Regionalism

11 Key excerpts on "Regionalism"

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  Climate Change in South Asia

  Politics, Policies and the SAARC

  • Baniateilang Majaw(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge India

    (Publisher)

  There is a growing body of literature (Legrenzi and Harders, 2008: 1) which centres on the notion that regional cooperations are becoming essential actors in world politics. The early regional organizations may also be considered as cases of Regionalism. Martin Griffiths (2005: 723) defines Regionalism as the growing political or economic process of cooperation among states in particular geographic region. It is so since a region represents a dynamic, spatial concept that is defined by the blending of geographical proximity. Graham Evans and Jeffrey Newnham (1998: 474) describe Regionalism rather abstractly as a complex of attitudes, loyalties and ideas which concentrates the individual and collective minds of people upon what they perceive as their region. This can be due to the feeling of loyalty to one’s own region. To David L. Sills (1972: 3778) the term represents the regional idea in action as an ideology, as a social movement, or as the theoretical basis for regional planning. It is also applicable to the scientific task of delimiting and analyzing regions as entities lacking formal boundaries. Whereas, to other scholar (Lawson, 2008: 16) it refers to the general phenomenon as well as the ideology urging for a regionalist order, either in a particular geographical area or as a type of world order. This explains Regionalism as an understanding (Fawcett, 2005b: 22) whereby states cooperate and organize strategy within a given region. Its endeavour is to pursue and promote common goals in one or more concern areas. While it may be manifest in different forms in different regions, it does convey an idea that nations and peoples in a specific international region expresses a common sense of identity and pursue a common objective of “greater coherence” through “structures, processes and arrangements … in terms of economic, political, security, socio-cultural and other kinds of linkages” (Dent, 2009: 7). It is something where political leaders often conduct foreign policy and approach their external environment through a regional community perspective. So, the term Regionalism refers to not only the growth of economic cooperation but also to the growth of regional identity and consciousness among neighbouring countries altogether.

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  Networked Regionalism as Conflict Management

  • Anna Ohanyan(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Stanford University Press

    (Publisher)

  Regionalism in this framework becomes a policy initiative rather than just an analytical concept. Within the critical framework of regional studies, Regionalism becomes an important normative tool with a strong policy focus that is particularly relevant for PDAs. Regionalism is understood as a tool (1) to establish a regional order to mitigate local instabilities and conflicts (Pugh and Sdhu 2003) and (2) to prevent the possibility of new penetration into the region in the post–Cold War period (Falk 1999). Kelly (2007, 213), in defining Regionalism, cites Fawcett (2004): “Regionalism is a policy and project whereby states and nonstate actors cooperate and coordinate strategy. .. to create an interlocking web of regional governance structures such as those already found in Europe.” Others define Regionalism as a tool of institutional cooperation (Swanström 2002), whether in the form of preferential trade agreements or in the form of other types of institutional integration (Soesastro 1994). Another definition highlights the changed political context in the post–Cold War period and the political nature of multifaceted Regionalism (Hettne and Inotai 1994). In this context, Regionalism is treated as a structure for cooperation that is cultivated by internal or external actors. Regionalism is understood to be institutionalized cooperation among states within a given region (Acharya and Johnston 2008; Swanström 2002). In all of these perspectives, Regionalism is a process strategically cultivated by political actors. This is in contrast to regionalization, which usually refers to the “largely uncoordinated consequence of private sector–led economic integration” (Beeson 2003, 253). Regionalization is characteristic of the uncontrolled and unmedi ated efforts led by the private sector and civil society to achieve greater regional integration

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  The Chinese Constitution of Central Asia

  Regions and Intertwined Actors in International Relations

  • N. Godehardt(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  The comparison between old and new Regionalism underscores that the various theories in fact build on each other, rather than betraying categorical and deep differences. Old and new Regionalism are, hence, not incommensurable paradigms. I concur with Alex Warleigh-Lack that, ‘the theoretical salience of these differences is far less than has generally been assumed’ (2006, 752). It is, therefore, important to combine the different perspectives and developments of regional politics with the approaches of IR studies. Elsewhere, Warleigh-Lack highlights that ‘new Regionalism scholars’ pursue a ‘more complex understanding of interdisciplinarity’, and have particularly widened their horizons as they are no longer only focusing on the study of the EU but now also on other regional projects. ‘Old Regionalism scholars’, on the other hand, need to reconsider ‘the importance of critical theory and political economy’ as well as the role of ‘global/international issues’ in their analyses. He concludes that, ‘both sets of scholars would gain from explicit investigation of what may not, after all, be quirks of the EU system as it advances, […] but rather inherent features of Regionalism wherever it is practised’ (2008, 49).

