Regionalism (international relations)

Regionalism (international relations)

Regionalism is a term used in international relations. Regionalism also constitutes one of the three constituents of the international commercial system (along with multilateralism and unilateralism).W.J. Ethier, "The International Commercial System, 11] It refers to the expression of a common sense of identity and purpose combined with the creation and implementation of institutions that express a particular identity and shape collective action within a geographical region.

The first coherent regional initiatives began in the 1950s and 1960, but they accomplish little, except in Western Europe with the establishment of the European Communities. Some analysts call these initiatives "old regionalism". In the late 1980s, a new bout of regional integration (also called "new regionalism") began and still continues. A new wave of political initiatives prompting regional integration took place worldwide during the last two decades, while, in international trade, after the failure of the Doha round, regional and bilateral trade deals have mushroomed.W.J. Ethier, "The International Commercial System", 11
* H.G. Preusse, "The New Americal Regionalism", 2
* The Economist, "In the Twilight of Doha", 65] The European Union can be classified as a result of regionalism. The idea that lies behind this increased regional identity is that as a region becomes more economically integrated, it will necessarily become politically integrated as well. The European example is especially valid in this light, as the European Union as a political body grew out of more than 40 years of economic integration within Europe. The precursor to the EU, the European Economic Community (EEC) was entirely an economic entity.

Definition

Joseph Nye defined international region "as a limited number ofstates linked by a geographical relationship and by a degree of mutualinterdependence", and (international) regionalism as "the formation of interstate associations or groupings on the basis of regions".J. Nye, "International Regionalism", vii] This definition, however, was never unanimously accepted, and some analysts noted, for example, that the plethora of regional organizations founded at the initiative of developing countries had not fostered the rapid growth of regionalism in the Third World. Other authors, such as Ernst B. Haas, stressed the need to distinguish the notions of regional cooperation, regional system, regional organization and regional integration and regionalism.E.B. Haas, "The Study of Regional Integration", 607-610]

History

Initiatives towards a closer regional integration date back to the 1880's. The first coherent regionalism initiatives, however, took place during the 1950s and 1960s. During the late 1990s, however, a renewed interest in regionalism emerged and lead to the rapid emergence of a global system of regions with political and economic parameters.A. Wallis, [http://www.munimall.net/eos/2002/wallis_regionalism.nclk The New Regionalism] ]

Origins

It is quite difficult to define when the history of regionalism begins, since there is no single explanation that encompasses the origins and development of the regional idea. Criteria such as the desire by states to "make the best of their regional environment" are regarded by certain analystas as elusive; they prefer to consider the history of regionalism in terms of the rise of modern institutions. If formal organization at the regional as opposed to the international level is to be the yardstick for the onset of regionalism, it is difficult to place its origins much before 1945.L. Fawcett, "Regionalism in Historical Perspective", 10-11]

Before 1945

Advocacy of international regionalism was rare in the period between World War I and World War II when the doctrine of collective security was dominant. With the notable exception of the Inter-American System very few regional groupings existed before World War II. What did emerge before World War II were a growing number of international public and private associations, such as the General Postal Union and the International Law Association, which were holding regular meetings and had their own secretariats.

1945-1980

By the end of the Second World War, then, regionalism had not still entered the vocabulary of international relations. By the 1940's however, an increasing number of influential people had already advocated "escape from a theoretical and ineffective universalism into practical and workable regionalism". [E. H. Carr, "Nationalism and After", 45] The region as a unit of analysis became important not only in the Cold War context, but also as a result of the self-consciousness of regions themselves.L. Fawcett, "Regionalism in Historical Perspective", 12] Because of the subsequent demands by states that had already made heavy political investments in regional arrangements such as the Inter-American System, the Commonwealth and the Arab League, regionalism made its appearance even in the finalized UN Charter.Ref_label|A|a|none

European initiatives

European regionalism took a concrete form during the late 1940s. The treaty establishing the Benelux Customs Union was signed in 1944 by the governments in exile of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg in London, and entered into force in 1947. In 1952, Denmark, Iceland and Norway (Finland joined in 1955) established the Nordic Council, an interparliamentary organization with the goal to forge the regional Nordic co-operation.Nordic Council, "The Nordic Community", 1] The Nordic Council's statutes set out in the 1962 Helsinki Agreement, according to which the parties undertake "to seek to preserve and further develop co-operation between our nations in the legal, cultural and financial areas as well as in matters relating to transport and protection of the environment".

In the 1951 Treaty of Paris, France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands established the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) to pool the steel and coal resources of its member-states. The same states established on March 25, 1957 by the signing of the Treaty of Rome the European Atomic Energy Community and the European Economic Community, most important of two European Communities.

