Department of Social Sciences

CENTRAL MINDANAO UNIVERSITY

GEC 13 (THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD)

Edited by: JD LUMINTAO
Faculty, Dept. of Social Sciences
College of Arts and Sciences

This material has made available to you for your personal use only in this course. Please ask
permission from your instructor for any other use or distribution.

Citation: Abinales, P. & Claudio, L. (2018). The Contemporary World. C & E Publishing, Inc.

Contact information: 09551732760/ f.jornie.lumintao@cmu.edu.ph

Term Offered: 2nd Semester SY 2022-2023

1
 Lesson 3: Global Interstate System

At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1. Identify the key events in the development of international relations;
2. Differentiate internationalization from globalization;
3. Define the state and nation;
4. Distinguish between the competing conceptions of internationalization; and,
5. Discuss the historical evolution of international politics.

IMPORTANT TERMINOLOGIES:

International Relations Napoleonic code Internationalization

Concert of Europe Nation-state Metternich System Nation Internationalism
State Liberal internationalism Citizens Socialist internationalism
Government Territory Sovereignty Nationalism Treaty of Westphalia

Study Guide Questions:

1. What is the difference between international relations and internationalization?
2. What is the difference between internationalization and globalization?
3. What are the four (4) key attributes of world politics?
4. What are the origins of this global system?
5. What is a nation-state?
6. What is the difference between a nation and a state? What is a state? What is a nation?
7. What are the elements of the state?
8. What do you mean by imagined community?
9. How is state and nation related?
10. What is the interstate system? How did it evolve?
11. What is internationalism?
12. What are the two broad categories of internationalism and its manifestation throughout the
course of time?

Required Reading(s):

Chapter 3: A History of Global Politics: Creating an International Order.

Pages: 26-38 Abinales, P. & Claudio, L. (2018). The Contemporary World. Quezon City: C & E Publishing, Inc
Videos:

State, Nation, and Globalization

Channel: Leila imie
Link: https://youtu.be/Bd13W3YwFio.

What is WESTPHALIAN SOVEREIGNTY? What does Westphalian sovereignty

mean?
Channel: The Audiopedia
Link: https://youtu.be/vxqeG-QEe84

Recorded Lecture: To be posted in Google Classroom

2
A HISTORY OF GLOBAL POLITICS: CREATING AN INTERNATIONAL ORDER

1. Internationalization – studying and/or exploring the phenomenon

of the deepening interaction between states.

Internationalization vs. Globalization

 Internationalization does not equal globalization (refer to the definition),
although it is a major part of globalization.
 It is important to study international relations as a facet (dimension)
of globalization, because states/governments are key drivers of
global processes.

The attributes of today’s global system

World Politics today has four key attributes:
1. There are countries or states that are independent and govern themselves
2. These countries interact with each other through diplomacy.
3. There are international organizations, like the UN, that facilitate these interactions.
4. Beyond simply facilitating meetings between states, international organizations also take
lives of their own.

What are the origins of this system?

What is a country or what academics also call the nation-state?
 It is composed of two non-interchangeable terms.

Not all states are nations and not all nations are states

1. There are states with multiple nations.

Examples:

The nation of Scotland, has its own flag and national

culture but still belongs to a state called the United Kingdom.

In the Philippines, many believed that the Bangsamoro is a separate nation existing
within the Philippines, but recognizes the authority of the state through its elites.

2. If there are states with multiple nations, there are also a single nation with multiple
states.
Examples:

The nation of Korea is divided into North and South Korea

The ‘Chinese nation’ may refer to both the People’s Republic of China (the
mainland) and Taiwan.

What is the difference between the nation and state?

State
In layman’s term, state refers to a country and its government i.e. the government of the Philippines

A state has four attributes:

1. PEOPLE: It exercises authority over a specific population called citizens.
2. TERRITORY: It governs a specific territory.
a. Aerial, fluvial, maritime, terrestrial
3. GOVERNMENT: A state has a structure of government that crafts various rules that people follow
4. SOVEREIGNTY: The state has sovereignty over its territory.
a. It refers to internal and external authority
Nation:

 It is an ‘imagined community’ (Benedict Anderson). The nation allows one to feel a connection with a
community of people even if he/she will never meet all of them in his/her lifetime.
 It is limited, which means that the nation has boundaries. E.g. Christendom, Filipino

 Most nations strive to become states

 Nation and state are closely related because it is nationalism that facilitates state formation.