  Overall, the concept of Regionalism refers to a policy project within a particular region that is conducted by both state and non-state actors (Hettne 2005, 545). Regionalism, therefore, tells the story of how regions are constructed. Some authors further differentiate ‘soft’ Regionalism, where actors aim to promote a common regional awareness (we-feeling), from ‘hard’ Regionalism, which rather indicates the formation of inter-state institutions (Fawcett 2005, 24; Hurrell 1995b, 39). In short, ‘Regionalism connotes those state-led projects of cooperation that emerge as a result of intergovernmental dialogues and treaties’ (Breslin and Higgott 2000, 344).

  However, the concept of regionalization – which, often enough, is confused with Regionalism, but which should in fact be considered as another orientation of new Regionalism – points to the dynamic, more complex and rather spontaneous process of forming regions (Hettne 2005, 545).20 The notion of regionalization incorporates a range of new variables at many differing levels-of-analysis, and in various issue-areas that need to be combined in the analyses (Fawcett 2005, 25; Warleigh-Lack 2006, 759). The study of regionalization also underscores the importance of its empirical dynamic, which ‘leads to patterns of cooperation, integration, complementarity and convergence within a particular cross-national geographical space’ (Hettne and Söderbaum 2000, 458).

  Regionalization and globalization, thus, describe two different perspectives on the changing structure of our world order. Regionalization refers to the endogenous perspective – that is, the level of regionness that is shaped by the actors within a region. In contrast, globalization denotes an exogenous perspective – highlighting the impact of global challenges and how ‘regionalization and globalization are intertwined articulations […] of global transformation’ (Hettne 2003, 26; Hettne 2002, 2005; Hettne and Söderbaum 2000, 458). Hettne’s fresh focus on the role of agency within the making of the region is particularly interesting given that he combines aspects of social constructivism and comparative politics (cf. Hettne and Söderbaum 2000).

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  Multilateralism Past, Present and Future

  A European Perspective

  • Mario Telò(Author)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Part 2 Regionalism and interRegionalism as forms of multilateralism Between hegemony, cooperation and fragmentation

  Introduction: The emergence of and developments in regional and interregional cooperation

  The main purpose of Part 2 of this book is to contribute both empirical evidence and theoretical insights about the evolution of global governance towards a multilayered form of multilateralism, including Regionalism and interRegionalism, as essential levels of cooperation. What do we mean by Regionalism? We are not focussing on subnational Regionalism, which shares with “international Regionalism” (according to the Joseph Nye definition, 1968) the relevance of shifts of authority away from the nation state. We will focus on inter-state Regionalism, which is a more complex concept than regionalisation. The latter is a fluid concept, which is rather limited to the economic dimension, while Regionalism includes policies and, in some cases, incipient polities and politics. In our definition, international Regionalism (or macro-Regionalism) defines a multidimensional, variously institutionalised cooperation between interdependent neighbouring states and societies. Geographic proximity and mutual interdependence among members are essential features of it, as is the inclusion not only of intergovernmental regimes but also of transnational regional networks at the level of civil society. Regional entities can take the (initial) form of trade blocs, free trade agreements (FTAs), security regimes, bottom-up voluntary associations/fora of neighbouring states or top-down initiatives of regional leaders.

  Provided that there are more than two, the precise number of members of the club does not matter. Regional entities share two points: they interact with the complex globalisation process and with world politics and they somehow interact with other levels of economic and political governance, whether national or global.

