justice Transfer of assets and liabilities from the OAU to the AU Preparation of a Protocol on Relations between the AU and RECS Finalization of the Protocol on the Pan-African Parliament (under ratification)

Finalization of the Protocol on the Peace and Security Council (under ratification) Preparation of the Policy Framework for the establishment of the African Standby Force and the Military Staff Committee Finalization of the process of electing Members of the Commission by the Assembly of the LInion.

The AU Commission

The Commission is the key organ playing a central role in the day-to-day management of the African Union. Among others, it represents the LInion and defends its interests; elaborates draft common positions of the Union; prepares strategic plans and studies for the consideration of the Executive Council; elaborates, promotes, coordinates and harmonizes the programmes and policies of the Union with those of the RECs; ensures the mainstreaming of gender in all. programmes and activities of the Union.

Members of the Commission

• Chairperson;
• Deputy Chairperson;
• Eight (8) Commissioners.
• Staff members

Portfolios of the Commission

PEACE AND SECURITY (Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, and Combating Terrorism...)

POLITICAL AFFAIRS

(Human Rights, Democracy, Good Governance, Electoral Institutions, Civil Society Organizations, Humanitarian Affairs, Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons)

INFRASTRUCTURE AND ENERGY

(Energy, Transport, Communications, Infrastructure and Tourism...)

SOCIAL AFFAIRS

(Health, Children, Drug Control, Population, Migration, Labour and Employment, Sports and Culture...)

HUMAN RESOURCES, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

(Education, Information Technology Communication, Youth, Human Resources, Science and Technology...)

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

(Trade, Industry, Customs and Immigration Matters...)

RURAL ECONOMY AND AGRICULTURE

(Rural Economy, Agriculture and Food Security, Livestock, Environment, Water, Natural Resources and Desertification...)

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

(Economic Integration, Monetary Affairs, Private Sector Development, Investment and Resource Mobilization...).

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS CONCERNED WITH PROMOTION OF PEACE AND UNDERSTANDING.

THE COMMONWEALTH;

Origin

The Commonwealth of Nations, usually known as the Commonwealth, is a voluntary association of 53 independent sovereign states, most of which are former British colonies, or dependencies of these colonies (the exceptions Being the United Kingdom itself, Mozambique and Rwanda). No single government in the Commonwealth, British or otherwise, exercises power over the others, as in a political union. Rather, the relationship is one of an international organization through which countries with diverse social, political, and economic backgrounds are regarded as equal in status, and co-operate within a framework of common values and goals, as outlined in the Singapore Declaration.

These include the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism, and world peace and are carried out through multilateral projects and meetings, as well as the quadrennial Commonwealth Games. 

The symbol of this free association is Queen Elizabeth II, known for this purpose as Head of the Commonwealth. This position, however, does not imbue her with any political or executive power over any Commonwealth member states; the position is purely symbolic. The Commonwealth Secretary-General is the chief executive of the organization. 

Queen Elizabeth II is also the monarch, separately, of sixteen members of the Commonwealth, collectively called the Commonwealth realms. As each realm is an independent kingdom, Elizabeth II, as monarch, holds a distinct title for each, though, by a Prime Ministers' Conference in 1952, all include the style Head of the Commonwealth at the end; for example: Elizabeth the Second, By The Grace Of God Queen Of  Australia and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth. Beyond the realms, the majority of the members of the Commonwealth have their own, separate heads of state:, thirty-two members are republics, and five members have distinct monarchs: the Sultan of Brunei; the King of Lesotho; the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia; the King of Swaziland; and the King of Tonga.

Although performing a vastly different function, the Commonwealth is the successor of the British Empire. In 1884, while visiting Adelaide, South Australia, Lord Roseberry described the changing British Empire, as some of its colonies became more independent, as a “Commonwealth of Nations” Conferences of British and colonial Prime Ministers had occurred periodically since 1887, leading to the creation of the Imperial Conferences in the late 1920s.

The formal organisation of the Commonwealth developed from the Imperial Conferences, where the independence of the self-governing colonies and especially of dominions was recognised. The Irish Oath of Allegiance, agreed in 1921, included the Irish Free States adherence to and membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of Nations. In the Balfour Declaration at the Imperial Conference in 1926, Britain and its dominions agreed they were equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations. This relationship was eventually formalised by the Statute of Westminster in 1931.

Remaining members gain independence

After World War II, the Empire was gradually dismantled, partly owing to the rise of independence movements in the then-subject territories and partly owing to the British Governments strained circumstances resulting from the cost of the war. In 1949, the word 11 British’1 was dropped from the title of the Commonwealth to reflect its changing nature. Burma (a.k.a. Myanmar, 1948), and Aden. {1967) are the only former colonies not to have joined the Commonwealth upon post-war independence.

Among the former British protectorates and mandates, those that never became members of the Commonwealth are Egypt (independent in 1922), Iraq (1932), Transjordan (1946), Palestine (which became, in part, the state of Israel in 1948), Sudan (1956), British Somaliland (which became part of Somalia, I960),. Kuwait (1961), Bahrain (1971), Oman (1971), Qatar (1971), and the United Arab Emirates (1971). The Republic of Ireland left the Commonwealth upon, becoming a republic in 1949. However, the Ireland Act 1949 passed by the Parliament of Westminster gave citizens of the Republic of Ireland a status similar to that of citizens of the Commonwealth in UK law.

Members with heads of state other than the British Sovereign

The issue of countries with constitutional structures not based on a shared Crown, but who wished to remain members of the Commonwealth, was resolved in April 1949 at a Commonwealth Prime Ministers1 meeting in London. Linder this London Declaration, India agreed that, when it becomes a republic, in January 1950, it would accept the British

Sovereign as a “symbol of the free association of its independent member nations and, as such, Head of the Commonwealth".

The other Commonwealth countries in turn recognised India's continuing membership of the association. (At Pakistan’s insistence, India was not regarded as an exceptional case and it was assumed that other states would be accorded the same treatment as India).

The London Declaration is o fte n seen as marking the begin ingot the modern Commonwealth. Following India's precedent, other nations became republics or constitutional monarchies with monarchs different from the British.

Old, New and White Commonwealth

As the Commonwealth grew; Britain and pre-1945 Dominions (k term formally dropped in the 1940s) became informally known as the “Old Commonwealth”, particularly since the 1960s when some of them disagreed with poorer, African and Asian (or New Commonwealth) members about various issues at Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings.. Accusations that the old, "White" Commonwealth had different interests from African Commonwealth nations in particular, and charges of racism and colonialism arose during heated debates about Rhodesia in the 1960s and 1970s, the imposition of sanctions against apartheid-era South Africa in the 1980s and, more recently, about whether to press for democratic reforms in Nigeria and then Zimbabwe. The term is also used in the United Kingdom (especially in the 1960s and 1970s) to refer to recently decolonised countries, that are predominantly non-white and underdeveloped. It was often used in debates about immigration from these countries.

In recent years, the term "White Commonwealth” has been used in a derogatory sense to imply that the wealthier, white nations of the Commonwealth had different interests and goals from the non-white, and particularly the African members. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has used the term frequently to allege that the Commonwealth’s attempts to force political changes in his country are motivated by racism and colonialist attitudes and that the White Commonwealth dominates the Commonwealth of Nations as a whole.

Membership

Membership criteria

These criteria were unenforceable for two decades, until, in 1991, the Harare Declaration was issued, dedicating the leaders to applying the Singapore principles to the completion of decolonization, the end of the Cold War, and the fall of Apartheid in South Africa. The mechanisms by which these principles would be applied were created, and the manner clarified, by the 1995 Millbrook Commonwealth Action Programme, which created the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), which has the power to rule on whether members meet the requirements for membership under the Harare Declaration. " Also in 1995, an Inter-Governmental Group was created to finalise and codify the full requirements for membership. Upon reporting in 1997, as adopted under the Edinburgh Declaration, the Inter-Governmental Group ruled that any future members would have to have a direct constitutional link with an existing member.

In addition to this new rule, the former rules were consolidated into a single document.

These requirements, that remain the same today, are that members must:

• Accept and comply with the Harare principles.
• Be fully sovereign states.
• Recognise the monarch of the Commonwealth realms as the Head of the Commonwealth.
• Accept the English language as the means of Commonwealth communication.
• Respect the wishes of the general population Commonwealth membership.

These requirements are undergoing review; and a report on potential amendment was to be presented to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2007. 

The Commonwealth comprises 53 countries. 

The members have a combined population of approximately 2 billion people, almost a third of the world population , and over twice as many as the whole of the Americas (North and South) put together. Of this figure,. 1.4 billion people live in the Indian subcontinent, and 93% live in Asia and Africa combined. The five largest Commonwealth nations by population are India (1.1 billion), Pakistan (165 million), Bangladesh (148 m), Nigeria (137 m),. and the United Kingdom (60 m). Tuvalu is the smallest member, with only 11,000 people.

The land area of the Commonwealth nations is about 31.5m km2 (12.1m square miles), or about 21% of the total world land area. The three largest Commonwealth nations by area are Canada at 10.0m km2 (3.9m sq. miles), Australia at 7.7m km2 (3.0m sq. miles) and India at 3.3m km2 (1.3m sq. miles). 

The three largest Commonwealth economies, as measured in purchasing power parity; are  Britain ($2.1 trillion), Canada ($13 trillion) and India.

The status of 'Member in Arrears' is used to denote those that are in arrears in paying subscription dues to the Commonwealth.. The status was originally known as 'Special Membership', but was renamed on the Committee on Commonwealth Membership's recommendation. Currently, there is one Member in Arrears: Nauru. Nauru joined as a Special Member, but was a full member from May 1999 to January 2006, when it reverted back. 

As stated, above, new members must "as a general rule' have a direct constitutional link to an existing member. In most cases, the existing member is the United Kingdom, but some have links to other countries, either exclusively or more directly (e.g. Samoa to New Zealand, Papua New Guinea to Australia, and Namibia to South Africa). Mozambique is a member of the Commonwealth which has never had any constitutional link to the British Empire or a Commonwealth member. It is a former Portuguese colony, was admitted in 1995 on the back of the triumphal re-admission of South Africa and Mozambique's first democratic elections, held in 1994. Mozambique's entry was controversial, leading to the Edinburgh Declaration and the current membership guidelines. The newest member is Rwanda which joined in 2008, a former Belgian colony.

Applicants

Rwanda (since 2003), Sudan, Algeria, Madagascar and Yemen have applied to join the Commonwealth, and there was some interest expressed by Israel (being formerly administered by the United Kingdom) and the Palestinian National Authority.

Other eligible applicants could come from any of the remaining inhabited British overseas territories, Crown dependencies, Australian external territories and Associated States of New Zealand if any become fully independent. Many such jurisdictions are already directly represented within the Commonwealth, particularly through the Commonwealth Family.

A delegation led by the then President of Somaliland, Dahir Riyal e Kahin, was invited to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Uganda in 2007. Presently, Somaliland's independence is not internationally recognised, but its history as a British protectorate would mean that it would be able to apply for re-entry into the Commonwealth, should it ever achieve international recognition.

Suspensions

In recent years the Commonwealth has suspended several members “from the Councils of the Commonwealth for failure to uphold democratic government. Suspended members are not represented at meetings of Commonwealth leaders and ministers, although they remain members of the organisation.

Fiji, which was not a member of the Commonwealth between 1987 and 1997 as a result of a republican coup detat, was suspended in 2000-2001 after a military coup- Fiji was suspended once again following the military coup of December 2006.

Nigeria was suspended between 1995 and 1999. 

Zimbabwe was suspended in 2002 over concerns with the electoral and land reform policies of Robert Mugabes ZANU-PF government, before withdrawing from the organization in 2003. The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland came close to being admitted as a full commonwealth member, but prospects for this were suspended, indefinitely, following Southern Rhodesia's unilateral declaration of independence in 1965.

