The Uniting of Africa

The Uniting of Africa: The Arab World and the Future of the African Union challenges one of the most deeply embedded assumptions in modern political geography: that Africa and the Arab world should be treated as separate geopolitical spaces.

Drawing on history, law, political economy, geography and regional integration, Benjamen Gussen examines the case for a broader conception of Africa-one that recognises the deep historical, economic and strategic connections linking the African continent with Arabia and the Levant. He argues that the future of African integration may depend upon looking beyond inherited colonial boundaries and reconsidering the geographical and institutional foundations of the African Union.

The book explores the evolution of African unity, the relationship between Arab and African institutions, the legacy of colonial border-making, and the economic and geopolitical possibilities created by a larger regional community extending across Africa, the Red Sea, Arabia and the eastern Mediterranean.

Rather than treating African integration simply as a project of cooperation among existing states, The Uniting of Africa asks a more fundamental question: what should Africa itself mean in the twenty-first century?

The result is an ambitious proposal for rethinking regional identity, sovereignty and integration-and for imagining a more connected political and economic future for Africa and the Arab world.