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The Interstate System

Sovereignty is one fundamental principles of modern state politics.

1. Treaty of Westphalia (1648) - -Sets of agreement signed to end the Thirty Year’s War
between the major continental powers.
- (Westpahlian Sovereignty) It is a system designed to avert wars in the future by
recognizing that the treaty signers exercise complete control over their domestic affairs
and swear not to meddle in other’s affairs.

2. Napoleonic Code.
- He ruled most of Europe destroying the (early sovereignty) of these countries.
- Napoleon Bonaparte believed in spreading the principles of the French Revolution –and
challenged the powers of kings, nobility, and religion in Europe.
- Napoleonic Code
1. Forbade birth privileges
2. Encourage freedom of religion
3. Promoted meritocracy in government service

3. Concert of Europe –
o Bonaparte was defeated in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
o The concert of Europe was an alliance of “great powers” – the UK, Austria, Russia –
that sought to restore the world of monarchial, hereditary, and religious privileges
before the French revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.
o It was an alliance that sought to restore the sovereignty of states.
o This alliance was then called Metternich system, which lasted from 1815 to 1914,
at the dawn of WW1.

Internationalism

The westphalian and concert system wanted to divide the world, into separate, sovereign entities.
There are some attempts to transcend it.

The desire to create a system of heightened interaction between various sovereign states, particularly
the desire for greater cooperation and unity among states and peoples is called internationalism.

The principle of internationalism is divided into two broad categories:

1. Liberal internationalism
a. Immanuel Kant – Likened a global system to people living in a given territory. He
believed in a world government.
b. Jeremy Bentham – Coined the word “international.” Advocated the creation of
“international law” that would govern the inter-states relations

Motivation Questions:
Would not a world government, in effect, become supreme?
Would not its laws overwhelm the sovereignty of individual states?

Thinkers who reconcile nationalism with liberal internationalism

c. Giuseppe Mazzini - Proposed a system of free nations that cooperated with each other
to create an international system. A Nationalist-internationalist who believed that free,
unified nations-states (Republican system) should be the basis of global cooperation.
d. Woodrow Wilson - He saw nationalism as a pre-requisite for internationalism. He
advocated for the Principle of self-determination, a belief that world nations had the right
to a free and sovereign government.
2. Socialist internationalism
a. Karl Marx – internationalist but did not believed in nationalism. He believed that any
true form of internationalism should deliberately reject nationalism, which rooted people
in domestic concerns instead of global ones.
b. Vladimir Lenin – encouraged global revolutions and created the USSR which exhorted
the revolutionary “vanguard” parties to lead the revolutions across the world using
methods of terror if necessary.
c. Joseph Stalin – established the Communist Information Bureau and helped direct the
various communist parties that had taken power in Eastern Europe.

4
 Department of Social Sciences
CENTRAL MINDANAO UNIVERSITY

GEC 13 (THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD)

Edited by: JD LUMINTAO
Faculty, Dept. of Social Sciences
College of Arts and Sciences

This material has made available to you for your personal use only in this course. Please ask
permission from your instructor for any other use or distribution.

Citation: Abinales, P. & Claudio, L. (2018). The Contemporary World. C & E Publishing, Inc.

Contact information: 09551732760/ f.jornie.lumintao@cmu.edu.ph

Term Offered: 2nd Semester SY 2022-2023

1
 Lesson 4: The United Nations and Contemporary
Global Governance
At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
1. Define global governance
2. Identify the roles and functions of the United Nations
3. Determine the challenged of global governance in the 21st Century.

IMPORTANT TERMS:

Global governance International organization IOs NGOs United Nation

General Assembly (GA) Security Council (SC) Veto
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) International Court of Justice (ICJ)
Secretariat

Study Guide Questions:

1. What is global governance?
2. What is an international Organization (IO)?
3. What the three classification of IOs?
4. What are the powers IOs?
5. What is United Nations?
6. What are the five (5) organs of the United Nations and its composition, functions, and powers?
7. Who are the United Nations peacekeepers?
8. What are the challenges faced by the United Nations?
Required Reading(s):

Chapter 4: The United Nations and Contemporary Global Governance

Pages 39 – 49 Abinales, P. & Claudio, L. (2018). The Contemporary World. Quezon City: C & E
Publishing, Inc

Videos:
The United Nations Explained.
Channel: Casual Historian.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWFiUX1wz9Q

How Does the UN Work?

