Rooted in the pan-Africanist ideals that animated the struggle against colonialism, regional integration has been on the African agenda for six decades. As soon as African countries attained political independence in the 1960s, they were quick to embrace the need for regional integration because of its strategic value.

The following years saw the adoption of various continental initiatives such as the Southern African Development Community, the Economic Community of West African States, the East African Community and the transformation of the Organisation of African Unity into the African Union.

Regional integration, however, remains elusive. The Quest for Unity is a necessary guide towards efforts for regional integration.

This edited volume discusses infrastructural cooperation and industrial cooperation between China and several countries in Africa. In contributions by academics and practitioners alike, the book distils the conceptual implications of empirical and ethnographic findings and explores probable future developments in the Africa-China relationship. The chapters deal with numerous countries across the African continent, covering nearly all regions, showcasing the dynamics of China’s relations with different countries while highlighting African agency over major infrastructure projects and industrial activity.  Providing an in-depth look at the evolving economic cooperation across these two regions, this volume will appeal to researchers and students of African politics, international relations, area studies, and comparative politics. The book will be of relevance to policymakers in governments, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations involved in policy formulation particularly regarding the Africa-China/China-Africa relationship.

This book examines the direction of the BRICS association. Beginning with historical analyses of the broader Global South and the fundamental composition of the BRICS countries and then moving on to present trends, The BRICS Order evaluates the variables that will influence the association's future. While the BRICS as a forum emerged as a result of the visible fragmentation of the post-1945 world order, it itself remains dogged by issues emanating from internal divergences among member states and from external factors. The contributors interrogate the extent to which this formation of "emerging economies" is indicative of a challenge to the West, or in fact a complimentary relation. Integral to these studies - which encompass examinations of such diverse areas as governance systems, issues in bilateral relations, security threats, multilateral institution building, the transnational creation and dissemination of knowledge, and technological innovation - are patterns of convergence and divergence which render the countries not a formal alliance, but as signifiers of a multilateral future in which the West is itself to become more heterogeneous and thus become occasionally complemented depending on the vacillating consensus within the BRICS association and on the interests of the BRICS countries at different points in time.

This book examines the direction of the BRICS association. Beginning with historical analyses of the broader Global South and the fundamental composition of the BRICS countries and then moving on to present trends, The BRICS Order evaluates the variables that will influence the association's future. While the BRICS as a forum emerged as a result of the visible fragmentation of the post-1945 world order, it itself remains dogged by issues emanating from internal divergences among member states and from external factors. The contributors interrogate the extent to which this formation of "emerging economies" is indicative of a challenge to the West, or in fact a complimentary relation. Integral to these studies - which encompass examinations of such diverse areas as governance systems, issues in bilateral relations, security threats, multilateral institution building, the transnational creation and dissemination of knowledge, and technological innovation - are patterns of convergence and divergence which render the countries not a formal alliance, but as signifiers of a multilateral future in which the West is itself to become more heterogeneous and thus become occasionally complemented depending on the vacillating consensus within the BRICS association and on the interests of the BRICS countries at different points in time.