This book discusses the phenomenon of regional integration in Africa and the ensuing discourse on the intercontinental free trade agreement within the continent. Long before the move for the facilitation of free trade in Africa, freedom of movement by Africans within Africa backed up by the AU Protocol on free movement of persons has been in existence and in one way or the other both moves are closely related. The book explores the existing relationships between the ECOWAS Protocol on free movement, goods and services and AfCFTA on one hand and the impact of the implementation and non-implementation of these policies on West Africa on the other hand.

Shows power politics vis-à-vis regional policy implementation Discusses AfCFTA's impact on the West African sub region Discusses implementation of the ECOWAS Protocol on the free movement of persons

Autorentext

Samuel Kehinde Okunade is a Senior Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria, South Africa. He received his PhD in Conflict Transformation from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and his research interests span across security and borderlands studies, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and migration studies, and regional integration in Africa.

Olusola Ogunnubi is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Gender and African Studies, University of the Free State, South Africa, and also Visiting Scholar at Carleton University, Canada. He received his PhD from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and his research interests include regional studies, comparative foreign policy, corruption in Africa, African regional power politics and soft power diplomacy.

Inhalt
Introduction.- Chapter 1: A ** Borderless region and the pursuit of Continental Free Trade Agreement in West Africa.- Part I: ECOWAS and AfCFTA in West Africa and Beyond.- CHAPTER 2: ECOWAS 'Borderless Protocol' and the AfCFTA: Blessing or Burden for Africa's 'Smiling Coast'?.- CHAPTER 3: Gendered Insecurity and Mobility in West African Borderlands: putting the Nigeria/Niger border in perspective.- CHAPTER 4: Nigeria-Benin Border Trade in the Context of the ECOWAS.- CHAPTER5: AfCFTA-ECOWAS Regional Integration Initiatives and EUFTA Migration Governance: The Undoing and Doing of Borders in West Africa.- Part II: ECOWAS Protocol and the AfCFTA: Understanding the Political-Economic and Security Dimensions.- CHAPTER 6: Border Closure in Nigeria: Implications for the AfCFTA and Communities on the Benin-Nigeria Corridor.- CHAPTER 7: West African Borderlands: Between ECOWAS Free Movement and EU Externalization Policy.- CHAPTER 8: Borderless Africa, Illegal Migration and Food Insecurity in West Africa.- CHAPTER 9: Integrating AFCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) into a Borderless ECOWAS Region: An evident Bluster, a Strategy or a Reality.- CHAPTER 10: ECOWAS Borderless Protocol, AfCFTA and Cross-Border Criminalities and (In)Security Challenges in West Africa.- Part III: Borderless West Africa and AfCFTA: Challenges andOpportunities for African Development.- Chapter 11: The ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement of Persons in Nigeria's Borderlands, Challenges and Lessons for AfCFTA.- CHAPTER 12:** African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement and Challenges of Borderlands in the ECOWAS Region