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  Exploring the New South American Regionalism (NSAR)

  • Ernesto Vivares(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Today the relation between Regionalism and regionalization is somehow a key part of the debates in the IPE of development. Despite the fact that many still equate Regionalism with interstate integration, a top-down event, certainly the debate about Regionalism has moved to a bottom-up focus and, in particular, to the exploration of the relation between formal and informal Regionalism, formal and informal coalitions, formal and informal economic actors, regional communities, and even organized crime. In that sense, the study of Regionalism is attached to the study of development, world orders, and globalization.

  We can say therefore that Regionalism constitutes the body of ideas, values, and political projects that contribute to the creation, maintenance, or transformation of a region type or world order. Generally, Regionalism leads into the creation of different kinds of regional institutional structures, which can imply cession or not of national sovereignty. To talk about Regionalism as structures of formal governmental and economic integration is a narrow idea derived from the Cold War; the notion of Regionalism is more comprehensive than integration but includes it. Regionalism includes state and non-state actors, formal and informal regional networks, all capable of building regionalization. Regionalization then is the structural process of regional formation. Regionalization can be caused by regionalist projects, but it can also rise in the absence of them (Söderbaum, 2012; Söderbaum and Shaw, 2003).

  These conceptual distinctions are noteworthy, as they permit the assembling of a multidisciplinary research approach able to grasp different dimensions of Regionalism and regionalization in agential and structural terms, including the elements of conflict and well-being. A typical example of this is the study of the complex orientations and configurations of political projects of Regionalism in developing areas. Seen from the perspective of agency, they appear as a complex and even contradictory web of overlapping and opposing projects; however, when they are related to their different economic configurations and orientations, there emerges a new sense of the underlying PE. Something similar occurs with the study of conflict, which is usually associated in development studies to inequality. However, as shown by different studies in various developing regions, conflict might also be connected to organized crime and even defense and intelligence (Rivera, 2011a, 2011b).

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  Northeast Asian Regionalism

  Lessons from the European Experience

  • Christopher M. Dent, David W. F. Huang(Authors)
  • 2002(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Most academic discussion of Regionalism focuses on analysing a particular regionalist arrangement, be it the EU, NAFTA, or ASEAN and continuing discussions within the Asia-Pacific region over new economic and security agreements like APEC, Pacific Economic Co-operation Council (PECC), and ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). These discussions emphasize the trends of regional trading blocs on the one hand and co-operation and integration on the subregional level on the other hand. 7 Much of the literature advocates categorizing the concept of Regionalism into five different types or aspects, namely regionalization, such as the processes that have become a particularly important feature of Asia-Pacific Regionalism; regional awareness and identity with ‘great emphasis on language and rhetoric’; regional interstate co-operation, which can be formal or informal with high levels of institutionalization, which are no guarantee of either effectiveness or political importance; state-promoted regional integration, which involves specific policy decisions by governments designed to expedite mutual exchange of goods, services, capital and people and can be compared along various dimensions, such as scope, depth, institutionalization and centralization. This type is dominated by the European model, Regionalism here is too often simply equated with regional economic integration; and last, regional cohesion, which might be based on various models such as the gradual creation of supranational regional organization within the context of deepening economic integration, the creation of series of overlapping and institutionally strong interstate arrangements or regimes, a complex and evolving mixture of traditional inter-governmentalism and emerging supranationalism (like the current EU), the development of constitutional arrangements and so on. 8 According to Hurrell, there are three major categories in the theoretical analysis of Regionalism

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  Regionalism in Hard Times

  Competitive and post-liberal trends in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas

  • Mario Telò(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  The number, scope, and influence of these associations and regimes has increased considerably since the early 1980s, in parallel with globalization. 2 (d) A customs union with a common trade policy : these include common external tariff and foreign economic policy (for example, MERCOSUR), the EU, and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), including five members of (SADC). The definition of ‘strategic Regionalism’, that is competing for defending regional geoeconomic interests and asserting distinctive socio-economic and learning models, could also be used to cope with such a phenomenon. (e) We understand economic regional integration to be a common market and an economic union, including not only cooperation, but also coordination of national macroeconomic policies and sometimes currencies, through various intergovernmental and, rarely, supranational institutions. (f) The new regionalist approach emphasizes that regions are not only entities of social interaction, but also of policymaking and polity construction. We don’t understand a ‘regional polity’ to be a regional federal State, but various forms/regimes of political cooperation (up to gradually coordinating national policies in sensitive fields) and an institutional capacity to minimize internal asymmetries and maximize external influence. 3 Furthermore, what matters as the sociopolitical construction or ‘cognitive Regionalism’ are communitarian feelings of shared identity. Finally, there is not an evolutionary sequence: all the five types of cooperation above do not need to be included within this deeper step. Using the historical and theoretical framework provided by the chapter one, we will focus on empirical and comparative questions

