The Afro-Atlantic region: Development opportunities and integration challenges

Resumo

This article, entitled «The Afro-Atlantic Region: Opportunities for Development and Challenges of Integration», examines the issue of regional integration (which is so eagerly sought) and the call for integrated and sustainable development in the African countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean (23 countries). This involves conducting a study accompanied by an analysis of the broader context that defines the specific local characteristics of these countries, whether in terms of their strategic geopolitical position, the abundance of their natural and socio-political resources. The same for the complementary nature of their capabilities and human resources, while also highlighting their significant macroeconomic value, both at regional and local level and on a continental and global scale as well. Nevertheless, this potential for development faces numerous complex challenges and deep-seated systemic difficulties, particularly those relating to the Atlantic Initiative as a whole and the Nigeria–Morocco gas pipeline project more specifically. These obstacles are linked, on the one hand, to the major geostrategic shifts currently taking place in Atlantic Africa and, on the other hand, to the recurring environmental challenges (internal and external) that these 23 countries will have to face, just like other nations around the world.