Channel: Now This World
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlmYtJiUK00

Why the UN security council matters

Channel: Global News
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2qPYVfPGW0

The Problems with the UN Veto Power

Channel: Now This World
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPAONq36HKg

UN Peacekeeping animation – Security and rule of law in the field.

Channel: United Nations
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtegUGSK1bg

What exactly do UN peacekeepers do?

Channel: Now This World
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns37jHVUilE

Challenges of UN to Global Politics today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oDyQP5Ycgw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkaDCaZprCU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuFtOhvusXk

2
Introduction
 The idea of world government and international legislators suggested by Immanuel Kant and
Jeremy Bentham, respectively, in essence, do not transpire in the present times.
 However, world order is manifested through the obedience of the states to the specific
international/global customs or rules (Abinales & Claudio, 2018).

This lesson will examine how global governance is articulated by intergovernmental organizations
primarily on the United Nations as the most prominent intergovernmental organizations today.

Global governance – refers to the various intersecting processes that create international order.
Sources of global governance:
1. Treaties – it is legislating international rules that govern interactions between states.
2. International NGOs – they lobby states to behave in a certain way.
 For example: An international animal protection NGO can pressure governments to
pass animal cruelty act.
3. Powerful Transnational Corporation – they have an effect on global labor laws, environmental
legislations, trade policy, etc.
4. Liberal Ideas from most influential political actors or individuals, organizations and even
powerful states.
 For example: Even ideas such as need for “global democracy” or the clamor for “good
governance” can influence the ways international actor behave.

International Organization or IOs – it refers to international intergovernmental organizations or

groups that are primarily made up of member states.
- Scholars usually refers to IMF and World bank as international organizations.

Fallacy about IOs Truth about IOs

IOs are merely unions of various state interests.
In the 1960s and 1970s, scholars believed that IOs
were just venues where contradicting, but
sometimes intersecting, agendas of countries were
discussed-no more that talk shops.
IOs can take their lives of their own.
The IMF was able to promote a particular form of
economic orthodoxy that stemmed mainly from the
beliefs of its professional economists thus became
influential as independent organizations.

Powers of IOs (according to International Relations scholars Michael N. Barnett and Martha Finnemore)

1. IOs have the power of classification. IOs can invent and apply categories to create
powerful global standards.
2. IOs have the power to fix meanings. A broader function related to the first power which
means IOs can define various terms such as “security” and “development.” States,
organizations and individuals vies IOs as legitimate source of information.
3. IOs have power to diffuse norms. OIs spread their ideas about a certain norm (accepted
code of conduct that may not be strict law, but nevertheless produce regularity in behaviour)
thereby establishing global standards. This is due to the fact that staff members of IOs are
considered experts in various fields.

Analysis: These immense powers can be sources of great good and great harm:
 IOs can promote relevant norms like environmental protection and human rights, at
the same time, they can also entrenched bureaucracies since they can become sealed-
off communities that fail to challenge their beliefs.
The UNITED NATIONS
How it emerged as a the most prominent IO in the contemporary world?
After the collapse of the League of Nations at the end of WWII, countries that worried about
another global war began to push for the formation of a more lasting international league.
The result was the creation of UN.

Although the organization is far from perfect, it should be emphasized that it has so far
achieved its primary goals of averting another global war. Thus, making UN as a success.