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  The Political Economy of Regionalism

  • Michael Keating, John Loughlin, Michael Keating, John Loughlin(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Regionalism has been described from the top down and the bottom up, as state policy and as regional demands. Regions have been a significant political arena in which a variety of interventions occur, but increasingly they can be seen as actors in their own right. To speak of regions as actors, of course, runs the risk of reification, unless we specify how such actors, or systems of action, are constructed. They are constructed in a variety of ways but increasingly have come to be defined by projects for economic development, within a changing economic order. Regions constructed in these ways may be identified at different spatial levels. In some cases, mobilization for development has occurred at the level of cities or city-regions. In others, the process is organized around regional institutions or federal units. In some instances, there are rival development projects by urban and regional elites, with the very definition of region continuing to be politically contested. Development policy can no longer be presented in the technocratic, consensual terms in which national diversionary policies were presented in the 1960s. In some instances, it has become highly politicized. In others, there are continued attempts at depoliticization through special agencies or differentiated access to policy influence; or by a discourse which presents development as something which cannot be contested.

  In the past, Regionalism was largely contained within the nation state. Previous crises of territorial management, in the late nineteenth century, and in the 1960s and 1970s, were largely resolved by compromises between state elites and regionalist forces. The new Regionalism of the 1990s transcends the nation state, as the old state-region dynamic gives way to a complex set of relationships among regions, states, international regimes and the global market. Some regions have strong institutions and a sense of identity. Others are fragmented territorially or riven by social divisions. The retreat of the state, and its decreasing ability to manage the spatial economy or integrate productive with distributional considerations, raises the importance of regions. Some are better equipped than others to fill the gap. This raises at least two important normative questions. First, it threatens an increase in inequality between regions and within those regions which cannot secure a social consensus. Second, the divorce of policy-making, which has disappeared into complex intergovernmental and public-private networks, from systems of democratic representation and cultural identity, threatens democratic accountability and undermines the basis of social solidarity. Only a few regions and stateless nations may have the ability to manage these consequences, projecting themselves in the international and continental economy while maintaining their social and spatial integrity.

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  The Arab Spring in the Global Political Economy

  • L. Talani(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  raison d’être in the need to address the problems arising from the growth of capitalism. Capitalism’s extension beyond the borders of the nation state, as a natural outcome of the process of capital accumulation, means that the capitalist class needs to create new institutions at the regional level able to fulfil the functions previously performed by the state. Thus, the process of regional institution building is simply a function of the need of the capitalist class to identify a political infrastructure for the expansion of productive forces outside national boundaries and to legitimise its power: it is a function of the need to identify a new mobility–fixity nexus. As Cocks puts it:

  Political and economic integration are methods of providing the institutional conditions for the expansion of capital, while social integration is the process of legitimising the new institutions. (Cocks 1991: 36)

  In summary:

  Integration refers to the geographical spread of state functions in response to the exigencies of capital accumulation and the realisation of surplus value on the one hand, and their associated legitimation problems, on the other. (Cocks 1991: 37)

  Concluding, in Cocks’ understanding the notion of regional political integration is contiguous to the notion of state-building. Here state-building is essentially conceptualised as the mechanism reproducing the conditions for the survival of the capitalist class and its legitimation at the social level.

  Similarly, Callinicos (1997) proposes a reading of the process of European integration in the light of the competition between advanced capitalist states, both within the European context and globally. Based on Harman’s original contribution (Harman 1971, 1991), Callinicos argues that while capitalism had overcome national boundaries, no single state, not even Germany, France or the UK, could yet compete at the global level. Therefore, regional integration schemes, like the European Economic Community, must be interpreted as an attempt to allow national capitalisms to thrive at the regional level without having to address global competition. This attempt, however, is not without contradictions, especially between nation states and multinational capital. Indeed, these contradictions, even in the case of Europe, are still outstanding and have not been resolved by building truly supranational institutions (Callinicos 1997).

