| Summary: | The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is currently experiencing unprecedented national, regional and transnational challenges. The emergence and intensification of wars and conflict, the rise in regional and Western military intervention, the increase in public discontent, and the mass displacement of refugees have become increasingly salient features of the political economy of the region. Nevertheless, efforts to achieve greater regional integration have continued since the Second World War. Bilateral, multilateral and region-wide projects have been established to facilitate intra-regional trade and promote political cooperation. The latest regional integration process is the free trade Agadir Agreement, signed in 2004 by Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan. This thesis investigates the Agadir Agreement’s impact on economic integration, its effect on political cooperation, and its role in promoting peace and stability between participating states. Using a critical commercial institutionalist peace theory framework and a mixed-method approach, this thesis argues that, despite the positive and significant correlation found between several variables, it is short-sighted to conclude that the Agadir Agreement has had a major impact on economic integration and political cooperation between member states. The thesis further argues that there is no single explanation of what promotes cooperation. Relations between the four Agadir signatories are the outcome of complex linkages between commercial institutional membership, trade liberalisation, economic integration, political cooperation and peace.
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