3

5 Active Organs
The General Assembly (GA)
Security Council (SC)
Economic and Social Council
(ECOSOC)
International Court of
Justice
Secretariat
UNITED NATIONS
Main Function
UN’s main deliberative policy According to UN Charter:
making and representative “Decisions on important questions,
organ. such as those on peace and
security, admission of new
members, and budgetary matters
require a 2/3 majority of GA.
Decisions on other questions are
won by simple majority. Annually,
the GA elects a GA President to
serve a one-year term of office.”
There are 193 member states
have seats in GA.
Important matter: The Philippines played a prominent role in the GA’s early
years when a Filipino diplomat Carlos P. Romulo was elected GA President from
1949 to 1950.
It takes lead on determining the This body consists of 15 member
existence of threat to the peace states: the GA elects the 10 for
or an act of aggression. It calls two-year terms; and other 5 are
upon parties to a dispute to permanent members namely,
settle the act by peaceful means China, France, Russia, the United
and recommends methods of Kingdom, and the United States.
adjustment or terms of
settlement. In some cases, it can
resort to imposing sanctions or
even authorizing the use of force
to maintain or restore
international peace and security.
Important Matters:
1. Many commentators consider SC to be the most powerful organ of
UN.
2. Because of the immense powers of SC, states that seek to intervene
militarily in another state need to obtain the approval of the SC. With
the SC’s approval, a military intervention may be deemed legal.
3. The 5 permanent members hold veto power over Council’s decision,
which means a resolution cannot be executed if one of them will say
no. In this sense, the SC heir to the tradition of “great power”
diplomacy that began with the Metternich/Concert of Europe system.
They are the Allied Powers that won WWII.
The principal body for It has 54 members elected for
coordination, policy review, three-year terms.
policy dialogue, and
recommendations on social and
environmental issues, as well as
the implementation of
international agreed
development goals.
Important Matter: Currently, UN’s central platform is the discussion on
sustainable development.
Task is to settle, in accordance The major cases of the court
with international law, legal consist of disputes between states
disputes submitted to it by that voluntarily submit themselves
states and to give advisory to the court of arbitration.
opinions referred to it by an
authorized United Nations
organs and specialized agencies.
Important Matters:
1. The Court cannot try individuals and its decisions are only
binding when states have explicitly agreed to place
themselves before the court’s authority.
2. International criminal cases are heard by the International
Criminal Court, which is independent of UN.
3. The SC may enforce the rulings of the ICJ, but this remains
subject to P5’s veto power.
They carry out day-to-day work It consists of the “Secretary-
of UN as mandated by the GA General and tens of thousands of
and the organization’s other international UN staff members.
principal organs.
Important Matters:
1. It is the bureaucracy of UN serving as a kind of international civil
service.
2. Members of the secretariat serve in their capacity as UN employees
and not as state representatives.
4
CHALLENGES OF THE UNITED NATIONS

Given the scope of the UN’s activities, it naturally faces numerous challenges.

1. Limitations placed upon its various organs and programs by the need to respect
state sovereignty.
The UN is not a world government, meaning to say that voluntary cooperation from the
states need to be attained by UN before achieving their goals.
For example: The UN Council on Human Rights can send special rapporteurs to
countries where alleged human rights violations are occurring. If a country does not invite
the rapporteur or places conditions on his/her activities, however, this information-
gathering mechanism usually fails to achieve its goals
.
2. Veto power of UN’s Security Council related to issues of security.
The UN Security Council is tasked with authorizing international acts of military
intervention. However, because of P5’s veto power, it is hard for the council to implement
its decisions.
For example:
1. In the 1990s when the United States sought to intervene in the Kosovo war.
Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic was committing acts of ethnic cleansing
against ethnic Muslim Albanians in the province of Kosovo that led to
thousands of massacres, mass deportations, and internal displacement. The
US, together with NATO, sought to intervene in Kosovo’s war on humanitarian
grounds, however, China and Russia threatened to veto any action that made
UN incapable of addressing the Crisis though the NATO was successful in its
intervention to the war.

2. Russia has threatened to veto any SC resolution regarding the Syria’s Civil war
due to its state-sanctioned violence against opponents of the government.
Allegedly, this is because Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was an ally of
Russia’s dictator, Vladimir Putin. The UN is, again, ineffectual amid the conflict
that has led to over 220,000 people dead and 11 million displaced.

Analysis: Despite these problems, it remains important for the SC to place a high bar on military
intervention since, at some cases, it has been wrong on issues of intervention. For example,
Russia, China and France vetoed the United States’ intention to invade Iraq because Saddam
Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMD). However, US lead a small “coalition of the
willing” with its allies. It has since been discovered that there are no WMD and the invasion has
caused problems for the country and the region until today.

