Abstract: The focus of attention is the East African Community (EAC). This economic association of East African countries today includes the following countries: Burundi, the Rwanda Republic, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan. The author makes an effort to outline the trends in the economical and political integration of the EAC member countries after they achieved state sovereignty. Accent is made on how intense these trends are on various stages of the evolution of EAC and its potential to achieve a political unity between its member states within the respective borders of a federal state. Basing on the principle of historism and employing the method of historical reconstruction the author outlines the main determinants of the integration processes in East Africa. The author also points out the factors that counteract the formation of a federation and the emergence of a new subject of International Law in this region. Employing said methods allowed the author to make a substantiated conclusion that the formation of a sovereign federal state, based on the existing regional economic alliance (EAC), is impeded by the recently-emerged and potential tribal and religious conflict in East African countries. Social, cultural and linguistical diversity and growing ambition of the heads of state and the political elites.

Abstract: The subject of this study is the East African Commonwealth (EAC), an intergovernmental organization which, at the initial stage of its development, included sovereign African countries, such as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The author examines the integration processes in East Africa in the second half of the twentieth century, uncovers the factors that precipitated the formation of EAC and contributed to the optimization of the economic processes in EAC member countries. The author draws attention to the difficulties that emerged during the formation of a common economic space in EAC in 1970s, and lead to the eventual disintegration of this intergovernmental organization. Using the principle of historism, the author analyzes official documents and media sources of this time. The usage of the historical reconstruction method allowed him to discover the main political and economic determinants of the relations crisis between EAC member countries. The novelty of this work is based on the usage of English-speaking sources that were previously unused in the study of EAC 1970s crisis. Researching these sources allowed the author to reach a conclusion that the disintegration of EAC was due to a multitude of causes, chiefly the immaturity of the political systems of newly emerged, independent countries, and the lack of readiness to give op a part of their sovereignty for the common good of the member countries of the association, nationalism and economic perfectionism in domestic matters.