ABSTRACT

This book explores relations between states in the Africa–European Union in view of the African Continental Free Trade Area, both at a regional level and as a series of informal processes of socioeconomic and political interactions between state and non-state actors.

The book reconsiders the ways in which actors in the Africa–European Union relationship function, and what that means for regionalism, regionalisation and regional integration. In addition to formalised state-to-state and inter-regional interactions, the book examines the impact of socio-economic and political interactions with non-state actors, including those who engage with regional integration through formal and informal processes such as civil society activists, “African migration evangelists”, human smugglers and human traffickers. The book thus demonstrates that regional and inter-regional engagements include issues that extend beyond the usual discussions of trade.

The book is authored from an African perspective and will be of interest to academics who specialise in International Relations, Political Economy, Political Sociology and African Studies. Policy makers and various actors in civil society and think tanks who have an academic inclination and deal with trade, migration and regionalism in Africa and Africa’s relations with Europe will also find the book beneficial.

chapter 1|14 pages

Africa–EU relations in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area

Issues and challenges in the political economy of development in Africa

chapter 2|17 pages

Intergovernmentalism, supranationalism and interregional relations

Africa–EU relations in view of the African Continental Free Trade Area

chapter 3|19 pages

The African Continental Free Trade Area and EU–ACP Economic Partnership Agreements

Contentions and Synergies for Development

chapter 5|21 pages

Africa–EU Economic Partnership Agreements

Whither the African Continental Free Trade Area?

chapter 9|21 pages

Rethinking migration narratives through Africa–EU relations from below

Migration evangelism of public transport users in Europe by France-based African migrants

chapter 10|17 pages

Of “pieces of cake” and “elephants in the room”

Migration and Africa's continental integration project