Regionalization In A Globalizing World

This book explores the relationship between regionalization and global governance, surveying the theoretical debates, economic dimensions, security considerations and governing structures.

Global Regionalization examines the astonishing political and economic changes that have completely reshaped the political geography of certain regions during the past fifteen years. It deals with the concept of global bloc formation, examining the impacts that changing political-economic conditions and relationships in and between nations have on demographic and economic flows.

The emerging role of regional systems of relations is an important feature of the new global politics. While the European Union is the most advanced case, most other parts of the world display at least the beginnings of regional systems. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the contributors examine these processes from a comparative perspective, concentrating on the following questions: what constitute a region? how is the historical process of region-formation unfolding? what motives and factors underlie this drive to regionalisation? what forms a regional awareness and institutionalisation are emerging, and where? what are the future prospects?

The end of the Cold War has seen an international proliferation of parliamentary bodies of all types and at all levels. How can this process of parliamentarization be assessed and under what conditions do these institutions operate? This book explores how regional integration and globalization are developing from a parliamentary perspective.

Regional economic arrangements such as free trade areas (FTAs), customs unions, and currency blocs, have become increasingly prevalent in the world economy. Both pervasive and controversial, regionalization has some economists optimistic about the opportunities it creates and others fearful that it may corrupt fragile efforts to encourage global free trade. Including both empirical and theoretical studies, this volume addresses several important questions: Why do countries adopt FTAs and other regional trading arrangements? To what extent have existing regional arrangements actually affected patterns of trade? What are the welfare effects of such arrangements? Several chapters explore the economic effects of regional arrangements on patterns of trade, either on price differentials or via the gravity model on bilateral trade flows. In addition, this book examines the theoretical foundation of the gravity model. Making extensive use of the gravity model of bilateral trade, several chapters explore the economic effects of regional arrangements. In addition, this book examines the theoretical foundation of the gravity model.

Originally published in 1998. This collection of outstanding essays explores the importance of regionalization and globalization to the world economy. International contributions explore the process of regionalization in the Pacific Area, The Americas, Africa and Europe, and question whether the world economy is characterized by increasing regionalization, rather than globalization. The book is an excellent contribution to debate on development economics. It investigates how the processes of globalization and regionalization, driven by liberalization of trade and capital markets, weaken nationally established monopolies and protected industries and it looks at the challenge to Third World nations and the countries of the former socialist bloc.

This is the first of five volumes reporting on the UNU-WIDER study on New Regionalism. It deals with the conceptions and meanings of two processes which probably will have a crucial influence on the shape of the 'new world order' - globalization and regionalization. These studies relate to each other as challenge to response, globalization being the challenge of economic and cultural homogenization of the world and regionalization being a social and political reaction. The leading writers in the field contribute thought-provoking and fascinating articles to this volume.

The relationship between global governance and regionalization is fraught with ambiguity. Understanding regionalization in this context requires an understanding of its relationship, and reactive condition, with both the constellations of global governance and globalization. This book presents an overview and explores the distinctive but intersecting trajectories of regionalization and global governance. It surveys: the theoretical debates the economic dimensions: multinationals, trade and investment, and labour the security considerations: armed conflict, conflict prevention and peacekeeping and non-traditional security in Asia the governing structures: managing contemporary multilevel architecture and cultural policy, leadership and the L-20. The expert and multi-disciplinary editors and contributors survey the context as well as the general character of these projects, together with their links as both parallel mediating mechanisms and distinctive choices for interjecting governance into globalization. Examining these projects in tandem amplifies their importance and enables the contributors to tease out coincidental as well as alternative possibilities in policy direction. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, area studies, international economics, international political economy, political science, public administration and development studies.