Roads to Regionalism

Over the past few decades states all around the globe have intensified institutionalized cooperation at the regional level. Yet our understanding of state-led regionalism - a phenomenon stretching from regional cooperation to integration - remains somewhat incomplete. Many publications focus on a narrow set of regional organizations or display a strong bias towards the European Union as the supposedly most sophisticated integration scheme. This book, in contrast, goes beyond Europe and takes a comparative approach across space and time to regional organizations in North and South America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The authors use a coherent thematic framework comprising four main strands. First, they describe and explain the genesis and growth of regional organizations. Second, they account for institutional design, looking at important similarities and differences. Third, they examine the interaction between organizations and member states in an attempt to reveal factors that shape the level of commitment to and compliance with regional initiatives. Finally, they consider the impact of regional organizations on their member states. They conclude by providing a foundation for future research on the dynamic development of regional integration.