Comparative Regional Integration

By contrasting different theoretical perspectives on regional integration, this valuable text advances our understanding of this important phenomenon in international relations. The volume contains theoretical considerations with empirical studies of integration efforts in many parts of the world including Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. Structured in four sections: governmentalist perspectives; power perspectives; constructivist perspectives; and neofunctionalist and historical institutionalist perspectives, the book offers important insights to theorists, policy makers, students and other readers concerned about world developments. It will also provide support for courses covering international political economy, international relations and regional integration, both at undergraduate and graduate levels.

Finn Laursen is Professor of International Politics within the Department of Political Science and Public Management, and Director of the Centre for European Studies at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.

Contents: Part I: Introduction: Theoretical perspectives on comparative regional integration, Finn Laursen. Part II: Governmentalist Perspectives: Rebuilding the Central American bloc in the 1990s: an intergovernmentalist approach to integration, Rafael Sánchez; Presidentialism and Mercosur: a hidden cause for a successful experience, Andrés Malamud; A supply-side theory of international economic institutions for the Mercosur, José Raúl Perales. Part III: Power Perspectives: Power and regionalism: explaining regional cooperation in the Persian Gulf, Scott Cooper and Brock Taylor; Two funerals and a wedding? The ups and downs of regionalism in East Asia and Asia Pacific after the Asian Crisis, Douglas Webber. Part IV: Constructivist Perspectives: Rethinking the Mediterranean: reality and re-presentation in the creation of a 'Region', Michelle Pace; Two sides of the same coin: mutual perceptions and security community in the case of Argentina and Brazil, Andrea Oelsner; Integration in times of instability: exchange rate and monetary cooperation in Mercosur and the EU, Susana Borrás and Michael Kluth. Part V: Neofunctionalist and Historical Institutionalist Perspectives: The ECOWAS: from regional economic organization to regional peacekeeper, Peter M. Dennis and M. Leann Brown; Path dependence and external shocks: the dynamics of the EU enlargement eastwards, Svetlozar A. Andreev. Part VI: Concluding Comments: The vertical and horizontal dimensions of regional integration: a concluding note, Walter Mattli; International regimes or would-be polities? Some concluding questions and remarks, Finn Laursen; Index.