World PoliticsWorld Politics

Regionalism and RegionalisationRegionalism and Regionalisation

RegionalismismTop down governmental projectsProceeds through intergovernmental negotiation and dialogueCreation of formal agreements creating de jure regions

The conscious, deliberate and purposive attempts made by national states to create formal mechanisms for dealing with common transnational issues

RegionalRegionalisationisationActual processes of real integration which tie people or economies together irrespective of national political boundaries

Could be based on societal integration, but most often discussed in terms of economic integration, led by investment and trade relationships

The creation of transnational economic spaces creating a de facto region that does not need a formal regional organisation to flourish

Regionalism Regionalism – describes the activities of the organizations describes the activities of the organizations

to establish the legal & non-legal to establish the legal & non-legal framework which influences the operation framework which influences the operation and the decision-making of each economic and the decision-making of each economic actors within the relevant regional areaactors within the relevant regional area

Regionalization:Regionalization:– can be viewed as a result of the independent can be viewed as a result of the independent

decision-making of the economic actors.decision-making of the economic actors.

The relationship between regionalization The relationship between regionalization and regionalism is not always harmonious: and regionalism is not always harmonious: it includes some tension.it includes some tension.

Indeed, the institutional setup primarily Indeed, the institutional setup primarily tends to liberalize the economic exchange tends to liberalize the economic exchange among the member states, so that the among the member states, so that the regional economy can raise productivity.regional economy can raise productivity.

However, regionalism does not always However, regionalism does not always allow unlimited activities, but sometime allow unlimited activities, but sometime calls for the intervention and modification calls for the intervention and modification of regionalization.of regionalization.

BUT NOT MUTUALLY EXCUSIVE

Regionalisation can result in regionalism de facto integration may lead to intergovernmental

regionalism to create a new form of governance

Regionalism can help decrease the salience of national borders and allow regionalisation to flourish

formal integration is necessary for regionalisation to occur and make the region cohere

Regionalisation without regionalismEast Asian economic integration

(but on the way to regionalism?????)

Regionalism without regionalisation?Parliamentary Association of Black Sea Economic

CooperationCentral America

(in both cases, is the focus of economic relations with an extra-regional economy economy rather than within the region?)

The First Wave of (Studies of) The First Wave of (Studies of) RegionalismRegionalism

1950s – considerations of the sustainability of the nation-state

(a) The idea that the nation had been the problem in the 30s and 40s

(b) The example of integration – the European Coal and Steel Community

(c) Post colonialism - East African Common Market (now defunct

The Nation as the ProblemThe Nation as the ProblemSecurity

the need to tie Germany in to a European future and prevent any post-WWI resurgence after WWII

Cold War bilpolarisation and the need for security communities

Idealism

the conception of a European home and harmony

Functionalism the role of functional and technocratic imperatives in laying the basis for new forms of authority that transcend political borders. Associated with the work of David Mitrany (look back at lecture on international organisations)

eg: ECSCMost effective to deal with issues relating to coal and steel production transnationally, so create an organisation that can coordinate policy across national boundaries – but only relating to this single specific issue. When other transnational issues need dealing with, create new functionally discrete organisations to deal with that specific issue

A Functionalist View of EuropeA Functionalist View of EuropeNo European Union but ….

A Coal and Steel Community

Euratom

A European Transportation Authority

A European Food Agency etc etc

both the type of organisation and its membership would vary on a case by case basis

So Mitrany is not a theorist or regionalism, but in some ways, an

anti-regionalism theorist

Most often associated with the work of Ernst Haas

Conception of Spillover

can’t deal with issues relating to coal and steel production without also considering social policy, trade, investment rules, domestic laws etc etc. cooperation on functional areas will inevitably spillover into

economic and then political integration on a territorial rather than functional basis

driven by the actions of rational actors will eventually lead to the transcendencetranscendence of the state system

