“This thematic issue of the Horn of Africa Bulletin (HAB) on the ‘A Community of Peoples: Bottom up Regional Integration in the Horn of Africa’ addresses the issue of integration in the Horn driven by bottom-up dynamics. This issue also seeks to draw attention to some of the gaps and questions bedevilling regional integration in the Horn and in the process, flag key policy questions, and suggest policy options. This thematic issue is the last issue for 2015, and it was felt that this particular theme would be a fitting way to round off the year, eliding the pattern, where themes have focused on the problems afflicting the region. Historically, the logic of regionalism in Africa has been driven by a political-economy rationale that instrumentalized regional integration as a tool to accelerate economic development and in the process reverse the historical global economic spatiality of power which had its roots in the colonial era. In this context, regionalism through regional economic communities has always been a pressing policy concern and agenda for African governments. Some of the articles in this issue highlight actually existing spaces and processes of bottom-up regionalism. The article by Said Ismael, ‘La Somalie, un acteur majeur de l’intégration régionale « par le bas » dans la Corne de l’Afrique’ discusses the Somali role in bottom-up regionalism in the Horn which he argues was primarily driven by aspects of Somali culture and also innovative financial systems.”