Pakistan was first suspended between 1999 and 2004. On 12 November 2007, in response to the 2007 Pakistani state of emergency, the Commonwealth gave Pakistan a 10-day deadline to restore its constitution and lift other emergency measures or face another suspension from the 53-nation grouping. On 22 November 2007, after the 10-day deadline had expired, Pakistan was suspended from the Commonwealth for violating its key principles, on the grounds of President Musharraf s refusal to give up his role as head of the army restore an independent judiciary and lift the state of emergency in the country After general elections were held in Pakistan on 18 February 2008, Pakistan was invited to rejoin the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), which addresses serious or persistent violations of the Commonwealths values and principles, said on 12 May 2008 that it had lifted Pakistan's suspension from the councils of the Commonwealth with immediate effect.

Termination of membership

As membership is purely voluntary, member governments can choose at any time to leave the Commonwealth. Pakistan left in 1972 in protest at the Commonwealths recognition of breakaway Bangladesh, but rejoined in 1989. Zimbabwe left in 2003 when Commonwealth Heads of Government refused to lift the country suspension on the grounds of human rights violations and deliberate misgovernment.

Although I leads of Government have the power to suspend member states from active participation., the Commonwealth has no provision for the expulsion of members. Until 2007, Commonwealth realms that became republics automatically ceased to be members, until (like India in 1950) they obtained the permission of other members to remain in the organisation. This policy has been changed, so if any current Commonwealth Realms were to become republics, they would not have to go through this process. The Irish Free State left the Commonwealth when it declared itself republic, on 18 April 1949, after passing the Republ ic of Ireland Act 1948; because it preceded India's London Declaration, remaining in the Commonwealth was not an option.

South Africa was prevented from continuing as a member after it became a republic in 1961, due to hostility from many members, particularly those in Africa and Asia as well as Canada, to its polity of apartheid. The South African government withdrew' its application to remain in the organization as a republic when it became clear at the 1961 Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference that any such application would be rejected. South Africa was readmitted to the Commonwealth in 1994, following the end of apartheid earlier that same year.

The Maldives left the Commonwealth in 1965 after declaring their independence from the United Kingdom; they were re-admitted to the Commonwealth on 9 July 1982. The declaration of a republic in the Fiji Islands in 1987, after military coups designed to deny Indo-Fijians political power in Fiji, was not accompanied by application to remain.

Commonwealth membership was held to have lapsed until 1997. after racist provisions in the republican constitution were repealed and reapplication for membership made. Hong Kong was not a member but participated in certain elements as a British colony; these ceased after the 1997 handover of British rule to China.

France

France secretly considered membership in the 1950s, under the leadership of Prime Minister Guy Mollet. In the context of nationalization of the Suez Canal, colonial unrest, and increasing tensions between British-backed Jordan and French-backed Israel, Mollet saw a union between Britain and France as a possible solution. A British Government document of the time reported "That the French would welcome a common citizenship arrangement on the Irish basis”. The request was turned down by the British prime minister Anthony Eden, along with a request for Commonwealth membership, and a year later France signed the Treaty of Rome with West Germany and the other founding nations of the Com me Market, later to become the EU.

Objectives and activities

The Commonwealths objectives were first outlined in the 1971 Singapore Declaration, which committed the Commonwealth to the institution of world peace; promotion of representative democracy and individual liberty; the pursuit of equality and opposition to racism; the fight against poverty, ignorance, and disease; and promotion of free trade. To these were added opposition to discrimination on the basis of gender by the Lusaka Declaration of 1979 (which mostly concerned racism) These objectives were reinforced by the Harare Declaration in 1991.

The Commonwealth's current highest-priority aims are on the promotion of democracy and development, as outlined in the 2003 Aso Rock Declaration, which built on those in Singapore and Harare, and clarified their terms of reference, stating: "We are committed to democracy, good governance, human rights, gender equality, and a more equitable sharing of the benefits of globalization." The Commonwealth website lists its areas of work as: Democracy, Economics, Education, Gender, Governance, Human Rights, Law, Small States, Sport, Sustainability, and Youth.

The Commonwealth has long been distinctive as an international forum where highly developed economies (such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Singapore, and New Zealand) and many of the worlds poorer countries seek to reach agreement by consensus. This aim has sometimes been difficult to achieve, as when disagreements over Rhodesia in the late 1960s and 1970s and over apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s led to a cooling of relations between the United Kingdom and African members.

Through a separate voluntary fund, Commonwealth governments support the Commonwealth Youth Programme, a division of the Secretariat with offices in Gulu (Uganda), Lusaka (Zambia), Chandigarh (India), Georgetown (Guyana) and Honiara (Solomon Islands).

The organisation is celebrated each year on Commonwealth Day, the second Monday in March.

STRUCTURE

Head of the Commonwealth

Under the formula of the London Declaration, Queen Elizabeth II is the Head of the Commonwealth, a title that is currently annexed to that of British monarchy However, when the monarch dies, the successor to the crown does not automatically become I lead of the Commonwealth. The position is symbolic: representing the free association of independent members. Some members of the Commonwealth, known as Commonwealth realms, also recognise the Queen as their head of state. However, the majority of members are republics, and a handful of others are indigenous monarchies.

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting

The main decision-making forum of the organisation is the biennial Commonwealth Heads of  Government Meeting (CHOGM), where Commonwealth Heads of Government, including (amongst others) Prime Ministers and Presidents, assemble for several days to discuss matters of mutual interest. CH OGM is the successor to the Prime Ministers' Conferences and earlier Imperial Conferences and Colonial Conferences dating back to 1887 There are also regular meetings of finance ministers, law ministers, health ministers, etc. Members in Arrears, as Special Members before them, are not invited to send representatives to either ministerial meetings.

Commonwealth Secretariat

The Commonwealth Secretariat, established in 1965, is the main in tergovern me n ta I agency of the Commonwealth, facilitating consultation and cooperation among member governments and countries. It is responsible to member governments collectively. Based in London, the Secretariat organises Commonwealth summits, meetings of ministers, consultative meetings and technical discussions; it assists policy development and provides policy advice, and facilitates multilateral communication among the member governments. It also provides technical assistance to help governments in the social and economic development of their countries and in support of the Commonwealths fundamental political values.

The Secretariat is headed by the Commonwealth Secretary-General who is elected by Commonwealth Heads of Government for no more than two four-year terms. The Secretary-General and two Deputy Sec re taries-G eneral direct the divisions of the Secretariat. The present Secretary-General is Kamalesh Sharma, from India, who took office on 1 April 2008, succeeding Don McKinnon of New Zealand (2000-2008). The first Secretary-General was Arnold Smith of Canada (1965-75), followed by Sir Shridath Ramphl of Guyana (1975-90)

Commonwealth Family

Commonwealth countries share many links outside government, with over a hundred Commonwealth-wide non-governmental organisations, notably on sport, culture, education and charity; The Association of Commonwealth Universities is an important vehicle for academic links, particularly through scholarships, principally the Commonwealth Scholarship, for students to study in universities in other Commonwealth countries.. There are also many non-official associations that bring together individuals who work within the spheres of law and government, such as the Commonwealth Lawyers Association and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association..

Commonwealth Foundation

The Commonwealth Foundation is an intergovernmental organisation, resourced by and reporting to Commonwealth governments, and guided by Commonwealth values and priorities. Its mandate is to strengthen civil society in the achievement of Commonwealth priorities: democracy and good governance, respect for human rights and gender equality; poverty eradication and sustainable, people-centred development, and to promote arts and culture.

The Commonwealth Foundation was established hyr the Heads of Government in 1965. Membership to the Foundation is open to all members of the Commonwealth and (as of June 2007) stood at 46 governments out of the 53 member countries. Associate Membership, which is open to associated states or overseas territories of member governments, has been granted to Gibraltar. 2005 saw celebrations for the Foundations 40th Anniversary; The Foundation is headquartered in Marlborough House, Pall. Mall, London, and has no other offices. Regular liaison and cooperation between the Secretariat and the Foundation is in place. The Foundation continues to serve the broad purposes for which it was established as written in the Memorandum of Understanding:

The purposes and areas of interest of the Foundation will be the administration of funds for increasing interchanges between. Commonwealth organisations of the skilled or learned professions or skilled auxiliary occupations in order to maintain and improve standards of knowledge, attainment and conduct; and between non-governmental organisations of a voluntary rather than a strictly professional character throughout the Commonwealth. The Foundations areas of interest will also extend to include culture, information and the media, rural development, social welfare and the handicapped, and the role of women.

Commonwealth Games

A multi-sports championship called the Commonwealth Games is held every four years, in the same year as the Winter Olympic Games. As well as the usual athletic disciplines, the games include sports popular in the Commonwealth.

Commonwealth of Learning

The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) is an intergovernmental organisation created by the Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning distance education knowledge, resources and technologies. COL is helping developing nations improve access to quality education and training.

Commonwealth Business Council

The Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) was formed at the Edinburgh CHOGM in 1997. The aim was to utilise the global network of the Commonwealth more effectively for the promotion of global trade and investment for shared prosperity

The CBC acts as a bridge for co-operation between business and government, concentrating efforts on these specific areas:

• Enhancing trade
• Facilitating ICT for Development
• Mobilising investment
• Promoting corporate citizenship
• Public Private Partnerships

The CBC has a dedicated team, CBC Technologies, based in London and focused on the international technology and global services industry throughout the Commonwealth.

Commonwealth War  Graves Commission

The Commonwealth is also useful as an international organization that represents significant cultural and historical links between wealthy first-word countries and poorer nations with diverse social and religious backgrounds.. The common inheritance of the English language and literature, the common law, and British systems of administration all underpin the club like atmosphere of the Commonwealth.

Mostly due to their history of British rule, many Commonwealth nations share certain identifiable traditions and customs that are elements of a shared Commonwealth culture. Examples include common sports such as cricket and rugby, driving on the left, parliamentary and legal traditions, and the use of British rather than American spelling conventions (see English in the Commonwealth of Nations). None of these are universal within the Commonwealth countries, nor exclusive to them, but all of them are more common in the Commonwealth than elsewhere.

In recent years the Commonwealth model has inspired similar initiatives on the part of France, Spain and Portugal and their respective ex-colonies, and in the former was  other sympathetic governments: Organisation of Internationale De la Francophonie  ( the International Organisation Of Francophone Countries), the Comunidad Iberoamericana de Naciones (Organization of Ibero-American States) and. the Comunidade dos Paises de Lingua Portuguese (Community of Portuguese Language Countries). The Arab League, an association similar to the Commonwealth, was founded in 1945 and whose members and observers (except observer state India) use Arabic as an official language.

Literature

The shared history of British rule has also produced a substantial body of writing in many languages: Commonwealth literature. There is an Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (ACLALS) writh nine chapters worldwide. ACLALS holds an international conference every three years.

In 1987, the Commonwealth Foundation established the Commonwealth Writers Prize “to encourage and reward the upsurge of new Commonwealth fiction and ensure that works of merit reach a wider audience outside their country of origin." Caryl Phillips won the Commonwealth Writers Prize 2004 for A Distant Shore. Mark Haddon won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2004 Best First Book prize worth £3,000 for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Hight-time. 

Although not affiliated with the Commonwealth in an official manner, the prestigious Man Booker Prize is awarded annually to an author from a Commonwealth country or the Republic of Ireland. This honour is one of the highest in literature.

NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT (NAM)

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is an international organization of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. The movement is largely the brainchild of the first Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. It was founded in April 1955- As of 2007, it had 118 members. The purpose of the organization as stated in the Havana Declaration of 1979, is to ensure "the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries" in their “struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, Zionism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony, as well as against great power and bloc politics." They represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations members and comprise 55 percent of the world population, particularly countries considered to be developing or part of the third world’.

Members have, at various times, included: Yugoslavia, India, Ghana, Pakistan, Algeria, Libya, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Indonesia, Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela, post-1994 South Africa, Iran, Malaysia, and, for a time, the People’s Republic of China. Brazil has never been a formal member of the movement, but shares many of the aims of NAM and frequently sends observers to the Non-Aligned Movements summits.

