Impacts of Economic Crises on Regional Integration Process: Lessons from the 2008 Global Economic Crisis and 2010 Euro Zone Crisis
This paper is on the possible impacts of economic crisis on regional integration. It focuses on the possible impacts of the 2008 global financial and economic crisis (GFEC) and the 2010 Euro Zone sovereign debt crisis on regional integration process. The author identifies and analyses various possible ways in which the two economic crises can negatively affect the regional integration process in the East African Community (EAC). These ways include but are not limited to the impacts of the crises on the availability of funds needed for the integration process, derailment of the macroeconomic convergence criteria, and protectionism tendencies among others. It is concluded in the paper that economic crises in general and the 2008 global and financial crisis and the 2010 Euro zone sovereign debt crisis in particular may slow, derail or even halt the regional integration process in the EAC. Areas for further research based in this paper include a need for detailed country-specific empirical case studies to take this essentially theoretical and conceptual paper to the next level.
