Starting with the question of the negotiating culture resulting from the developement of a regional order in southern Africa, this research paper explores the idea that in this region a culture of integrative negotiation is emerging, based on a history of conflict and cooperation. The emphasis placed by Southern African Development Community (SADC) on legal and programmatic dimensions of economic integration manifests, on the one hand, the conditions of the prevailing regional order and, on the other, the member states’ efforts to negotiate from a cooperative perspective. Therefore, this research paper examines the process of a cooperative regional order in southern Africa, the factors that provided this order and the set of legal rules, which result in a regional negotiating culture. Consequently, it proposes a constructivist perspective, concluding that there is adaptation in the adoption process of international models of regionalism.