While the organization was intended to be as close an alliance as NATO or the Warsaw Pact, it has little cohesion and many of its members were actually quite closely aligned with one or another of the great powers. For example, Cuba was closely aligned with the former Soviet LInion during the Cold War era. Additionally some members were involved in serious conflicts with other members (e.g. India and Pakistan, Iran and Iraq). The movement fractured from its own internal contradictions when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. While the Soviet allies supported the invasion, other members (particularly Islamic nations) of the movement did not. Another country which might be associated with the Non-Aligned Movement is New Zealand. While New Zealand is part of NATO, it has not participated in the war in Iraq or Afghanistan, and does not conscribe to NATO policies as much as the LInited Kingdom or the United States.

The Non-Aligned Movement was formed as an attempt to thwart the Cold War and has struggled to find relevance after the Cold War ended. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, a founding member, its successor states of Yugoslavia have expressed little interest in membership, though some have observer status. In 2004, Malta and Cyprus ceased to be members and joined the European Union. 

Member states of the Non-Aligned Movement (2007). Light blue states have observer status.

The origin of the Non-Aligned Movement

Independent countries, who chose not to join any of the Cold War blocs, were also known as nonaligned nations. Some nations, such as India and Indonesia, were able to maintain their neutrality. But others took sides with the superpowers or played competing sides against each other.

The term "Non-Alignment itself was coined by Indian Prime Minister Nehru during his speech in 1954 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. In this speech, Nehru described the five pillars to be used as a guide for Si no-Indi an relations, which were first put forth by Chinese Premier

Zhou Enlai. Called Panchsheel (five restraints), these principles would later serve as the basis of the Non-Aligned Movement. The five principles were:

• Mutual respect for each others territorial integrity and sovereignty
• Mutual non-aggression
• Mutual non-interference in domestic affairs 
• Equality and mutual benefit
• Peaceful co-existence

A significant milestone in the development of the Non-Aligned Movement was the 1955 Bandung Conference, a conference of Asian and African states hosted by Indonesian President Sukarno. The attending nations declared their desire not to become involved in the Cold War and adopted a ’’’’declaration on promotion of world peace and cooperation”, which included Nehrus five principles. Six years after Bandung, an initiative of Yugoslav President Tito led to the first official Non-Aligned Movement Summit, which was held in September 1961 in Belgrade.

The founding of the Non-Aligned states met in New York in October I960. From left: Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Sukarno of Indonesia and Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia.

At the Lusaka Conference in September 1970, the member nations added peaceful resolution of disputes and abstention from the big power military alliances and pacts as the aim of the movement. Opposition to stationing of military bases in foreign countries was also added as the movements aim. '

The founding fathers of the Non-Aligned Movement, were from Nehru of India, Sukarno of Indonesia, Tito of Yugoslavia, Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. Their actions were known as 'The Initiative of Five".

Organizational Structure & Membership

While the NAM is an organization of united countries, much like the United Nations or NATO, it is unique to some of these organizations in its organization and structure. First, it considers itself to be n on-hierarch al in nature, in that there are no countries that have veto power or have special privileges in certain areas. The chair is rotated at each summit. The administration of the organization falls to the responsibility of a rotating chair, and the rotation is consistent and fair. Secondly, the organization does not have any sort of constitution as many similar organizations do. This was done out of recognition that with so many countries having so many varying viewpoints and priorities, any formal sort of administrative structure would increase divisiveness and eventually lead to the collapse of the organization.

Membership in the organization has changed from the original requirements as well. As the organization has matured and international political circumstances have changed, so too have the requirements. There is an obvious attempt to integrate the requirements of the NAM with the key beliefs of the United Nations. The latest requirements are now that the candidate country has displayed practices in accordance with:

• Respect for fundamental human rights and. for the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
• Respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations.
• Recognition of the equality of all races and of the equality of all nations, large and small.
• Abstention from intervention or interference in the internal affairs of another country
• Respect for the right of each nation to defend itself singly or collectively, in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations.
• Refraining from acts or threats of aggression or the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any country.
• Settlement of all international disputes by peaceful means, in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations.
• Promotion of mutual interests and co-operation.
• Respect for justice and international obligations.

The South Africa Conference on NAM

The NAM is a commitment to world peace and security At the seventh summit held in New Delhi in March 1983, the movement described itself as the "history’s biggest peace movement". The movement places equal emphasis on disarmament. NAM s commitment to peace pre-dates its formal institutionalization in 1961. The Brioni meeting between heads of governments of India, Egypt and Yugoslavia in 1956 recognized that there exists a vital link between struggle for peace and endeavors for disarmament. 

From the 1960s onwards, critics came to see the movement as unduly dominated by states allied to the Soviet Union. Many questioned how countries in close alliance with the Soviet Union, such as Cuba, could claim to be non-aligned. The movement divided against itself over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. This division was an indication that the NAM was indeed aligned, and it is possible that an organization of this nature can never be fully non-aligned.

In contrast, The Non-Aligned Movement believes in policies and practices of cooperation, especially those that are multilateral and provide mutual benefit to all those involved. Many of the members of the NAM are also members of the United Nations and both organizations have a stated policy of peaceful cooperation, yet successes that the NAM has had in multilateral agreements tends to be ignored by the larger, western and developed nation dominated UN. African concerns about apartheid were linked, with Arab-Asian concerns about Palestine and success of multilateral cooperation in these areas has been a stamp of moderate success for the NAM.

The NAM has played a major role in various ideological conflicts throughout its existence, including extreme opposition to apartheid regimes and support of liberation movements in various locations including Zimbabwe and South Africa. The support of these sorts of movements stems from a belief that every state has the right to base policies and practices with national interests in mind and not as a result of relations to a particular power bloc. The Non-aligned movement has become a voice of support for issues facing developing nations and is still contains ideals that are legitimate within this context.

Current Activities and Positions

Anti-American Sentiments

In recent years the US has become a target of the organization. The singular superpower the US invasion of Iraq, its attempts to stifle Iran and North Koreas nuclear plans, and its other actions have been, denounced as human rights violations and attempts to run roughshod over the sovereignty of smaller nations. The movements leaders have also criticized the US overt control over the United Nations and other international, structures, and the war on terrorism. While the organization has rejected terrorism, it condemns the association of terrorism with a particular religion, nationality; or ethnicity, and recognizes the rights of those struggling against colonialism and foreign occupation.

Anti-Israel Sentiments

NAMs Havana Declaration of 1979 adopted anti-Zionism as part of the movements agenda. The movement has denounced Israels occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It has called upon. Israel, to halt its settlement activities, open up border crossings, and cease the use of force and violence against civilians. The UN has also been asked to pressure Israel and to do more to prevent human rights abuses.

Southern Development

The movement is publicly committed to the tenets of sustainable development and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals, hut it believes that the international community has not created conditions conducive to development and has infringed upon the right to sovereign development by each member state. Issues such as globalization, the debt burden, unfair trade practices, the decline in foreign aid, donor conditionality, and the lack of democracy in international financial decision-making, are cited as factors inhibiting development.

Reforms of the UN

The Non-Aligned Movement has been quite outspoken, in its criticism of current UN structures and power dynamics, mostly in how the organization has been utilized by powerful states in ways that violate the movements principles. It has made a number of recommendations that would strengthen the representation and power of "non-aligned" states. The proposed reforms are also aimed at improving the transparency and democracy of UN decision-making. The UN Security Council is the element considered the most distorted, undemocratic, and in need of reshaping.

South-South Cooperation

Lately the Non-Aligned Movement has collaborated with other organizations of the developing world, primarily the Group of 77, forming a number of joint committees and releasing statements and documents representing the shared interests of both groups. This dialogue and cooperation can be taken as an effort to increase the global awareness about the organization and bolster its political clout.

Cultural Diversity and Human Rights

The movement accepts the universality of human rights and social justice, but fiercely resists cultural homogenization. In line with its views on sovereignty; the organization appeals for the protection of cultural diversity, and the tolerance of the religious, socio-cultural, and historical particularities that define human rights in a specific region.

Working Groups, Task forces, Committees

• High-Level Working Group for the Restructuring of the United Nations
• Working Group on Human Rights
• Working Group on Peace-Keeping Operations
• Working Group on Disarmament
• Committee on Palestine
• Task Force on Somalia
• Non-Aligned Security Caucus
• Standing Ministerial Committee for Economic Cooperation
• Joint Coordinating Committee (chaired by Chairman of G-77 and Chairman of NAM)

Contemporary Relevance

Since the end of the Cold War and the formal end of colonialism, the Non-Aligned Movement has been forced to redefine itself and reinvent its purpose in the current world atmosphere. A major question has been whether many of its foundational ideologies, principally national independence, territorial integrity, and the struggle against colonialism and imperialism, can be applied to contemporary issues. The movement has emphasized its principles of multilateralism, equality; and mutual non-aggression in attempting to become a stronger voice for the global South, and an instrument which can be utilized to promote the needs of member nations at the international level and strengthen their political leverage when negotiating with developed nations.

In its efforts to advance Southern interests, the movement has stressed the importance of cooperation and unity amongst member states, but as in the past, cohesion remains a problem since the size of the organization and the divergence of agendas and allegiances present the ongoing potential for fragmentation. While agreement on basic principles has been smooth, taking definitive action vis-a-vis particular international issues has been rare, with the movement preferring to assert its criticism or support rather than pass hard-line resolutions.

The movement continues to see a role for itself, as in its view, the worlds poorest nations remain exploited and marginalized, no longer by opposing superpowers, but rather in a unipolar world, and it is Western hegemony and neo-colonialism that the movement has really re-aligned itself against. It opposes foreign occupation, interference in internal affairs, and aggressive unilateral measures, but it has also shifted to focus on the socio-economic challenges facing member states, especially the inequalities manifested by globalization and the implications of neo-liberal policies. The non-aligned movement has identified economic underdevelopment, poverty; and social injustices as growing threats to peace and security.

Summits

• First Conference - Belgrade, September 1-6, 1961
• Second Conference - Cairo, October 5-10, 1964
• Third Conference - .usaka, September 8-10, 1970
• Fourth Conference - Algiers, September 5-9, 1973
• Fifth Conference - Colombo, August 16-19, 1976
• Sixth Conference - Havana, September 3-9, 1979
• Seventh Conference - New Delhi, march 7-12, 1983
• Eighth Conference - Harare, September 1-6, 1986
• Ninth Conference - Belgrade, September 4-7, 1989
• Tenth Conference - Jakarta, September 1-7, 1992
• Eleventh Conference - Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), October 18-20, 1995
• Twelfth Conference - Durban, September 23 1998
• Thirteenth Conference - Kuala Lumpur, February 20-25, 2003
• Fourteenth Conference - Havana, September 15-16, 2006

Secretaries General

Between summits, the Non-Aligned Movement is run by the Secretary genera/ elected at last summit meeting. As a considerable part of the movement's work is undertaken at the United Nations in New York, the chair country's ambassador to the UN is expected to devote time and effort to matters concerning the Non-Aligned Movement. A Co-coordinating Bureau, also based at the UN, is the main instrument for directing the work of the movement's task forces, committees and working groups.

Chairmen of the Non-Aligned Movement

Member States and Representatives

THE NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)  is a military alliance established by the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4th April 1949. The NATO Headquarters are in Brussels - Belgium, and the organization constitutes a system of collective defense, whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party

For its first few years, NATO was not much more than a political association. However, the Korean War galvanized the member states, and an integrated military structure was built up under the direction of two U.S. supreme commanders. The first NATO Secretary General, Lord Ismay infamously stated the organizations goal was "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down”.

Doubts over the strength of the relationship between the European States and the United States ebbed and flowed, along with doubts over the credibility of the NATO defense against a prospective Soviet invasion. Doubts that led to the development of the independent French nuclear deterrent and the withdrawal of the French from NATOs military structure from 1966.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the organization became drawn into the Balkans, while building better links with former potential enemies to the East, which culminated with several former Warsaw Pact states joining the alliance between 1999 and. 2004. Since the September 1 1, 2001 terrorist attacks, NATO has attempted to refocus itself to new challenges, and has deployed troops to Pakistan and Afghanistan and military trainers to Iraq.

