Regional Integration vs. Globalization: A Social Network Analysis of the Trade Within and Outside the Southern African Development Community (SADC)

According to its treaty, one of the main objectives of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is to achieve “development and economic growth” through regional integration. However, by the time it was created in 1992, the powerful wind of globalization was already blowing across the continent and the whole world, removing or lowering trade barriers everywhere. Analyzing the trade within and outside SADC, the purpose of this study is to find out whether the SADC member states are integrated more to their regional organization than to the global economy (or globalized), and whether they are forming among themselves a single community or different clusters. Using basic statistical analysis along with social network analysis, this study finds that the SADC member states trade more with partners outside their organization than among themselves; and, that South Africa, the European Union, and -- to a lesser extent -- China, occupy the central position in the trade network within and outside SADC. Finally, this study also reveals that instead of forming a single community, the SADC member states are actually divided into two major clusters revolving around South Africa and the European Union.