New challenges

The growing success of European regionalism in particular led scholars in the late 1950s to what Ernst to what was called "the new challenge of regionalism, . . . the potentialitiesof the field for insights into the process of community formation atthe international level". By the late 1950s, "the organization of the world's ninety-odd states into various systems of competing and overlapping regional associations [had been] a fact of international relations for oven ten years".E. Haas, "The Challenge of Regionalism", 440]

Regionalism had already given rise to a floodtide of literature critical of its development or determined to justify it as a necessity for world security. Some critics were arguing that economic unions and common markets distorted the logic of a universal division of labor, and that regional military planning was made both impossible and obsolete. On the other hand, the defenders of the pattern were invoking the necessities of the cold war. By the 1960's a number of important changes in international politics – the easing of the intensity of the Cold War, the independence of new states that had been part of colonial empires, the successful initiation of the European integration experience – gave rise to a new range of questions about regionalism. According to Nye the new international environment made "the collective security and military defense focus of the writings in the early 1950's seem at best quaint and at worst misleading".

After the 1980s

Since the late 1980s globalization has changed the international economic environment for regionalism.H.G. Preusse, "The New Americal Regionalism", 5] The renewed academic interest in regionalism, the emergence of new regional formations and international trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the development of a European Single Market demonstrate the upgraded importance of a region-by-region basis political co-cooperation and economic competitiveness.B. Hettne, "Developmental Regionalism", 160
* A. Wallis, [http://www.munimall.net/eos/2002/wallis_regionalism.nclk The New Regionalism] ]

Regionalization

This is in contrast with regionalization, which is, according to the New Regionalism Approach, the expression of increased commercial and human transactions in a defined geographical region.

National politics

In national politics (or low politics), regionalism is a political notion which favours regionalization—a process of dividing a political entity (typically a country) into smaller regions, and transferring power from the central government to the regions. Opposite process is called unitarisation.

Notes

a. Note_label|A|a|none According to the article 33 of the Chapter VI of the UN Charter, regional bodies are regarded as agencies of the first resort in dealing with disputed among their own members.L. Fawcett, "Regionalism in Historical Perspective", 12
* [http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/ Charter of the United Nations, Chapter VI, Article 33] , The United Nations] The preliminary version of the UN Charter stipulated that "the existence of regional bodies for dealing with peace and security should not be precluded".

Citations

References

Printed sources


*cite journal|last=Ethier|first=Wilfred J.|title=The International Commercial System |journal=Essays in International Commercial System|volume=|issue=No.210|pages=1–32|date=September 1998|url=http://www.princeton.edu/~ies/IES_Essays/E210.pdf|publisher=Princeton University - Department of Economics
*cite book|last=Carr|first=E.H|title=Nationalism and after|year=1945 | publisher=London: Macmillan
*cite book|last=Fawcett|first=Louise|title=Regionalism in World Politics: Regional Organization and International Order edited by Louise L'Estrange Fawcett, Hurrell Fawcett, Andrew Hurrell|year=1996 | publisher=Oxford University Press|id=ISBN 0-198-28067-X|chapter=Regionalism in Historical Perspective
*cite journal|last=Haas|first=Ernst B.|title=The Challenges of Regionalism |journal=International Organization|volume=12|issue=No.4|pages=440–458|date=Autumn 1958|url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0020-8183(195823)12%3A4%3C440%3ATCOR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8|publisher=Cambridge University Press, University of Wisconsin Press and The MIT Press
*cite journal|last=Haas|first=Ernst B.|title=The Study of Regional Integration |journal=International Organization|volume=24|issue=No.4|pages=607–646|date=Autumn 1970|url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0020-8183(197023)24%3A4%3C607%3ATSORIR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-T|publisher=Cambridge University Press, University of Wisconsin Press and The MIT Press
*cite book|last=Nordic Council|first=|title=The Nordic Community|year=2006 | publisher=The Information Department of the Nordic Council
*cite book|last=Nye|first=Joseph|title= [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=3602247 International Regionalism: Readings] edited by Joseph Nye|year=1968 | publisher=Little, Brown and Company - Boston|chapter=Introduction
*cite book|last=Preusse|first=Heinz Gert|title=The New American Regionalism|year=2004 | publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing|id=ISBN 1-843-76612-4|chapter=Developmental Regionalism
*cite book|last=Hettne|first=Björn|title=New directions in development economics: growth, environmental concerns and government in the 1990s|year=1994 | publisher=Routledge (UK)|id=ISBN 0-415-12121-3|chapter=Regionalism between Politics and Economics
*The Economist (July 29 - August 4 2006). "Special Report: World Trade - In the Twilight of Doha". Essays in International Commercial System: 65-66.

On-line sources


* cite web
title = Charter of the United Nations
work = The United Nations
url = http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/
accessdate = 2006-12-30

* cite news
title = The New Regionalism
publisher = MuniMall
last = Wallis
first = Allan
coauthors =
url = http://www.munimall.net/eos/2002/wallis_regionalism.nclk
date =
accessdate = 2006-12-29

* [http://www.theory-talks.org/2008/10/theory-talk-19.html Interview with Frederik Söderbaum, scholar of the New Regionalism Approach by Theory Talks]

ee also

*Localism
*Helen Milner
*Separatism
*Regionalism in Spain

External links

* [http://yorkstaters.blogspot.com/2005/12/why-regionalism.html Why Regionalism?] An essay calling for regional politics in Upstate New York.


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