  Hazel Smith (2002) addresses the process of regional integration from a totally different Marxist standpoint. Starting from Marx’s criticism of liberal constitutionalism as expressed in his pamphlet ‘On the Jewish Question’ (Marx 1978), this author proposes the idea that political emancipation, as provided by liberal constitutionalism, or by liberal democracy today, does not coincide with human emancipation and is indeed functional to the needs of capitalism. This is in stark contrast to what neo-institutionalists, a la

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  Europe, the State and Globalisation

  • Simon Sweeney(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  The chapter begins by pointing out that the field of IR is increasingly concerned with issues of Regionalism and the role of regional organisations such as the European Union (EU), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and other international groups such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the G8. Indeed the EU has become a significant actor in international relations, as a phenomenon of global politics, as well as in IR theory itself. Following a brief introduction which locates the European Union in the context of the discipline of International Relations, several key strands of IR theory are surveyed. Naturally, this is a selective overview in a single chapter. It is important, however, to explain some basic concepts of IR theory which recur in the rest of the book.

  The strand on neo-liberalism and globalisation is developed in later chapters, since it is clear that the phenomenon of globalisation is driving significant change in relation to the state. It is a vital feature, perhaps the dominant one, on the landscape of European political development, and naturally for globalisation studies.

  International Relations, a sub-discipline of political science, traditionally attempts to explain how states relate to one another. In recent years the discipline has extended its scope to

  thinking about emergent transnational economic and social spaces and the forms of government that arise in such circumstances (Rosamond, 2003:123).

  This trend is a response to evidence of a ‘new Regionalism’ in recent years, of which the EU is an example. This regional integration is arguably a response to globalisation. It is evident that the EU has assumed greater significance as a global actor. IR then, has responded by looking at the role of transnational organisations as well as states.

  IR theory provides a useful set of tools for the interpretation of diplomacy and for assessing the impact of globalisation. However, it is notable that trends such as regional integration could on the one hand call into question the relevance of an academic discipline which traditionally – and in America still – is overwhelmingly interested in interpreting international affairs as centrally, even exclusively – about bilateral relations between states. This chapter argues that this is not the case. An intelligent and comprehensive interpretation of the international environment requires a move beyond the Hobbesian fixation with state power and the notion that states are by definition independent and sovereign entities, whose primary function is to build up their military strength in order to ensure their survival, or their ability to dictate the affairs of others.

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  Assessment and Measurement of Regional Integration

  • Philippe De Lombaerde(Author)
  • 2006(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Economic interdependence can be indicated by the relative importance of intra-regional flows of trade, investment, labour, migration; patterns of price convergence; and so on. One can assess relative degrees of political cooperation by looking at voting patterns between the component countries in international organisations compared to non-members. One can try to quantify and measure the relative intensity of transactions and communications as a further indicator of the existence of a ‘transnational community’. 1 One can also carry out opinion polls on perceptions of common interests and common identity. 2 This kind of distinction between the ‘formal’ and the ‘real’, however, must be qualified when one looks at the actual processes by which Regionalism in fact operates. The dimension of ‘institutionalisation’, in the sense of the demonstrable existence of formal agreements, organs, decision-making rules, compliance mechanisms and so on, always needs to be seen in either or both perspectives (that is, as a formal statement of intention or a manifestation of real integration) depending on the particular regional arrangement in question. As emphasised by sociological institutionalist and social constructivist approaches, actors’ interests, preferences and perceptions of identity are not fixed but may be shaped by participation in broader institutional contexts and systemic processes, of which more below. Moreover, the more attention is placed on the subjective and discursive nature of ‘regionness’ (Hettne and Söderbaum, 2000) or ‘regionhood’, 3 the harder it necessarily becomes to conceive of objective indicators by which to measure things. 4 Even descriptive classification in any absolute terms is difficult. The aim of this Chapter is to explore whether it may nevertheless be not only possible but in fact more valuable to move beyond classification and purely empirical comparison towards some form of normative evaluation

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