The New Face of Regionalism

What do I mean by the new regionalism? The new regionalism differs from the "old" regionalism in a number of ways, and I want to emphasize the following five contrasts:

1. Whereas the old regionalism was formed in a bipolar Cold War context, the new is taking shape in a multipolar world order. The new regionalism and multipolarity are, in fact, two sides of the same coin. The decline of US hegemony and the breakdown of the Communist subsystem created a room-for-manoeuvre, in which the new regionalism could develop. It would never have been compatible with the Cold War system, since the "quasi-regions" of that system tended to reproduce bipolarity within themselves. This old pattern of hegemonic regionalism was of course most evident in Europe before 1989, but at the height of the Cold War discernible in all world regions. There are still remnants of it here in East Asia.

2. Whereas the old regionalism was created "from above" (often through superpower intervention), the new is a more spontaneous process from within the regions, where the constituent states now experience the need for cooperation in order to tackle new global challenges. Regionalism is thus one way of coping with global transformation, since most states lack the capacity and the means to manage such a task on the "national" level.

3. Whereas the old regionalism was inward oriented and protectionist in economic terms, the new is often described as "open", and thus compatible with an interdependent world economy. However, the idea of a certain degree of preferential treatment of countries within the region is implied in the idea of open regionalism. How this somewhat contradictory balance between the principle of multilateralism and the more particularistic regionalist concerns shall be maintained remains somewhat unclear. I would myself rather stress the ambiguity between "opened" and "closed" regionalism.

4. Whereas the old regionalism was specific with regard to its objectives (some organizations being security oriented, others economically oriented), the new is a more comprehensive, multidimensional process. This process includes not only trade and economic development, but also environment, social policy and security, just to mention some imperatives pushing countries and communities towards cooperation within new types of regionalist frameworks.

5. Whereas the old regionalism was concerned only with relations between nation states, the new forms part of a global structural transformation in which non-state actors (many different types of institutions, organizations and movements) are also active and operating at several levels of the global system.

In sum, the new regionalism includes economic, political, social and cultural aspects, and goes far beyond free trade. Rather, the political ambition of establishing regional coherence and regional identity seems to be of primary importance. The new regionalism is linked to globalization and can therefore not be understood merely from the point of view of the single region. Rather it should be defined as a world order concept, since any particular process of regionalization in any part of the world has systemic repercussions on other regions, thus shaping the way in which the new world order is being organized. The new global power structure will thus be defined by the world regions, but regions of different types.

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 1002