Dissolution of Regional Organizations

Abstract

Although regional organizations frequently cease any activity, their legal dissolution appears to be a rather unusual case. The goal of the chapter is to explain why regional organizations prove to be so tenacious and resist attempts to dissolve them, even when they are inefficient and devoid of substance. The analysis looks at two cases, where the dissolution of the regional organization indeed happened: the Central Asian Economic Community and the African and Malagasy Union. In both cases, the necessary precondition was the strong role of an external hegemon, de-facto dominating the organization, but not tied to it formally. Furthermore, the existence of new organizations taking over the bureaucratic staff of the old ones is also instrumental in facilitating the legal dissolution.