Description
EU studies increasingly recognize the salience of new regional insights. Hence, this collection of original essays provides a broad overview of regionalism, together with detailed analyses on the construction, activities, and implications of both established and emerging examples of formal political and economic organizations as well as informal regional entities and networks. Aimed at scholars and students interested in the continuing growth of regionalism, The Ashgate Research Companion to Regionalisms is a key resource to understanding the major debates in the field. Organized into three main sections, this volume deals with a wide range of issues covering the following important research areas: -Section one covers theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of established and formal regionalism, emerging and informal regionalism, inter-regionalism, and levels of regionalism. -Section two provides detailed case-studies of established and formal regionalisms: EU, NAFTA, ASEAN, SAARC, OAS, MERCOSUR, AU, ECOWAS, and SADC. -Section three offers case-studies that investigate emerging and informal regionalisms in Oceania, the Arab League, BRICSAM, and the Commonwealth(s) as well as thought-provoking chapters on micro-regional processes evident in spatial development initiatives, transnational gangs, transfrontier conservation areas, and the migration-conflict nexus in natural resource sectors. With the study of regionalism becoming an increasingly important part of politics, international relations, development, and global studies courses, this comprehensive volume is a valuable addition for classroom use.
Table of Contents
Part I; 1: Introduction and Overview: The Study of New Regionalism(s) at the Start of the Second Decade of the Twenty-First Century; 2: Comparing Regionalisms: Methodological Aspects and Considerations; 3: Formal and Informal Regionalism; 4: The Rise of Interregionalisms: The Case of the European Union's Relations with East Asia; Part II; 5: The European Union: A New Form of Governance; 6: Regionalism in Flux: Politics, Economics, and Security in the North American Region; 7: Norms, Identity, and Divergent Paths toward Regional Order in South and Southeast Asia: ASEAN and SAARC in Comparative Perspective; 8: China and Economic Regionalism in East Asia; 9: Hemispheric Regionalism in the Americas; 10: The Changing Context of Regionalism and Regionalisation in the Americas: Mercosur and Beyond; 11: The Evolution of the African Union Commission and Africrats: Drivers of African Regionalisms; 12: The ‘New' ECOWAS: Implications for the Study of Regional Integration; 13: Regional Organisation, Regional Arena: The SADC in Southern Africa; Part III; 14: Oceania: A Critical Regionalism Challenging the Foreign Definition of Pacific Identities in Pursuit of Decolonised Destinies; 15: Middle East Regionalisms: Can an Institution Bridge Geo-Culture to Geo-Economics?; 16: Beyond Geography: BRIC/SAM and the New Contours of Regionalism; 17: Commonwealths and Regionalisms in the First Quarter of the Twenty-First Century; 18: Spatial Development Initiatives: Two Case Studies from Southern Africa; 19: The Transnational Gang: Challenging the Conventional Narrative; 20: Transfrontier Conservation and the Spaces of Regionalisms; 21: New Regionalisms, Micro-Regionalisms, and the Migration-Conflict Nexus: Evidence from Natural Resource Sectors in West Africa