NeofunctionalismNeofunctionalism

Beyond HaasBeyond Haas

Scheingold, Lindberg and Nye

European experience as a predictive force for regionalism elsewhere

Emphasis on on functional pressures but also:-

growing interdependence – need to find collective answers to collective problems

accepts the significance of non-state actors

(a) The failure to replicate the European experience elsewhere (I think expecting there to be a single model of regionalism was perhaps the biggest flaw in this early thinking)

(b) States had not withered away in Europenational governments continued to be powerful actors

outside the region – eg: in international relationsinside the region – not transcending the national but

instead intergovernmental where national preferences and power remained more important that the region as an actor

(c) Towards concepts of (complex) interdependence

““The Obsolescence of Regional The Obsolescence of Regional Integration Theory” Haas, 1975Integration Theory” Haas, 1975

The Second Wave of (Studies of) The Second Wave of (Studies of) RegionalismRegionalism

revival of European integration that accompanied the single market programme in the mid-1980s an activist European Commission under Jacques Delors growing interest in a federalist Europe from EEC to EU – The Treaty of the European Union (Maastricht) 1992

concept of citizenship of EUfoundation for monetary unioncommon foreign and security policy

But a key acceptance by most But a key acceptance by most that the European case was that the European case was ONEONE model of regional integration, not model of regional integration, not

THETHE model model

The Southern Cone (Mercusor) 1991

Resurgence and expansion of Association of South East Asian Nations

North American Free Trade Area (signed 1992, enforced 1994)

Southern African Development Community – transformed from organisation to resist RSA to incorporating RSA into development community in 1992

Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation 1989

Pacific Islands Forum 1995

Theorising Contemporary Theorising Contemporary RegionalismRegionalism

Having looked at neofunctionalism we will not repeat it here, though we should note that there is still a strong neofunctionalist school

Neoliberal InstitutionalismNeoliberal Institutionalism

Close relative of neofunctionalism – but also influenced by the realist tradition in that it is heavily statist and rationalist. Increased international exchanges lead to problems that require collective management - to lead to the expansion of formal inter-state cooperative institutions.

No longer sees the European experience as a predictive model.

“cooperating to compete”(though some theorists argue that any such cooperation

should be temporary)

political regionalism as a defence mechanism against a common enemy

economic regionalism to maximise the national interests in a game of mercantilist competition

emphasises the importance of the hegemon

NeorealismNeorealism

Hegemony and regionalismHegemony and regionalismAndrew Hurrell

(i) Emergence of sub-regional groups as a response to actual or potential hegemon. eg: ASEAN against Vietnam and then China, Gulf Cooperation Council against Iran

(ii) “an attempt to restrict the free exercise of hegemonic power, through the creation of regional institutions” eg: getting Germany into the EU as means of “regional entrapment”

(iii) Bandwagonning - the attempt to get special favours from the hegemon by forming an alliance. Could be political gains, or simply access to the hegemons market

(iv) The hegemon pushes for regionalism where it is beneficial (and blocks it where it is not) eg: US support for ASEAN, but not for Latin American regionalism

ConstructivismConstructivismEmmanual Adler – “cognitive regions”

Emphasis on regional awareness and identity

common culture, history, religion

common enemy

common cultural challenge

Whose identity matters? Popular versus elite identities

Does a regional identity lead to the creation of regions, or does the creation of regions lead to the creation of a regional identity?

Is identity the glue that makes a region cohere

Marxist InterpretationsMarxist Interpretations

Peter Cocks

The region, just like the nation, is constructed to (a) facilitate and (b) legitimate the spread of capitalism

Recent developments in regionalism reflect the dominance/hegemony of neo-liberal economic ideas

Which has echoes, at least, in much of the literature on ….

New Regionalism TheoriesNew Regionalism Theories

Why New?

new regional organisations (see ealier)

Regionalism in the South (or non-core regions)

Multiple regionalism

Focus on a variety of actors – not just states but civil society, companies etc.

