Differentiated Disintegration in the Economic Community of West African States, the Eurasian Economic Community and the European Union: A Comparative Regionalism Approach

The United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union has sparked interest in voluntary withdrawals from regional organisations (RO). While Brexit is a well-researched subject, other exits from ROs around the globe have been somewhat neglected. We still know relatively little about states’ motivations to leave and how such exits play out in the short and long run. This article addresses both gaps. First, it conceptualises withdrawals from ROs as differentiated disintegration to better grasp the pre- and post-exit dynamics. Second, it puts forth three factor groups explaining states’ reasoning composed of (i) geopolitical and geoeconomic conditions, (ii) intra-regional tensions and (iii) domestic factors. Third, it applies this framework to Uzbekistan’s exit from the EurAsEC, Mauritania’s departure from ECOWAS and the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. Despite great differences in the regional setup and level of institutionalisation, we find that strong parallels can be drawn between all three cases.