The Berlin Plus agreement is a comprehensive package of agreements made between NATO and the EU on 16 December 2002. With this agreement, the EU was given the possibility to use NATO assets in. case it wanted to act independently in an international crisis, on the condition that NATO itself did not want to act — The so-called “right of first refusal”. Only if NATO refused to act would the EU have the option to act. The combined military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70% of the worlds defense spending, with the United States alone accounting for about half the total, military spending of the world and the United Kingdom and France accounting fora further 10%.

Historical Background

The Treaty of Brussels, signed on 17 March 1948 by Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and the United Kingdom is considered the precursor to the NATO agreement. The treaty and the Soviet Berlin Blockade led to the creation of the Western European Unions Defense Organization in September 1948. However, participation of the United States was thought necessary in order to counter the military power of the USSR, and therefore talks for a new military alliance began almost immediately.

These talks resulted in the North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed in Washington, D.C. on 4 April 1949. It included the five Treaty of Brussels states, as well as the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy Norway Denmark and Iceland. Popular support for the Treaty was not unanimous; some Icelanders commenced a pro-neutrality, anti-membership riot in March 1949. Three years later, on 18 February 1952, Greece and Turkey also joined. “The Parties of NATO agreed that an armed attack against one or more of them in. Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all. Consequently they agreed that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense, will assist the Party or Parties being attacked, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area."

Such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force does not necessarily mean that other member states will respond with military action against the aggressor(s). Rather they are obliged to respond, but maintain the freedom to choose how they will respond. This differs from Article IV of the Treaty of Brussels (which founded the Western European Union) which clearly states that the response however often assumed that NATO members will aid the attacked member militarily Further, the article limits the organizations scope to Europe and North America, which explains why the invasion of the British Falkland Islands did not result in NATO involvement,

The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 was crucial for NATO as it raised the apparent threat level greatly (all Communist countries were suspected of working together) and forced the alliance to develop concrete military plans. The 1952 Lisbon Conference, seeking to provide the forces necessary for NATOs Long-Term Defense Plan, called for an. expansion to 96 divisions. However this requirement was dropped the following year to roughly 35 divisions with use of heavier weapons. At this time, NATO could call on about fifteen ready divisions in Central Europe, and another ten in Italy and Scandinavia. Also at Lisbon, the post of the NATO Secretary General as the organizations chief civilian, was also created, and Baron Hastings Ismay was eventually appointed to the post. Later, in September 1952, the first major NATO maritime exercises began; Operation. Main brace brought together 200 ships and over 50,000 personnel to practice the defense of Denmark and Norway Greece and Turkey joined the alliance the same year, forcing a series of controversial negotiations, in which the United States and Britain were the primary disputants, over how to bring the two countries into the military command structure. Meanwhile, while this overt military preparation was going on, covert stay-behind arrangements to continue resistance after a successful Soviet invasion ( Operation Gladio), initially made by the Western European Union, were being transferred to NATO control. Ultimately unofficial bonds began to grow between NATOs armed forces, such as the NATO Tiger Association and competitions such as the Canadian Army Trophy for tank gunnery.

In 1954, the Soviet Union suggested that it should join NATO to preserve peace in Europe. The NATO countries, fearing that the Soviet Unions motive was to weaken the alliance, ultimately rejected this proposal.

The incorporation of West Germany into the organization on 9 May 1955 was described as "a decisive turning point in the history of our continent by I lalvard Lange, Foreign Minister of Norway at the time. A major reason for Germany’s entry into the alliance was that without German manpower, it would have been impossible to field enough conventional forces to resist a Soviet invasion. Indeed, one of its immediate results was the creation of the Warsaw Pact, signed on 14 May 1955 by the Soviet Union, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, and East Germany as a formal response to this event, thereby delineating the two opposing sides of the Cold War.

The unity of NATO was breached early on in its history, with a crisis occurring during Charles de Gaulles presidency of France from 1958 onward. De Gaulle protested the United States’ strong role in the organization and what he perceived as a special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom. In a memorandum sent to President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan on 17 September 1958, he argued for the creation of a tripartite directorate that would put France on an equal footing with the United States and the United Kingdom, and also for the expansion of NATOs coverage to include geographical areas of interest to France, most notably Algeria, where France was waging a counter-insurgency and sought NATO assistance,

Considering the response given to be unsatisfactory, and in order to give France, in the event of a East German incursion into West Germany the option of coming to a separate peace with the Eastern bloc instead of being drawn into a NATO-Warsaw Pact global war, de Gaulle began to build an independent defense for his country On 11 March 1959, France withdrew' its Mediterranean fleet from NATO command; three months later, in June 1959, de Gaulle banned the stationing of foreign nuclear weapons on French soil. This caused the United States to transfer two hundred military aircraft out of France and return control of the ten major air force bases that had operated in France since 1950 to the French by 1967.

Though France showed solidarity with the rest of NATO during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, de Gaulle continued his pursuit of an independent defense by removing France's Atlantic and Channel fleets from NATO command. In 1966, all French armed forces were removed from NATO s integrated military command, and all non-French NATO troops were asked, to leave France. This withdrawal forced, the relocation of the Supreme I leadquarters Allied Powers Europe (SI IAPE) from Rocquencourt near Paris to Casteau, north of Mons, Belgium, by 16 October 1967. France remained a member of the alliance, and committed to the defense of Europe from possible Communist attack with its own. forces stationed in the Federal Republic of Germany throughout the Cold War.

The creation of NATO brought about some standardization of allied military terminology; procedures, and technology; which in many cases meant European countries adopting U.S. practices.. The roughly 1300 Standardization Agreements (STANAGs) codifies the standardization that NATO has achieved. Hence, the 7.62x51 NATO rifle cartridge was introduced in the 1950s as a standard firearm cartridge among many NATO countries. Fabrique Nationales FAL became the most popular 7.62 NATO rifle in Europe and sewed into the early 1990s. Also, aircraft marshalling signals were standardized, so that any NATO aircraft could land at any NATO base. Other standards such as the NATO phonetic alphabet have made their way beyond NATO into civilian use.

Detente

During most of the duration of the Cold War. NATO maintained a holding pattern with no actual military engagement as an organization. On 1 July 1968, the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty opened for signature: NATO argued that its nuclear weapons sharing arrangements did not breach the treaty as U.S. forces controlled the weapons until a decision was made to go to war, at which point the treaty would no longer be controlling. Few states knew of the NATO nuclear sharing arrangements at that time, and they were not challenged.

On 30 May 1978, NATO countries officially defined two complementary aims of the Alliance, to maintain security and pursue detente. This was supposed to mean matching defenses at the level rendered necessary by the Warsaw Pacts offensive capabilities without spurring a further arms race.

On 12 December 1979, in light of a build-up of Warsaw Pact nuclear capabilities in Europe, Ministers approved the deployment of U.S. GLCM cruise missiles and Pershing II theatre nuclear weapons in Europe. The new warheads were also meant to strengthen the Western negotiating position in regard, to nuclear disarmament. This polity was called the Dual Track Policy. Similarly, in 1983—84, responding to the stationing of Warsaw Pact SS-20 medium-range missiles in Europe, NATO deployed modern Pershing II missiles tasked to hit military targets such as tank formations in the event of war. This action led to peace movement protests throughout Western Europe.

Escalation

With the background of the build-up of tension between the Soviet Union and the United States, NATO decided, under the impetus of the Reagan presidency, to deploy Pershing II and cruise missiles in Western Europe, primarily West Germany. These missiles were theatre nuclear weapons intended to strike targets on the battlefield if the Soviets invaded. West Germany Yet support for the deployment was wavering and many doubted whether the push for deployment could be sustained.

On 1 September 1983. the Soviet Union shot down a Korean airliner, loaded with passengers, when it crossed into Soviet airspace - an act which Reagan characterized as a "massacre”. The barbarity of this act, as the U.S. and indeed the world understood it, galvanized support for the deployment - which stood in place until the later accords between Reagan and Mikhael Gorbachev.

The membership of the organization in that period likewise remained largely static. In 1974, as a consequence of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Greece withdrew its forces from NATOs military command structure, but, with Turkish cooperation, was readmitted in 1980. On 30 May 1982, NATO gained a new member when, follow ing a referendum, the newly democratic Spain joined the alliance.

In November 1984, NATO maneuvers simulating a nuclear launch caused panic in the Kremlin. The Soviet leadership, led by ailing General Secretary Yuri Andropov, became concerned that the maneuvers, codenamed Able Archer 83, were the beginnings of a genuine first strike. In response, Soviet nuclear forces were readied and air units in East Germany and Poland were placed on alert. Though at the time written off by U.S. intelligence as a propaganda effort, many historians now believe that the Soviet fear of a NATO first strike was genuine.

Post Cold War

The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991 removed the facto main adversary of NATO. This caused a strategic re-evaluation of NATOs purpose, nature and tasks. In practice this ended up entailing a gradual (and still ongoing) expansion of NATO to Eastern Europe, as well, as the extension of its activities to areas that had not formerly been NATO concerns. The first post-Cold War expansion of NATO came with the reunification of Germany on 3 October 1990, when the former East Germany became part of the Federal Republic of Germany and the alliance. This had been agreed in the Two Plus Four Treaty earlier in the year. To secure Soviet approval of a united Germany remaining in NATO, it was agreed that foreign troops and nuclear weapons would not be stationed in the east.

The scholar Stephen F. Cohen argued in 2005 that a commitment was given that NATO would never expand further east, but according to Robert B. Zoellick, then a State Department official involved in the Two Plus Four negotiating process, this appears to be a misperception; no formal commitment of the sort was made. On 7 May 2008, The Daily Telegraph held an interview with Gorbachev in which he repeated his view that such a commitment had been made. Gorbachev said "the Americans promised that NATO wouldn’t move beyond the boundaries of Germany after the Cold War but now half of central and eastern Europe are members, so what happened to their promises? It shows they cannot be trusted.”

As part of post-Cold War restructuring, NATO s military structure was cut back and reorganized, with new forces such as the I headquarters Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps established. The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe agreed between NATO and the Warsaw Pact and signed in Paris in 1990, mandated specific reductions. The changes brought about by the collapse of the Soviet Union on the military balance in Europe were recognized in the Adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty; signed some years later.

France rejoined NATOs Military Committee in 1995, and since that time has intensified working relations with the military structure. France did not, however, rejoin the integrated military command and no n on-French NATO troops are allowed to be based on its soil.. The policies of current French President Nicolas Sarkozy have resulted in a major reform of Frances military position, culminating in a pledge in June 2008 to rejoin the military command of NATO while maintaining an independent nuclear deterrent.

The first NATO military operation caused by the conflict in the former Yugoslavia was Operation Sharp Guard, which ran from June 1993—October 1996. It provided maritime enforcement of the arms embargo and economic sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 28 February 1994, NATO took its first military action, shooting down four Bosnian Serb aircraft violating a U.N.-mandated no- fly zone over central Bosnia and Herzegovina. Operation Deny Flight, the no- fly- zone enforcement mission, had begun a year before, on 12 April 1993, and was to continue until 20 December 1995.

NATO air strikes that year helped bring the war in Bosnia to an end, resulting in the Dayton Agreement, which in turn meant that NATO deployed a peacekeeping force, under Operation Joint Endeavor, first named IFOR and then SFOR, which ran from December 1996 to December 2004. Following the lead, of its member nations, NATO began to award a service medal, the NATO Medal, for these operations.

Between 1994 and 1997, wider forums for regional cooperation between NATO and its neighbours were set up, like the Partnership for Peace, the Mediterranean Dialogue initiative and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. On 8 July 1997, three former communist countries, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland, were invited to join NATO, which finally happened in 1999. In 1998, the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council was established.

Recognizing the post-Cold War military environment, NATO adopted the Alliance Strategic Concept during its Washington Summit in April 1999 which emphasized conflict prevention and crisis management.