Hegemony of neoliberal economic strategies (sometimes called convergence theory)

Paul Bowles

“By 1991 the purpose of forming a regional trading bloc was no longer premised on the need to be more independent of the global economy but rather seen as a measure to ensure continued participation in it. The fear of developing countries was no longer one of dependence on the global economy but rather was seen as a measure to ensure continued participation in it.”

North-South regionalism whereby governments in the South attempt to tie their economic futures with their “Northern” neighbours

Regulatory RegionalismRegulatory Regionalismfinancial crises in East Asia, Russia and Latin America led to a rethink of the benefits of un-regulated neoliberalism – in addition, IFIs perceived to reflect the interests of the developed West/North. Regions as mediating layers of governance between the nation-state and global financial institutions and/or between the national economy and globalisation

led to rethink of basic understanding of the global economy and regionalism in Latin America

led to failed attempt to build and Asian Monetary Fund in East Asia but ultimately closer cooperation between ASEAN, China, Korea and Japan and the Chiang Mai Initiative of regional currency swaps

Does the European Union

(a) protect the “European Social Model” from the vagaries of US promoted neoliberalism - Colin Hay and Ben Rosamond

(b) act as a “filter for globalisation” - Helen Wallace

aka the Goldilocks Principleaka the Goldilocks Principle

Peter Katzenstein ‘Because they often mediate between national and global effects, as in the story of Goldilocks, [regions] are neither too hot, nor too cold, but just right’

A contradictory set of explanations?

regions as facilitating globalisation

regions as mediating globalisation

Or is it finding the best way to facilitate and legitimate globalisation as Cocks argued?

Regionalism and GlobalisationRegionalism and Globalisation

Does this suggest that regionalism and globalisation are dichotomous?

Friedberg

“recent rhetoric notwithstanding, the dominant trend in world politics today is towards regionalization rather than globalization, toward fragmentation rather than globalization”

Uruguay round of GATT 1986-94 to negotiate freer trade

led some to conclude that regional blocs were the only alternative

Aforementioned response to 1997 financial crises

Circling the Wagons ? Circling the Wagons ?

NAFTA as an example of defensive regionalism ?

defending the economic heartland

competing with the EU

a bulwark against East Asia

(and potential East Asian regionalism?)

But many new regionalism theorists see

the two as symbiotic

Open RegionalismOpen Regionalism

Where any trade concessions between members also apply to non-members

eg APEC

EU entry criteria – include domestic economic liberalisation which are conducive to globalisation as well as regionalism

Convergence theories and neo-Marxian analyses emphasise the acceptance of neoliberalism as the only developmental game in town

Globalisation and RegionalisationGlobalisation and Regionalisation

Regionalisation as the local manifestation of wider global processes

eg: closer economic integration in East Asia

a region of production

but “dependent” on investment from outside the region ?European and US markets ?

MicroregionsMicroregions

Where economic integration takes place across national political borders, it creates new economic spaces

This does not necessarily mean that two or more national economies become integrated as one

Often it is parts of different national economies that become integrated – subnational and crossnational integration

Examples

San Diego – Tijuana

Hong Kong – Pearl River Delta

growth spillover or metropolitan spillover

The Maputo Corridor in Southern Africa

Zambesi River Basin

Franco-Spanish West Mediterranean Zone

Microregional integration

Regional integration

Regional integration

Globalisation

Back to the question of the salience of the state

Microregional integration and national economic fragmentation

Bernard and Ravenhill – Malaysian EPZs and Singapore

Guangdong, Hong Kong and the rest of China

Tijuana and the rest of Mexico

Morata and the EU

power up to the EU and “out” to the market

where does this leave the national government

regions collaborating to solve common problems

A New “Third” Wave of (studies A New “Third” Wave of (studies of) Regionalism?of) Regionalism?

EU enlargement

a dual/multi track Europe?

ASEAN plus three ? Or the East Asia Summit?

A Free Trade Area of the Americas?

Interregional relations

the Asia Europe Meeting