Book excerpt: This study brings an intellectual but also an exciting dimension to Africa's development discourse in general and NEPAD in particular. It is especially remarkable in analysing the origins of regionalist impulses in Africa. It shows profound contrasts between the state-led, internally formulated and African-financed Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) on the one hand and the market-led, Western-crafted, and externally funded NEPAD on the other. Moreover, it is distinctive in its comprehensive analysis of the failures of previous regional initiatives in Africa, thus bringing new insights to the political economy of regionalism in Africa. This book is analytical and critical, but also thought-provoking.