Regionalism

• Regionalism is the creation and implementation of institutions that express a particular identity and shape collective action within a geographical region
• Economic Regionalism

  • States that have shared economic aims and incentives to cooperate may form a regional bloc based around trade deals (NAFTA)
  • Seek to remove protectionist barriers (tariffs, quotas etc)
  • Creates economic interdependence (liberalism!)
  • Economic blocs may be outward looking, forming trade deals with other blocs
  • Limited erosion of sovereignty (except the Eurozone and the ECB!)
  • Obama intervened in the Brexit debate as he argued that it would damage a prosperous market
• Political Regionalism

  • aims on focusing political power and influence
  • proponents argue its benefits local populations 
  • requires deeper integration and a shared common value system
  • requires a pooling of sovereignty but makes the states more influential collectively
• Security Regionalism

  • strengthens regional borders and involves militaristic alliances or agreements
  • these usually centre around a common threat to a region
  • often formed due to shared political ties (NATO)

  EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) = v. controversial: the fear of member states that they could be locked into future courses of action based on today’s decision due to its binding nature
• Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) - A regional trade deal agreed in 2016 between the states of Pacific Rim, but excluding China and the USA. President Barack Obama had championed the trade deal, but his successor President Donald Trump withdrew the USA from the TPP on 28th January 2017
• Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) : a trade deal between the EU and the USA, which was still under negotiation in 2017. The deal needed to be approved by all EU member states (not including the UK) through a decision in the Council of Ministers
• Successes of the African Union
• Successes of the African Union

  –The Peace and Security Council can intervene in conflicts with a new principle of ‘non-indifference’.

  –Council can deploy military forces in events like genocide and ‘crimes against humanity’ and authorise PK missions

  –AU oversees a New Partnership for Africa’s Development - an anti-poverty blueprint that aids in international integration and espouses Washington Consensus principles

  –AU suspends member-states over coups d’états until they return to constitutional rule; e.g. Sudan has been suspended since 2021 (post-coup)
•  AU PK have served in Burundi since 2015 and AU force has been deployed in Somali since 2007
• AU oversees a New Partnership for Africa’s Development - an anti-poverty blueprint which offers a deal with the West - aids in international integration and espouses Washington Consensus principles
• AU regularly suspends member-states over coups d’état, re-admitting them when they return to constitutional rule; e.g. Sudan has been suspended since 2021 (post-coup)
• Weaknesses of the African Union

  Lack of preemptive action taken by the AU over the civil war in Libya

  AU Commission, under Gabon’s Jean Ping, had not given sufficient backing to a S.African-sponsored peace plan

  Can member states of the AU afford funding for some of the ambitious schemes due to domestic poverty?

  Credibility of the AU is undermined by China’s presence

  AU members are expected to ensure that each govts adhere to democratic principles and sound economic practice but some AU nations are run by autocrats
• AU Commission, under Gabon’s Jean Ping, had not given sufficient backing to a S.African-sponsored peace plan - which was itself criticised for not requiring Muhhamar Gaddafi to step down
• Can member states of the AU afford funding for some of the ambitious schemes due to domestic poverty? – The AU budget is only $364 million per year, less than half of what it needs.
• Credibility of the AU is undermined by China’s presence - China paid for the AU HQ in Addis Ababa at the cost of $200m- concerns have been raised over China trying to buy the influence of the AU as part of Belt and Road
• AU members are expected to ensure that each govts adhere to democratic principles and sound economic practice; their political will to do so has been questioned as some AU nations are run by autocrats
• 1994-ASEAN Regional Forum(ARF)-aims to resolve the conflicts by peaceful means and pursue preventive diplomacy- US, Taiwan, Japan and N.Korea are among the ARF’s 23 members-1 year later SEA Nuclear Weapon Free Zone Treaty signed
• Nov 2007: ASEAN leaders signed a landmark charter-aimed at speeding up and deepening economic integration, which led to ASEAN becoming a rules-based legal entity and also commits members to promoting HR and democratic ideals - ratified by all 10 members in 2008
• ASEAN aspires to stem weapons proliferation and urged Asian nuclear powers and those aspiring to become nuclear powers to engage dialogue within the ASEAN RF; no ASEAN nations have nuclear programmes
• Intergovernmentalism

  Where governments work together but still maintain their sovereignty as member states make all the decisions; no institution can force states to comply with something they do not agree with
• Supranationalism

  The regional bloc makes all decisions and imposes them on member states, undermining the sovereignty of those states. Creates 'democratic deficit' as decisions are taken that member-state populations have not voted for.
• Factortame Case

  Spanish fishermen had claimed that the UK had breached EU law, by requiring ships to have a majority of British owners if they were to be registered in the UK. The ECJ argued that the UK courts must set aside the Merchant Shipping Act because it conflicted with EU law. UK Courts had to decide between upholding Parliamentary sovereignty or accepting EU legislative supremacy.