A NATO bombing campaign, Operation Deliberate Force, began in August, 1995, against the Army of Republika Srpska, after the Srebrenica massacre. On 24 March 1999, NATO saw its first broad-scale military engagement in the Kosovo War, where it waged an 11-week bombing campaign, which NATO called Operation Allied Force, against what was then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in an effort to stop Serbian-led crackdown on Albanian civilians in. Kosovo. A formal declaration of war never took place (in common with all wars since World War II). The conflict ended on 11 June 1999, when Yugoslavian leader Slobodan Milosevic agreed to NATOs demands by accepting UN resolution 1244.

During the crisis, NATO also deployed one of its international reaction forces, the ACE Mobile Force (Land),, to Albania as the Albania Force (AFOR), to deliver humanitarian aid to refugees from Kosovo. NATO then helped establish the KFOR, a NATO-led force under a United Nations mandate which operated the military mission in. Kosovo. Between August- September 2001, the alliance also mounted Operation Essential Harvest, a mission disarming ethnic Albanian militias in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

The United States, the United Kingdom, and most other NATO countries opposed efforts to require the U.N. Security Council to approve NATO military strikes, such as the action against Serbia in 1999, while France and some others claimed that the alliance needed U.N. approval. The U.S./U.K. side claimed that this would undermine the authority of the alliance, and they noted that Russia and China would have exercised their Security Council vetoes to block the strike on Yugoslavia, and could do the same in future conflicts where NATO intervention was required, thus nullifying the entire potency and purpose of the organization.

After the September 11 attacks

The September 11 attacks caused NATO to invoke Article 5 of the NATO Charter for the first time in its history. The Article says that an attack on any member shall be considered to be an attack on all. The invocation was confirmed on 4 October 2001 when NATO determined that the attacks were indeed eligible under the terms of the North Atlantic Treaty. The eight official actions taken by NATO in response to the attacks included: Operation Eagle Assist and Operation Active Endeavour. Operation Active Endeavour is a naval, operation in the Mediterranean Sea and is designed to prevent the movement of terrorists or weapons of mass destruction, as well as to enhance the security of shipping in general. It began on 4 October 2001.

Despite this early show of solidarity, NATO faced a crisis little more than a year later, when on 10 February 2003, France and Belgium vetoed the procedure of silent approval concerning the timing of protective measures for Turkey in case of a possible war with Iraq. Germany did not use its right to break the procedure but said it supported the veto.

On the issue of Afghanistan on the other hand, the alliance showed greater unity: On 16 April 2003 NATO agreed to take command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan... The decision came at the request of Germany and the Netherlands, the two nations leading ISAF at the time of the agreement, and all. nineteen NATO ambassadors approved it unanimously The handover of control to NATO took place on 11 August, and marked the first time in NATO s history that it took charge of a mission outside the north Atlantic area.

In January 2004, NATO appointed Minister Hikmet Cretin, of Turkey, as the Senior Civilian Representative (SCR) in Afghanistan. Minister Cetin was primarily responsible for advancing the political-military aspects of the Alliance in Afghanistan. In August 2004, following U.S. pressure, NATO formed the NATO Training Mission - Iraq, a training mission to assist the Iraqi security forces in conjunction with the U.S. led MNF-L

On 31 July 2006, a NATO-led force, made up mostly of troops from Canada, the United Kingdom, Turkey and the Netherlands, took over military operations in the south of Afghanistan, from a U.S.-led anti-terrorism coalition.

Current membership of NATO in Europe

New NATO structures were also formed while old ones were abolished: The NATO Response Force (NRF) was launched at the Prague Summit on 21 November 2002. On 19 June 2003, a major restructuring of the NATO military commands began as the I leadquarters of the Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic were abolished, and a new command, Allied Command Transformation (ACT), was established in Norfolk, Virginia, United States, and the Supreme I leadquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) became the Headquarters of Allied Command Operations (ACO). ACT is responsible for driving transformation (future capabilities) in NATO, whilst ACO is responsible for current operations..

Membership went on expanding with the accession of seven more Northern European and Eastern European countries to NATO:. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and also Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania. They were first invited to start talks of membership during the 2002 Prague Summit, and joined NATO on 29 March 2004, shortly before the 2004 Istanbul Summit. The same month, NATO s Baltic Air Policing began., which supported the sovereignty of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia by providing fighters to react to any unwanted aerial intrusions. Four fighters are based in Lithuania, provided in rotation by virtually all the NATO states.. Opf/wt/aw Peacefit/ Summit temporarily enhanced this patrolling during the 2006 Riga Summit.

The 2006 NATO summit was held in Riga, Latvia, which had joined the Atlantic Alliance two years earlier It was the first NATO summit to be held in a country that was part of the Soviet Union, and the second one in a former COMECON country (after the 2002 Prague Summit). Energy Security was one of the main themes of the Riga Summit.

At the April 2008 summit in Bucharest, Romania, NATO agreed to the accession of Croatia and Albania and invited them to join. Ukraine and Georgia were also told that they will eventually become members (see Enlargement of NATO).

In April 2009, to mark the 60th anniversary of NATOs founding, the member nations’ heads of state and government met in Strasbourg, France, and Kehl, Germany. This meeting was to be part of Barack Obamas first visit to Europe as the USA President.

NATO missile defense

For some years, the United States negotiated with Poland and the Czech Republic for the deployment of interceptor missiles and a radar tracking system in the two countries against wishes of local population. Both countries' governments indicated that they would allow the deployment. In August 2008, Poland and the United States signed a preliminary deal to place part of the missile defense shield in Poland which would be linked to air-defense radar in the Czech Republic.

In answer on this agreement more than 130,000 Czechs signed petition for referendum about the base , which is by far the largest citizen initiative since the Velvet Revolution, but it was refused. The proposed American missile defense site in Central Europe is expected to be fully operational by 2015 and would be capable of covering most of Europe, except parts of Romania plus Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey.

In April 2007, NATOs European allies called for a NATO missile defense system which would complement the American National Missile Defense system to protect Europe from missile attacks. NATO’s decision-making North Atlantic Council held consultations on missile defense. This was the first meeting on the topic at a senior level.

In response, the then Russian president Vladimir Putin claimed that such a deployment could lead to a new arms race and could enhance the likelihood of mutual destruction. He also suggested that his country would freeze its compliance with the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in. Europe (CFE)—which limits military deployments across the continent—until all NATO countries had ratified the adapted CFE treaty.

Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer claimed the system would not affect strategic balance or threaten Russia, as the plan is to base only 10 interceptor missiles in Poland with associated radar in the Czech Republic.

On 14 July 2007, Russia gave notice of its intention to suspend the CFE treaty, effective 150 days later. On 14 August 2008, the United States and Poland came to an agreement to place a base with 10 interceptor missiles with associated MIM-104 Patriot air defense systems in Poland. This came at a time when tension was high between Russia and most of NATO and resulted in a nuclear threat on Poland by Russia if the building of the missile defenses went ahead. On 20 August 2008 the United States and Poland signed the agreement, with a statement from Russia saying their response “Will Go Beyond Diplomacy” and is a "extremely dangerous bundle” of military projects.” Also, on 20 August 2008, Russia sent a word to Norway that it was suspending ties with NATO.

Membership

NATO has added new members seven times since its creation in 1949. NATO comprises twenty-six members: Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary; Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal., Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the LInited States.

At the NATO summit in Bucharest, (April 2008), Albania and Croatia were officially invited to start accession talks with the alliance, and signed the accession protocols on 9 July 2008. These countries joined the alliance in April, 2009. An invitation to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was blocked, by Greece at the

same summit in Bucharest, pending resolution of the Macedonia naming dispute. Cyprus was also blocked by Turkey. Janes Defence Weekly commented after the summit that a resolution of the naming issue that is holding up entry is “likely by the end of this year [2008] and no later than the 2009 summit". At the same 2008 summit in Bucharest, the communique explicitly said that Georgia and Ukraine will become members of NATO. Russia, as referred to above, continues to oppose further expansion, seeing it as inconsistent with understandings between. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President George H. W. Bush that allowed for a peaceful unification of Germany. NATOs expansion policy is seen byr Moscow as a continuation of a Cold War attempt to surround and isolate Russia.

Structures

The NATO website divides the internal NATO organization into political and military structures, plus agencies and organizations immediately subordinate to NATO Headquarters. The main headquarters of NATO is located in Brussels, Belgium. A new headquarters building is currently under construction, due for completion in 2012.

Political structure

Like any alliance, NATO is ultimately governed by its 26 member states. However, the North Atlantic Treaty, and other agreements, outline how decisions are to be made within NATO.. Each of the 26 members sends a delegation or mission to NATOs headquarters in Brussels. The senior permanent member of each delegation is known as the Permanent Representative and is generally a senior civil servant or an experienced ambassador (and holding that diplomatic rank).

Together the Permanent Members form the North Atlantic Council (NAC), a body which meets together at least once a week and has effective political authority and powers of decision in NATO. From time to time the Council also meets at higher levels involving Foreign Ministers, Defense Ministers or Heads of State or Government (HOSG) and it is at these meetings that major decisions regarding NATOs policies are generally taken. However, it is worth noting that the Council has the same authority and powers of decision-making, and its decisions have the same status and validity, at whatever level it meets. NATO summits also form a further venue for decisions on complex issues, such as enlargement.

The meetings of the North Atlantic Coun cil are chaired by the Secretary General of NATO and, when decisions have to be made, action is agreed upon on the basis of unanimity and common accord. There is no voting or decision by majority. Each nation represented at the Council table or on any of its subordinate committees retains complete sovereignty and responsibility for its own decisions.

NATO Military Committee

The second pivotal member of each country's delegation is the Military Representative, this is a senior officer from each country’s armed forces. Together the Military Representatives form the Military Committee (MC), a body responsible tor recommending to NATO's political authorities the measures considered necessary for the common defense of the NATO area. Its principal role is to provide direction and advice on military polity and strategy It provides guidance on military matters to the NATO Strategic Commanders, whose representatives attend its meetings, and is responsible for the overall conduct of the military affairs of the Alliance under the authority of the Council.

Like the council, from time to time the Military Committee also meets at a higher level, namely the level of Chiefs of Defense, the most senior military officer in each nations armed forces. The Defense Planning Committee excludes France, due to that country's 1966 decision to remove itself from NATOs integrated military structure. On a practical level, this means that issues that are acceptable to most NATO members but unacceptable to France may be directed to the Defense Planning Committee for more expedient resolution.. Such was the case with Operation Iraqi Freedom.

NATO Parliamentary Assembly

The NATO Parliamentary Assembly, is made up of legislators from the member countries of the North Atlantic Alliance, as well as thirteen associate members. It is however officially a different structure from NATO, and. has as aim to join together deputies of NATO countries in order to discuss security policies.

Subordinate to the political, structure are the International Staff and International. Military Staff, which administer NATO programmes and carry out high-level political, military, and also civil emergency planning. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO - cite_note-49 Over the years, non-governmental citizens’ groups have grown up in support of NATO, broadly under the banner of the Atlantic Council/Atlantic Treaty Association movement. Afi/iwry rtnuTure http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File: Nato_awacs . j pg

NATO's military operations are directed by the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, and split into two Strategic Commands, both commanded by a senior US officer assisted by a staff drawn from across NATO. The Strategic Commanders are responsible to the Military Committee for the overall direction and conduct of all Alliance military matters w ithin their areas of command.

Before 2003 the Strategic Commanders were the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) and the Supreme A lied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT). There was also a British Commander-in-Chief, Channel Active from the 1950s to 1994, whereafter it was merged into SACEUR s forces. The current arrangement is to separate command responsibility between Allied Command Transformation (ACT), responsible for transformation and training of NATO forces, and Ailed Command Operations, responsible for NATO operations world wide.

The commander of Allied Command Operations retained the title Supreme A lied Commander Europe (SACEUR)”, and is based in the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE),, located at Casteau, north of the Belgian city of Mons. This is about 80 km from NATOs political headquarters in Brussels. ACO is headed by SACEUR, a US four star general with the dual-hatted role of heading US European Command, which is headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany.

