GLOBAL ECONOMIC SYSTEM AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION IN WEST AFRICA: A STUDY OF ECOWAS
Abstract
The global economic system represents a trend in the contemporary global economic order that is anchored on the liberalization of trade as it affects economic interactions among states across the globe. This paper examines this trend of the contemporary global economic system with a view to ascertain its impact on ECOWAS efforts towards integration in the West African sub-region. The paper argues that there is a relationship between the contemporary global system and the achievement or otherwise of ECOWAS objectives. This relationship lies in the trend and nature of the neoliberal global economic order that is pro-West, as championed by the United States and her Western Allies through the instrumentality of the Bretton Woods Institutions (International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank), Multinational Corporations, World Trade Organization (WTO) and other similar institutions that have confined the states in the West African sub-region to dependent status, and the effects of this order on ECOWAS drove economic integration. In probing the proposition, the paper relies extensively on the qualitative approach of documentary sources of data generation and contents analysis as an analytical tool, while the integration theory of neo-functionalism serves as the explanatory framework underpinning the logic of the free trade mechanism of liberalization driven economic integration. The paper finds out that the unequal trade relationship and the anarchical nature of the neoliberal free trade order of the contemporary global economic system serve as the lubricants that oil the hub around which other issues of adversity of ECOWAS revolve. This paper, among others, canvases for global economic democracy as it recommends that there is a dire need to renegotiate for better terms of trade in favor of Africa and equitable representation of Africans in the IMF, World Bank, WTO, and other similar institutions.
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Biographical Note
Frank-Collins N. Okafor PhD, is a Professor of International Relations and Strategic Studies and former Head, Department of Political Science, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria
Agu Vincent Enyi is a doctoral candidate specializing in International Relations and Strategic Studies, at the Department of Political Science, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria. His primary research interest is in International Relations and Strategic Studies. He has to his credit publications in books. Email address: unclevincentagu@gmail.com
Copyright (c) 2022 Prof. Frank-Collins N. Okafor & Agu Vincent Enyi
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