| dc.description.abstract | The Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) is an Economic Integration block comprising of five member states in North Africa. It was founded in 1989 to embrace and promote economic development of member states. When it was founded, member states agreed on an implementation time table. A time table set out tasks that were to be accomplished within specific times, this was done in accordance to standards of integration and against the background of the needs of states in member states.
Among the objectives set in the establishing treaty was that, state leaders of the member states would be meeting annually to make decisions as the highest organ. However after five meetings, the leaders stopped meeting and have never met until now. Moreover, economic integration is a process that demands that states accomplish certain requirements before they are fully integrated as economic blocks. None of these requirements was achieved and neither did the Arab Maghreb member states attempt to pursue them. This demonstrated that, integration in AMU had challenges which inhibited integration.
From a far, the challenges appear to be pegged on national interest of member states, for instance the secession of Western Sahara state' and the rivalry among member states. However, upon close analysis, it emerged that, the main challenge to integration in the Arab Maghreb Union were centered on the interests of state leaders. The state leaders in most Arab Maghreb member states have been in power for decades, thus running the states akin too personal property. The interests of state leaders are a concern for integration. Successful integration requires that, states engage in activities that are purely oriented to promote economic prosperity. However, in the Arab Maghreb union, state leaders promote political'interests in place of economic goals.
In this study political interests are examined as challenges of integration to integration. The challenges include policy challenges, Western Sahara conflict, interstate competition and leadership competition. Moreover, the study attempts to map out prospects of integration in the Arab Maghreb union. The prospects are based on the fact that, states are becoming increasingly more interdependent on one another, the prospects of development are better achieved when states pursue goals as a block than when they pursue goals as unitary entities. | en_US |