ACO includes Joint Force Command Brunssum in the Netherlands, Joint Force Command Naples in Italy, and Joint Command Lisbon, all multinational, headquarters with many nations represented. JFC Brunssum has its land component, Allied Land Component Command Headquarters Heidelberg at Heidelberg, Germany, its air component at Ramstein in Germany and its naval, component at the Northwood Headquarters in the northwest suburbs of London. JFC Naples has its land component in Madrid, air component at Izmir, Turkey, and naval component in Naples, Italy. It also directs KFOR in Kosovo. JC Lisbon is a smaller I IQ with no subordinate commands. Lajes Field, in the Portuguese Azores, is an important transatlantic staging post.

Directly responsible to SACEUR is the NATO Airborne Early Warning Force at NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen in Germany where a jointly funded fleet of E-3 Sentry AWACS airborne radar aircraft is located. The C-17s of the NATO Strategic Airlift Capability will he based at Papa airfield in Hungary, and probably come under SACEUR’s control.

Allied Command Transformation (ACT) is based in the former Allied Command Atlantic headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, LInited States. Allied Command Atlantic, usually known as SACLANT (Supreme Allied. Commander Atlantic), became ACT in 2003- It is headed by the Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT), a US four-star general or admiral with the dual-hated role as commander US Joint Forces Command (COMUSJFCOM). There is also an ACT command element located at SHAPE in Mons, Belgium.

THE UNO

The UN is the worlds peacekeeping organization, which was formed in 1945 with membership open to all world states that follow the UN Charter.

Historical Background of the United Nations

The signing of the UN Charter in San Francisco, 1945 

The UN was founded as a successor to the League of Nations, which was widely considered to have been ineffective in its role as an international governing body, as it had been unable to prevent World War II. The term “United Nations” was first used by Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, in the 1942 Declaration by United Nations, which united the Allied countries of WWII under the Atlantic Charter, and soon became a term, widely used to refer to them. Declarations signed at wartime Allied Conferences in 1943 espoused the idea of the UN. In 1944, representatives of the major Allied powers met to elaborate on the plans at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference. Those and later talks outlined the organizations proposed purposes, membership, organs, and ideals in regards to peace, security; and cooperation.

On 25 April 1945, the UN Conference on International Organization began in San Francisco, it was attended by 50 governments and a number of non-governmental organizations involved in drafting the Charter of the United Nations. The UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council — France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the LInited Kingdom and the United States — and by a majority of the other 46 signatories. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, and the Security Council, took place in London in January 1946.

The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights and achieving world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries and to provide a platform for dialogue

Purposes

• To maintain international, peace and security by pursuing collective measures to prevent / remove threats to peace and suppress aggression by all means, including war;
• To develop friendly relations among nations based on principle of equal rights and self — determination of peoples;
• To achieve international co-operation in solving international, problems of- an economic, social, culture or humanitarian character;
• To promote and encourage respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction of sex, language or religion; and
• To be a centre for harmonizing actions of nations in attainment of these common ends.

UN Principles

The UN pursues the above stated purposes according to the following principles:.

• The sovereign equality of all member states:
• All members to fulfill in good faith their obligations to the organization;
• The sovereign equality of all member states;
• Settlement of international disputes by peaceful means;
• Respect for territorial, integrity or political independence of any state;
• To assist the UN in any action it takes;
• Ensuring that all. non-UN members act according to the principle for maintenance of international peace and security; and
• Non-intervention of the UN in matters, that are essentially domestic in nature.. However, this principle shall not prevent the UN’s enforcement of measures where necessary

Membership

There are currently 192 member states, including nearly every recognized independent state in the world. From its headquarters on international territory in New York City, the UN and its specialized agencies decide on substantive and administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout the yean The organization is divided into administrative bodies..

The structure / Organs of UN

The United Nations system is based on five principal organs (formerly six - the Trusteeship Council suspended its operations in 1994); the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Secretariat, and the International Court of Justice.

Four of the five principal organs are located at the main United Nations headquarters situated on international territory, in New York City. The International. Court of Justice is located in The I (ague, while other major agencies are based in the UN offices at Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi. Other UN institutions are located throughout the world.

The six official languages of the United Nations, used in intergovernmental meetings and documents, are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish, while the Secretariat uses two working languages, English and French. Five of- the official languages were chosen when the UN was founded; Arabic was added later in 1973- The United Nations Editorial Manual, states that the standard for English language documents is British usage and Oxford spelling (en-gb-oed), and the Chinese writing standard is Simplified Chinese. This replaced Traditional Chinese in 1971 when the UN representation of China was changed from the Republ ic of China to Peoples Republic of China. The Republic of China is now commonly know n as “ Taiwan1.

Structure of the UN

1 General Assembly

The General Assembly is the main deliberative assembly of the United Nations.. Composed of all United Nations member states, the assembly meets in regular yearly sessions under a president elected from among the member states. Over a two-week period at the start of each session, all members have the opportunity to address the assembly. Traditionally, the Secretary-General makes the first statement, followed by the president of the assembly The first session was convened on 10 January 1946 in the Westminster Central Hall in London and included representatives of 51 nations.

When the General Assembly votes on important questions, a two-thirds majority of those present and voting is required. Examples of important questions include: recommendations on peace and security; election of members to organs; admission, suspension, and expulsion of members; and, budgetary matters. All other questions are decided by majority vote. Each member country has one vote. Apart from approval of budgetary matters, resolutions are not binding on the members. The Assembly may make recommendations on any matters within the scope of the UN, except matters of peace and security that are under Security Council consideration.

Conceivably, the one state, one vote power structure could enable states comprising j ust eight percent of the world population to pass a resolution by a two-thirds vote. However, as no more than  recommendations, it is difficult to imagine a situation in which a recommendation by member states constituting just eight percent of the world s population would be adhered to by the remaining ninety-two percent of the population, should they object.

2 Security Council

The Security Council is charged with maintaining peace and security among countries. While other organs of the United Nations can only make 'recommendations1 to member governments, the Security Council has the power to make binding decisions that member governments have agreed to carry out, under the terms of Charter Article 25- The decisions of the Council are known as United Nations Security Council resolutions.

The Security Council is made up of 15 member states, consisting of 5 permanent members - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States - and 10 non-permanent members, elected on rotational basis. The five permanent members hold veto power over substantive, but not procedural resolutions, allowing a permanent member to block adoption, but not to block the debate of a resolution unacceptable to it. The ten temporary seats are held for two-year terms with member states voted in by the General Assembly on a regional basis. The presidency of the Security Council is rotated alphabetically each month.

3 The Secretariat

The United Nations Secretariat is headed by the Secretary-General, assisted by a staff of international civil servants worldwide. It provides studies, information, and facilities needed by United Nations bodies for their meetings. It also carries out tasks as directed by the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly, the UN Economic and Social Council, and other UN bodies. The United Nations Charter provides that the staff be chosen, by application of the "highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity,” with due regard for the importance of recruiting on a wide geographical basis.

The Charter provides that the staff shall not seek or receive instructions from any authority other than the UN. Each UN member country is enjoined to respect the international character of the Secretariat and not seek to influence its staff. The Secretary-General alone is responsible for staff selection.

The Secretary-Generals duties include helping resolve international disputes, administering peacekeeping operations, organizing international conferences, gathering information on the implementation of Security Council decisions, and consulting with member governments regarding various initiatives. Key Secretariat offices in this area, include the Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. The Secretary-General may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter that, in his or her opinion, may threaten international peace and security.

Se cretary- Gene ral

The Secretariat is headed by the Secretary-General, who acts as the de facto spokesman and leader of the UN. The current Secretary-General is Ban Ki-moon, who took over fro m Kofi Annan in 2007 and will be eligible for reappointment when, his first term expires in 2011. Envisioned by Franklin D. Roosevelt as a “world moderator", the position is defined in th  UN Charter as the organizations "chief administrative officer”, but the Charter also states that the Secretary-General can bring to the Security Councils attention "any matter which in his opinion may threaten, the maintenance of international peace and security”, giving the position greater scope for action on the world stage. The position has evolved into a dual role of an administrator of the UN organization, and a diplomat and mediator addressing disputes between member states and finding consensus to global issues.

The Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly, after being recommended by the Security Council. The selection can be vetoed by any member of the Security Council, and the General Assembly can theoretically override the Security Council s recommendation if a majority vote is not achieved, although this has not happened so far/12 There are no specific criteria for the post, hut over years, it has become accepted that the post shall he held for one or two terms of five years, that the post shall be appointed based on geographical rotation, and that the Secretary-General shall not originate from one of the five permanent Security Council member states.

Secretaries-General of the United Nations

4 International Court of Justice

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), located in The Hague, Netherlands, is the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. Established in 1945 by the United Nations Charter, the Court began work in 1946 as the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice. The Statute of the International Court of Justice, similar to that of its predecessor, is the main constitutional document constituting and regulating the Court.

It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands, sharing the building with the Hague Academy of International Law, a private centre for the study of international law.. Several of the Courts current judges are either alumni or former faculty members of the Academy Its purpose is to adjudicate disputes among states. The court has heard cases related to war crimes, illegal state interference and ethnic cleansing, among others, and continues to hear cases.

A related court, the International Criminal Court (ICC), began operating in 2002 through international discussions initiated by the General Assembly. It is the first permanent international, court charged with trying those who commit the most serious crimes under international law, including war crimes and genocide. The ICC is functionally independent of the UN in terms of personnel and financing, but some meetings of the ICC governing body the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute, are held at the UN. There is a "relationship agreement” between the ICC and the UN that governs how the two institutions regard each other legally.

5 The Trusteeship Council

It is a council of UN. It was formed mainly to supervise the administration of the Trusteeship territories. The major task of the trusteeship system was to supervise these territories to independence. All Trusteeship countries in Africa were formerly the German colony After Germany had been defeated in the First World Wars, German colonies were robbed as the punishment to Germany because she was regarded as the source of wars.

This idea was reached or launched at the Versailles Peace Treaty of Paris-France in 1919. These colonies were put under the League of Nation and became known as Mandate territories. After UN has been formed, after the Second World War of 1945, it took over the territories, and became to be known as Trusteeship Territories of UN.

The Trusteeship countries attained their independence under the great influence of this Council which declared decolonization process, one of them was Tanzania. The Trusteeship council is made up of five permanent members of the Security Council. These permanent members also have a VETO power on the Council. If one of them cast the vote of NO about any idea or proposal, the idea or proposal is canceled out.

Functions

i. To prepare the Trusteeship Territories for independence as fast as possible. To achieve this, it:

ii. Supervises the leadership of the government of the Trusteeship countries with objectives.

iii. To examine political, economic and educational development of people and the annual reports about people in the Trusteeship countries: and

iv. To consider government matters of the trusteeships in co-operation with the ruling governments.

6 Economic and Social Council

The Economic and Social. Council (ECOSOC) assists the General Assembly in promoting international economic and social cooperation and development. ECOSOC has 54 members, all of whom are elected by the General Assembly for a three-year term... The president is elected for a one-year term and chosen amongst the small or middle powers represented on ECOSOC. ECOSOC meets once a year in July for a four-week session. Since 1998, it has held another meeting each April with finance ministers heading key committees of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Viewed separate from the specialized bodies it coordinates, ECOSOC s functions include information gathering, advising member nations, and making recommendations. In addition, ECOSOC is well-positioned to provide policy coherence and coordinate the overlapping functions of the UN’s subsidiary bodies and it is in these roles that it is most active.

THE UN SPECIALIZED AGENCIES.

There are many UN organizations and agencies that, work on specific issues. Some of the most well-known agencies are:- UNICEF, UNESCO, ILO, FAO, UNDP, WHO and IMF.

The agencies:

The International Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) 

Formed, in December 1946 to help governments carry out programmes for the benefit of children and youth.

UNICEF:

Gives permanent health services for mothers and children: controls diseases for children such as malaria, T.B, yaws, leprosy and so on. It oversees food programmes by feeding children, etc.

Activities:

• To promote child and family welfare;
• To provide education and vocational training for the youth;
• To promote technical aid in form of tools, food and money, short and long courses and the like.

UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Formed on 4rl1 November 1946, Headquartered in Paris.

Aim:

To contribute to peace and security in the world by promoting international collaboration in education, science, culture and communication.

Activities

• It expands and guides education in order to enable each country handle its own development more effectively.
• It trains teachers, educational planners, as well as administrators and encourages building and equipping schools.
• It promotes scientific management of the environment and better use of natural resources.
• It promotes national cultural, values and preserves the cultural heritage. For example, by preserving cultural identities, oral traditions, writing of books and so forth.

To survey the needs of the poor countries to be assisted. For example, to build their own communication, systems, promote teaching and learning of social services so as to realize human rights, peace and justice for all.

International Labour Organization (ILO)

It was established in 1919 by the Versailles Peace Treaty. Hence, it is associated with the UN as a Specialized Agency.

Aims 

• To raise the working and living standards of workers throughout the world;
• To eliminate social injustices, that lead to unrest and war; and
• To achieve full employment for all able people.

Activities:

• It encourages employment of workers in jobs they are most fitted.
• It facilitates training and transfer of workers
• It promotes working conditions and fair distribution of products of labour.
• It advocates workers, rights to form trade unions and workers to cooperate with employers.
• It provides workers health and safety at work places.
• It champions provision of adequate nutrition, housing and recreational facilities to workers and their families.

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Formed on 16/10/ 1945 and headquartered in Rome, Italy

Aims 

• To eliminate hunger;
• To raise levels of nutrition and standards of living;
• To improve production, processing, marketing and distribution of food, including products from water and forests;
• To promote living conditions of rural populations.

Strategies of Achieving the Aims:

• Investment in agriculture, better utilisation of soil and water;
• Investment to increase crop and livestock yields, marine and inland fisheries;
• Investment in mechanization of farm operations and in development of agricultural research in developing countries;
• Fighting against animal diseases that kill livestock , e.g. East Coast Fever, Rinderpest, and Foot and Mouth Disease.
• Conservation of natural resources such as forests;
• Helps countries to prepare for emergency food relief where necessary; and
• Improves seed production as well as its distribution in developing countries.

World Health Organization (WHO)

Founded on 7,k April 1947, headquartered in Paris, France.

Activities:

• To supply technical, aid in fighting epidemics such as cholera, malaria, T.B. and so on;
• To support public health services in developing countries, for example, training personnel;
• To promote research related to health aspects, for example on nutrition, mother /child care, control of diseases.
• To campaign for immunization of 90% of all children by 2000; (Diseases involved are: (E.g. diphtheria, measles, tetanus, T.B. and whooping cough)
• To direct and co-ordinate the global campaign against AIDS and to effect prevention and control of IIIV infection.

The International Monetary' Fund (IMF)

The IMF and the World Bank are two most important monetary institutions set up by UN’s Monetary and Financial Conference, popularly known as the Breton Woods Conference, held in New York in July 1944. The two institutions came into effect in 1945.

Objectives

• To promote international co-operation on international monetary affairs by being a machinery for consultation and collaboration;
• To facilitate international trade by adjusting differences between values of currencies of the different countries;
• To facilitate exchange stability and orderly exchange arrangements, including transfer of funds/payments among countries; 
• To eliminate forex restrictions that prevent grow th of world trade; and
• To shorten the duration and magnitude of payment for imbalances.

Functions:

• To administer exchange rate policies and restrictions on payments for current account transactions;
• To provide members with funds to enable them correct or avoid payment of imbalances (debts);
• To provide a forum for members to consult each other and work together on international monetary matters.

Principles:

The IMF extends loans to all needy members on conditions that they pay back soon after solving their imbalances, so that other needy members can be lended. A recipient member should first show how she intends to solve her imbalance of payments and how it will pay hack the debt — normally within 3-5 years.

The IMF Conditionality Tie InFor Loans To Africa 

Due to the worsening economic conditions in African, in the mid 1980s, African countries approached the IMF for loans. The IMF suggested Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) to Africa.

The aims of the SAPs were:

• To solve their external debt crisis; and
• To promote rural development projects in a hid to improve living standards of ru ral people.

N.B: Besides lending money to the most debt ridden nations, the IMF would make strict supervision on project implementation to which the loans are given.

The IMF Conditionalities

• To effect liberalization trade, forex controls by opening bureau de change, decontrol of price (to abolish the price commission so that prices would adjust themselves in the market)
• To devalue the currencies so as to attract more investors in countries and more buyers of goods (cheaper) from the countries concerned;
• To introduce anti — inflationary programmes to Africa, for example, to reduce government expenditure on provision of social services like education, health and water; to increase taxes (charge public goods and services highly); and to control budget deficits by reducing government expenditures;
• To effect privatization of the economy (to denationalize)
• To introduce the multi-party democracy.
• Welcoming foreign investors to invest in the countries economies;
• To effect retrenchment (redundancy) by restricting government organizational structure and laying off workers.

TANZANIA’S FOREIGN DEBT

Meaning of foreign debt

It is an external borrowed funds, services, goods etc that the country has to pay back.

What is debt crisis?

Is a situation whereby countries, especially the poor or underdeveloped ones have very large debt and the amount they owe is quickly increasing. Trying to pay oft the debt has become a serious problem for these countries, and it causes great hardship for their people.

At the end of 70s, many oil-exporting countries had large amount of extra money They put this money in the Western Banks. The banks loaned a lot of this money to third world countries for big development projects. However, several factors (a rise of interest rates, a global recession and low commodity prices) caused the size of these debts to grow very fast; many countries began to fall behind in their payments.

The amount of money owed by developing countries has increased dramatically since the early 19805. These countries now owe money to commercial banks and financial institutions, like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and very rich countries. Take the region of Sub-Sahara Africa as an example. This region pays over 10 billion US Dollars every year in debt service. This is about 4 times as much money as the countries in the region spend on health care and education.

Origin of Tanzania’s foreign debt

There are combination of factors that have contributed to the accumulation of Tanzanias foreign debt, among the factors include increase in oil price, the Idd Amin War (Uganda -Tanzania War), drought and famine, withdrawal of some donors to support development projects and unfavorable international economic system.

Why does the debt keep growing?

Developing countries find it difficult to get out of debt because:

i) Loans must almost always be paid in hard currency.

Then what is hard currency?

Are stable currencies, which means their value does not change very much. The examples of hard currencies are the American Dollar, the Japanese Yen, and the Euro. So most of the developing countries have the soft currencies — they go down in value. Therefore, when the value of a developing country s money goes down (as it often does),, the cost of debt rises. Poor countries are abliged to pay hack the debts in hard currency.

A brief example:

In 1995 in Tanzania the value of US D was 500 Tshs, but in 2010 it jumped to 1500 Tsh.. So if Tanzania had taken a loan in 1995 for example of 5 m ill ion USD, equivalent 2,500,000,000, repaying in 2010, the value of a Dollar would have risen threefold i.e. 7,500,000,000. And this excludes interest. This kind of a situation, it is not possible for borrowing countries to rise out of poverty.

ii) Interest rates.

The debt crisis was triggered by an abrupt increase in interest rates in international loans. For example, Brazil had to pay 6.25% on its external debts in 1979, hut it soared to 24% in 1981. This abrupt rise of interest rates was a direct result of the change in monetary polity of wealthier countries when they decided on "monetarism” as their official polity.

Implication of the debt to Tanzania’s development

The foreign debt has made Tanzanians to:

i) Loss of credibility to donors

ii) Deterioration of social services e.g. health and education

iii) Economy to be in shamble.

iv) Loss of sovereignty in decision making

Solution to the debt crisis

Debt crisis, led to a shift which made international leaders, the World Bank and IMF very powerful. Countries that had borrowed money were forced to accept austerity conditions demanded by the IMF before their debts could be rescheduled. Besides, borrower countries needed to get the seal of approval” from IMF if they were to be eligible to borrow' from any other source.

By 1985, it became clear that in spite of the austerity measures, the debt crisis could not be contained. Thus, Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) were introduced to mostly Suh-Sahara African countries. SAPs introduced a strict anti-inflationary monetary policy, privatization of public enterprises, dismantling of foreign exchange controls and more flexible labour markets. It also forced the public sector to eliminate subsidies, and government withdrew' its involvement in price setting and put in place enabling environment for foreign investment.

In 1997, World Bank and IMF launched the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC), an initiative wrhich promised debt relief for 41 low income countries, as long as they continued to apply SAPs. I UPC initiative only proposed to write off debt that was for the most part un collectable.

When HIPC I and HIPC II failed to achieve the expected results, Poverty Reduction was grafted on the SAPs. Each debtor country is now being asked to follow' guidelines prescribed by the World Bank and IMF to produce Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs). The focus has now shifted to poverty reduction from funds freed from debt relief. PRSPs have become another conditionality that is additional transfers' responsibility to civil society to monitor their governments, while distracting attention from total debt cancellation and maintaining structural adjustment measures in its policy matrix.

It needs to be noted that in 1996 when PRSPs were mooted, debt service reduction G1 HIPC ad amounted to not more than USS 1.1 billion. Over the same period the 41 countries had paid a total of USS 35 billion in debt servicing. The World Bank itself conceeds in its report of 20th April, 2001 to the Board, that many countries after relief’ were likely to end up as severely in debt and unsustainable as they were before the relief.

Reginal And National examples

In response to the Jubilee South Campaign, IMF claims that its programs for low income countries have progressively strengthened the integration of social spending into program design. IMF claims that during SAP period of 1994-98 there was an 80% increase in public spending on education and health care. The actual situation is that African countries1 expenditure rose only by 20% per year after being constant for 15 years. At this rate it will take until the year 2010 to restore the spending on education and health to the level of 1985!

Zambia spends four dollars on debt service for every one dollar on health, while infant mortality rate is on the rise. In Uganda, the government spends US$3 per person annually on health and education and USS 17 per person annually on debt repayment, while 5 out of 100 Ugandan children die of preventable diseases before they reach the age of 5 years! Between 1990 and 1993, Africa Region did pay US$ 13.4 billion annually to its external creditors; this is more than its combined spending on health and education. Yet the African debt burden continued to rise. In 1994 alone, it increased to USS 312 billion, this is a 3.2% rise.

The resultant fall in hospital attendance because of user fees, has led to increased poor health services, especially provided to HIV/AIDS patients. Similarly the rising cost of child birth has increased to maternal mortality rate. This was evident even, as far back as 1993. For example in Ghana where the UNICEF report cites figures as high as 1,000 deaths to 100,000 births! That is further illustrated by the high doctor patient ratios. In Uganda for example, the ratios is 1 doctor to 24,000 patients.

In Zambia 72,000 people lost their jobs in SAP induced retrenchment, an d by 1996, there was a report that 3 million part-time child laborers out of a total population of 9 million! Female participation in informal sector increased from 40% in 1980 to 57% in 1986, and has since grown.. During that same period, there was a nine-fold increase in the 12-to-l4 year age group working in the informal sector.

In Zimbabwe, in spite of the austerity SAP measures, the foreign debt stood at Zimbabwe dollars 36.5 billion by 1996 of which ZS 2 billion was scheduled for debt repayment. In the same year, real wages had declined by 40% and inflation was rising at 23% In education, total, spending in Sub-Sahara Africa fell in real terms between. 1980-1988 dwindled from USS 1 1 billion to USS 7 billion. A review of 26 countries shows that a decline in spending per pupil from USS 133 to USS 89. Even more serious, is the drop in enrollment rates from 71.1% in 1980 to 66.7% in 1990. On average, only 37% of girls enrolled in primary in 1990 and this figure drops after 7-8 years of schooling.

After HIPC I and HIPC II the picture in Mozambique

Mozambique indebtedness has been compounded by annual disasters, the floods of the 1999, destroyed 141 schools, spread malaria, caused dysentery and cholera and destroyed roads. By 1999. Mozambique was cited by the World Bank as the fastest growing economy, but it is also said to have huge financial obstacles and in adequate resources that block its path towards long term healthy development.

