This article focuses on the institutional dimensions of security cooperation<br />as it manifests in the Southern African Development Community<br />(SADC). As the quotations above suggest, security co-operation, as part of a bigger<br />project of regional integration, is not obvious. Indeed, should southern Africans<br />believe their politicians when the latter claim that SADC is ‘forging ahead’ on the<br />road to formal integration? Slabbert is not convinced. Not only academics, but civil<br />society increasingly question its raison d’ etre. For many, it is unclear whether or<br />how SADC provides human security to the people of the region. Instead, SADC<br />members’ positions on the key regional challenges (trade, growth and development,<br />security and stability) are driven by national interest rather than regional interest – as<br />realists argue, national interests (a must-have) are hard and measurable; regional cooperation<br />(often a nice-to-have) is hard to measure. Or should we accept a regional<br />consciousness shaped by a shared historical experience – a problematic assumption?