Within the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which has sixteen member states and stretches from the DRC to South Africa, the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security (OPDS) acts as a counterweight to the rotating presidency. The SADC president is the head of the organisation for a one-year term, while the president of the OPDS is in charge of sensitive issues such as the deployment of the institution's troops in the context of a regional military intervention or for election observation
Inner Circle | SADC
Jorge Cardoso gets to grips with SADC's security potential to contend with Cabo Delgado crisis
Subscribers only
Of all the directorates of the Southern African Development Community, the one charged with regional political, defence, and security issues is by far the most strategic. Headed by Angola's Jorge Cardoso, it has to humour the changing moods of the organisation's rotating presidents at a time when a SADC military response is increasingly expected in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province.
This article is part of this Running Story
Cabo Delgado: a gas Eldorado and security nightmare
All articles
You left off here