During the 1990 s, Mozambique debt reached 594% of its GNR Yearly payments of USS 57 million surpassed the dollar spent on primary health of USS 20 million, and on education of USS 32 million. Then there is the odious debt or money borrowred to finance Apetheid related activities in South Africa and this spreads as far as to Tanzania.. All. those examples call for total debt cancellation. Tanzania has been taking some efforts to rectify the situation, such as privatization policy, more flexibility in labor market and foreign exchange, increased dialogue with donors to attract more foreign and local investors, good governance, control finance and debt servicing.

The contemporary countries of the world are no longer isolated from other on matters which are occurring in the planet earth. They share some socio- cultural values which are good or bad depending on the moral judgment of the given country, but also shares policies, law and regulations.

This interconnectedness have been influenced with an improved science and technology coupled with an improved communication and information technologies such as internet use, television, fax, cellular phones and others. The technological improvements have eliminated distance, geographical barriers, and socio- cultural barriers, henceforth; the global local interconnectedness has become possible.

Globalization is an increase of interconnectedness among people in the world that expands and accelerates the movement of people to far distances across borders, including exchange of ideas, culture and commodities over the vast distance

Globalization is the situation whereby the globe has interconnected in term of information and communication technology and hence what is happening in one place is easily recognized in other place, consequently, it is caused the planet earth to look like a small village.

Generally globalization can simply be defined as the process of increasing interconnections in policies, ideas and culture between one country and other. This inter connectedness have been enhanced with development of science and technology and so forth.

The interconnection and contact of the world population can be traced in several centuries in the past. The interconnection was through physical contact among of the world population. There are three phases which made people to come together in historical perspectives as follows.

This can be traced back between the 11^th to 16^thcenturies. In this period the merchants who were the Portuguese like Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Fernando Po and Bartolommeo Diaz visited various parts of the world with the sake of trade. These parts included Africa, North and South America, Asia and Caribbean island. Besides other European merchants participated in this trade by collecting some commodities such as gold, Silver, spices and slaves. These early traders stimulated shifting of Africans as slaves and took them in the new world. Under this system the interconnectedness of people all over the world was possible.

Colonialism came after scramble and ultimately partition of Africa at Berlin in 1884/85 .During this period the whole continent of Africa was divided into sphere of influence (colonies) by imperialist countries .These countries included Britain, Germany, Italy, Portugal, France, Dutch (Holland) just mention a few .Thus, all Colonies became connected to the Capitalist system, the policies which were impacted in the metropolitan impacted also in the colonies. The crisis which faced the masters like great depression (1939- 1945) the first world war (1914-1918) and the second world war (1939 – 1945) fought by masters but incorporated their colonies as well. This was also the second phase on which the world integrated.

This phase started in 1990’s on which the modern science and technology has innovated especially an information technology which include use of e- Mail, Internets, Television set, cell phones and so forth .These have motivated the movement of people globally from one place to another ,facilitated development of trade and great interconnectedness in some globe policies .Besides, refugees migration from African continent to Europe and within Africa continent has magnified in the near past years. These have contributed people all over the world to share some policies, culture, education, Arts, Language and traditions and general understanding.

As the results of integrated policies many developing countries particularly Tanzania came with some reforms. These reforms were to comply with globalization demands.

This was introduced by world financial institutions like the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund in 1980 to restructure the economy of third world countries. This was due to the fact that the third world countries inflicted with economic problems like decline of Per-capital Income and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). For most of sub-Saharan African countries between 1980 to 1987 the GDP declined by 20% and 4.7% respectively, increase of external debt, impoverishment of health facilities including dispensary and health centers and falling of education standard in all levels of education system. Thus, SAPS came to restructure the economy through improving the provision of social services; Tax reform and elimination of barriers on trade, devaluation of currencies just mention a few.

Privatization refers to transferring assets and activities of the public sectors to be run by the private sectors or Individuals. These policy was introduced in 1980 by the world Bank and international monetary fund together with donor countries like France, USA, Denmark and Germany .The role of privatization policy was to increase efficient of economic sectors and restructure the condition which existed in developing countries .The major goals were to enhance access to foreign markets, Capital and technology through attracting managerial and technological resources from private sector to reduce an overwhelming and challenging increase of public debt and so forth.

Many Africa countries and Tanzania in particular liberalized their economic, social and political status of their countries. Economically, the rate of foreign investment, operation of international trade through import and export, could be done through elimination of trade barriers such as tax, tariff and other embargoes. Politically there was introduction of multiparty in many developing countries, the main goals were to improve democracy through institutionalizing democratic principles, but also stimulating people participation in decision making and elimination all forms of dictatorship which existed before .Apart from introduction of multiparty also some pressure groups and civil societies were to be institutionalized ,these include Civil Based Organization (CBO) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s).These have been responsible in addressing social problems like abuse of human right, women violence ,sexual abuse and others .It is liberalization which have stimulated developing countries to adopt and assimilate the western polices and integrate them in internal affairs

Was also one among of the reform of Globalization .This enforced by the donor countries together with world financial institution .It called upon some developing countries including Tanzania to reduce the number of workers from public offices. This was done to reduce the government spending in 1990’s. It consequently, caused unemployment of many Tanzania henceforth decline of standard of living.

However, many reforms have been done by Tanzania to adjust itself in the wave of globalization. Many impacts have came in because of these reforms including unemployment, introduction of new culture, introduction of western value in our environment, International trade imbalance, new-colonialism and the burden of debt.

Globalization has led to several impacts in Tanzania both positive and negative, the impacts are as follows:-

Led utilization of resources through free market economy, liberalization and privatization policies these includes forest, wildlife, minerals, land and generally Tanzanian.

It has enhanced employment for the qualified personnel. This is because private institutions encourage an employment for the qualified workers in marketing, finance, human resources, technical matters and health service.

Transfer of science and technology through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has become possible. The companies and individuals have allowed investing in various sectors on which they have imported science and technology example use of machines, computer and other devices which have enhanced the utilization of resources.

It has ruled out some bad practices (culture) which are condemned by International agencies these include Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), women oppression, witchcraft and violence against women .This is because these practices cannot induces the civilization of the people.

Globalization has made diffusion of belief and value about broader issues on international concerns. For example value on environment protection, human nights observance and gender issues have been institutionalized by a country like Tanzania.

Globalization swept cultural boundaries through development of information and communication technology like internet, fax machines, satellites and cable television (Digital Television).This has managed to integrate all cultural practices in the world and have cultural vision for the present and future generation.

Globalization compelled to unemployment for an unqualified people .This was through redundancy of workers in 1980’s.

Stimulates environmental degradation, this has been motivated with various investment done by foreign companies in Industries, mining sector, transport and communication as well as agriculture sector .Foreign Direct investment ( FDI) has caused deforestation, soil erosion and pollutions which subsequently contributes to Global warming and climatic changes in

Globalization has induced the distortion of indigenous culture and values .The cultural decay has been experienced in Tanzania such as drug abuse ,gays and lesbian, indecent dressing style, table manner, embracement of western songs, ceremonies like wedding and burial just mention a few.

Globalization has motivated over utilization of resources. Through privatization policies and direct foreign Investment have contributed to overuse of mineral potentialities especially Gold and Diamond, besides it has overexploited the Tanzanians who are working in these investments

Globalization has induced underdevelopment of economies in the third Word countries particularly Tanzania. This is because promotes elimination of tariffs, tax and embargoes to the imports. it is also discourage the local industries because some imported goods like clothes, electricity device, medicine and others are of great quality compared to goods produced in our local industries, hence leads to underdevelopment of our economies.

Globalization spearheads the operation of neo – colonialism, some policies are made by western nations which are to be implemented in LDC’s, these include trade liberalization, devaluation of currencies and privatization just mention a few. These policies intend to benefit the donor countries, World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) but not the Developing countries (nations).

Thus, globalization has caused many impacts in Tanzania both positive and negative. Due to these impacts some policies to adopt, assimilate, manage and diffuse some of these effects should be put in place. For the positive ones should be used effectively for development of Tanzania and for the negative ones should be cross checked to avoid titanic disruption of Tanzania economy in the future.

The challenges of Globalization in Tanzania are many, but, this is due to the fact that Tanzania’s economy is infant coupled with devastating poverty as well as inefficient science and technology. Thus, it becomes difficult for Tanzania to cope with Globalization’s needs.

Inadequate financing in order to build productive capacities and thus to make globalization work or productive.

Lack of competitiveness, innovativeness, adherence to schedule and standard confidence to venture into neighboring countries’ market and overseas by Tanzania traders and other LDC’S is the challenge

Low accessibility to Information Communication Technology (ICT) due to low literacy rate, low income and limited number of services provider .Example, few Tanzania have accessibility to electronic mail, Internet, and cellular phones because of illiteracy and low income.

Low capacity of negotiation in international markets by Tanzanian due to lack of institutions for standardization and certification of commodities produced and exported by Tanzania.

Many African countries and particularly Tanzania, faces with problem of low saving and investment growth. Low saving and investments is common feature for some sub-Saharan countries. Without saving, affective individual capacity of banking investment will need to be decided by foreigners who prolong the problem of financial constraints.

Another challenge is that domestic revenue mobilization is still substantially low, relative to huge expenditure needs due to widespread of poverty .Thus, the government is challenged to create policies on how to expand the tax by capturing activities carried out in informal sectors which were promoted by globalization policies.

Poor Government policies incorporated with corruption also hinders smooth operation of International trade, movement of good, capital and people. Poor policies encourages unnecessary bureaucracy which stimulates some loopholes of corruption

Low productive capacities in the LDC’s as well as Tanzania will be lessened by provision of transport and communication services, Liberalization of business through motivating private investment and trade.

Building human and institution capacities through educating the citizens in order to cope with globalization needs.

Enhance the role of Trade in Development through introduction of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s), Development policies, and integrated industrial development programs.

Mobilization of financial resources through proper tax administration and persuasion on trade liberalization.

Develop training and research in agriculture through introduction of science and technology for quality and quantity of agricultural products. This will enhance the operation of International trade and independent economy of Tanzania as a whole.

The world financial institutions like the World Bank and International monetary fund (IMF) and other donors should help the poor countries by providing them with some loans, grants and aid with minimum or no conditions. This is due to the fact that the donors and some World financial institutions have been giving some aid, grant and loans at very difficult conditionality.

Countries in LDC is particularly Tanzania should create own strategies policies and philosophies for own development and cope with challenges of Globalization not depending on policies and strategies made by western countries.

1. International affairs deals with International matters .Identify them.

2. What are merits of International policy

3. What are demerits of multilateral organizations?

4. Write short notes on these concepts

• Neo colonialism
• Foreign Direct Investments FDI
• Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP)
• World peace and understanding
• Principles of SADC.

5. Why problems of African Regional cooperation have homogeneous problems.

6. What are rationales of African regional cooperation?

7. (.a) what is Tanzania Foreign policy?

(b) Identify some principles of Tanzania foreign policy

8. Differentiate between bilateral and multilateral cooperation

9. What benefit can be derived by Tanzania as the result being in Multilateral cooperation

10. Write short notes on these concepts.

1. International affairs.
2. Terrorism
3. World big power
4. Globalization

11. The problems inflicting the Africa regional grouping are seemingly same, support this statement with examples

12. Discuss the role of big power in maintaining world peace and understanding.

13. What are functions of NAM after liquidation of USSR and USA cold war?

14. How can challenges of globalization be addressed in Tanzania.

15. Give some salient features of Globalization

16. Culture distortion cannot be dichotomized with influences of Globalization .Discuss.

17. Account for Global Terrorism and suggest some remedies.

18. How can you assess the consequences of Globalization in LDC’s particularly Tanzania?

19. What are reforms in social, political and economic as the result Globalization?

20. Why technological backwardness and divestiture poverty leads to poor progress of our regional groupings.

21. With examples show the incidences of terrorism in the would

22. Identify the principles of UN.

23. Assets the effectiveness of strategies for conflict resolutions in Africa.

24. What are precipitates for conflict in Africa?

25. One of the setbacks of regional groupings is the problem of multi-membership. Critically discuss

26. In what circumstances the objectives of AU drift from that of OAU.