Unpacking Counter-Terrorism Cooperation in East Africa: A regime theoretical analysis of East Africa’s evolving counter-terrorism framework

Sammanfattning: Recent developments on the African continent have indicated the emergence of a comprehensive security framework that has been developed to address the many security issues currently threatening peace and stability. A central pillar in this new framework has been the prominent role played by Regional Economic Communities (RECs) that have increasingly adopted peace and security goals as part of their mandate. This has been especially relevant in East Africa, a region with several active terrorist groups, which in turn has seen an increased role played by the regions two represented RECs. As such, the aim of this study is to gauge whether a security regime in East Africa has evolved in response to the regions terrorist threat. In doing so this thesis adopted a regime theoretical approach. A multivariant analytical framework, that combines power, interest, knowledge and context-based assumptions was employed to unpack the dynamics and circumstances that have facilitated and hindered cooperation in the region. By adopting a case study methodology that utilized process tracing, this thesis analysed official sources that included annual reports, documents, agreements and strategies that have a focus on counter-terrorism and are pertinent to the East African region. The results of this study show that the social factors of power, interests, knowledge and context have all had a significant influence on the formation of institutional arrangements and a comprehensive CT framework in East Africa. Furthermore, this study concludes that while a fully-fledged security regime has not formed in East Africa, the structure for one is very much in place. As such, the formation of a security regime is still very likely, maybe even at a sub-regional level instead.