  Decision: The law lords nullified the Merchant Shipping Act 1988, enforcing the will of the 1972 Parliament to voluntarily limit its sovereignty by joining the EU.
• Superpower

  a state with a dominant position in international relations, Pre-eminent among great powers, and characterised by its unparalleled ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale.
• Soft Power

  the ability of a state to persuade or attract others to do what it wants without force or coercion.
• Hard Power

  coercive power, wielded through threats, such as military intervention or economic sanctions or inducements. For example the promise of military protection or the reduction of trade barriers. Hard Power is generally conceived in terms of capabilities- the strength that the state possesses.
• In an increasingly multipolar world comprising huge nation states like the USA, China and Russia, the UK has best been able to assert shared values such as democracy, human rights and the rule of law through its membership of the EU.
• European Parliament

  • Supranational: legislation it votes in becomes legally

  binding on member states

  • The only elected body (MEPs elected every 5 years)
  • Scrutinise rather than create legislation
  • Main power (to reject EU budget) = too far reaching to implement
• European Council

  ● Composed of heads of state and foreign ministers

  + president of Commission

  ● Offers strategic guidelines (setting policy guidelines,

  resolving disputes between member states, agreeing

  reforms of EU treaties, steering EU foreign policy)

  ● Intergovernmental: each member state is represented and is acting on its own behalf. Heads of state and foreign ministers retain reasonable amount of control in steering the EU on behalf of their own sovereign interests
• ECJ

  • Supranational: EU law has primacy over national

  law giving overarching authority to ECJ decisions

  • Judicial body, interpreting and adjudicating on EU

  laws and treaties
• ECB

  • Supranational (see Greek sovereign debt crisis)
  • Responsible for economic governance of eurozone
  • Sets interest rates for the zone
• Council of Ministers

  ● Compromises of 27 ministers accountable to their own governments

  ● Intergovernmental: qualified majority voting system; Ministers represent their own country and their sovereign interests in shorter terms decision making within the EU

  ● QMV: 15 out of 27 OR the proposal is supported

  by member states representing at least 65% of the total EU population
• Federalism: regionalism should be developed in line with a federal-style system with a central authority. There will be significant impact on sovereignty, as it is pooled.
• Functionalism: blocs should develop by focusing on technical cooperation (e.g coordinating air traffic control), leading the creation of international agencies with limited and specific powers defined by the function they perform). Functional agencies operate only within the territories of the states that choose to join them and do not therefore threaten state sovereignty. An example is the World Health Organisation (WHO). The belief is that it reduces nationalism and competition, thus reduces war, (territorial form of state ill-suited to address contemporary problems).
• Neofunctionalism: explains the development of ECSC to EU. An initial decision to cooperate leads to a spill over effect deepening integration (sometimes referred to as quasi-federal) e.g. the voluntary creation of the customs union and trade bloc in 1957 led to pressure for a common currency. This led to the creation of the ECB and single interest rate across the bloc. This then creates closer ties in economic and civil society. Some believe the Euro is an example of using functional methods to advance federalist objectives!
• The functionalist model arose as a challenge to the idea of federalism. It argues that blocs such as the EU did not emerge to become federalist, but rather to serve specific functions
• According to Ernst Haas – neo-functionalism’s principal theorist – integration was the process ‘whereby political actors in several distinct national settings are persuaded to shift their loyalties and activities towards a new centre, whose institutions possess or demand jurisdiction over the pre-existing national states’.
• Empty Chair Crisis - period where France refused to take up the presidency of the EEC, citing issues with CAP funding policy. This was only resolved by effectively giving every EEC member a veto, a power only removed by the Single European Act of 1986
• The theory of neofunctionalism sits somewhere between the previous two theories, and argues that regionalism does indeed meet some functional needs but that this spills over into other, broader areas. Usually neofunctionalism begins by addressing economic functions, but leads to some political spill over.
• The functionalist model arose as a challenge to the idea of federalism. It argues that blocs such as the EU did not emerge to become federalist, but rather to serve specific functions.
• Functionalists are generally positive about the EU’s ability to meet these needs effectively. However, others have argued that, in practice, states have been very reluctant to hand over power to functional bodies, and that these bodies have lacked the legitimacy of sovereign bodies.