Conclusion:
1. This lesson has focused on the IOs and the United Nations in particular because
they are the most visible symbols of global governance, and it is closest to the
world government.
2. It is important to remember that international institutions like UN are always in a
risky position. This is due to the fact that they are groups of sovereign states, the
other are organizations with their own rationalities and agendas.

Questions:
1. Why is global governance multi-faceted?
2. How do international organizations take on “lives on their own?”
3. What are the challenges faced by the United Nations in maintaining global
security?

5
 Department of Social Sciences
CENTRAL MINDANAO UNIVERSITY

GEC 13 (THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD)

Edited by: JD LUMINTAO
Faculty, Dept. of Social Sciences
College of Arts and Sciences

This material has made available to you for your personal use only in this course. Please ask
permission from your instructor for any other use or distribution.

Citation: Abinales, P. & Claudio, L. (2018). The Contemporary World. C & E Publishing, Inc.

Contact information: 09551732760/ f.jornie.lumintao@cmu.edu.ph

Term Offered: 2nd Semester SY 2022-2023

1
 Lesson 5: Regionalism
At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
1. Differentiate between regionalization and globalization;
2. Explain how regions are formed and kept together;
3. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages or regionalism; and,
4. Identify the factors leading to a greater integration of the Asian Region.

IMPORTANT TERMS:

Regionalism Regionalization ASEAN NATO OPEC

Non-state regionalism New Regionalism

Study Guide Questions:

1. What is the difference between regionalism and regionalization?

2. Why do countries form regional associations? What are the reasons?
3. What is a non-state regionalism? Who are the non-state actors?
4. What are the contemporary challenges to regionalism?

Required Reading(s):

Chapter 5: A World of Regions

Pages 50 – 59 Abinales, P. & Claudio, L. (2018). The Contemporary World. Quezon City: C & E
Publishing, Inc
Chapter 10: Regional Organizations: EU, AU, and ASEAN
Pages 245 – 266
Ian Hurd – International Organizations, Politics, Law, Practice

Videos:

A world of Region, Regionalism and Non-State Regionalism

Channel: CharleYsulan
Link: https://youtu.be/0VbPVoTZbU8

Recorded Lecture: To be posted in Google Classroom.

2
Key Points:
1. Governments, associations, societies, and groups form regional organizations and/or
networks as a way of coping with the challenges of globalization.
2. While regionalism is often seen as a political and economic phenomenon, the term
actually encompasses broader areas such as identities, ethics, religion, ecological
sustainability and health.
3. Regionalism is a process and must be treated as an “emergent, socially constituted
phenomenon.
 It means that regions are not natural or given; rather, they are constructed and
defined by policymakers, economic actors, and even social movements.
4. This lesson will look at regions as political entities and examine what brings them together
as they interlock with globalization.

Countries, Regions, and Globalization: Attributes and Definitions

Economic and political definitions of regions vary, but there are certain basic features.
-Edward D. Manshield & Helen V. Milner

Motivation question: Why regions are created? What is the point reference of these regions? If
there is, is it considered dominant over the other regions?

1. Regions are “group of countries located in the same geographically specified area”
and or merger of two regions or a combination of more than two regions.”
 They are organized to regulate and “oversee flows and policy
choices.”
2. Regionalization and regionalism are different.
 Regionalization – “regional concentration of economic flows”
 Regionalism – “a political process characterized by economic policy
cooperation and coordination among countries.

3. Countries respond economically and politically to globalization in various ways, and

some countries form regional associations for several reasons.
a. For military defense
o NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) – formed during
Cold War between US and several western European
countries. This is to protect Europe against the threat of the
Soviet Union.
o Warsaw Pact – consisting of the Eastern European countries
under Soviet domination.
b. Countries form regional organizations to pool their resources and get
better returns for their exports, as well as expand their leverage
against trading partners.
o OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) –
established in 1960 by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and
Venezuela to regulate the production and sale of oil.
c. They form regional blocs to protect their independence from the
pressures of superpower politics.
o NAM (Non-Aligned Movement) – formed in 1961 by
presidents of Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia and
Yugoslavia in the pursuit of world peace and international
cooperation, human rights, national sovereignty, racial and
national equality, non-intervention, and peaceful and
conflict resolution.
d. Economic crisis compels countries to come together.
o ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) – along with
China, Japan, and South Korea agreed to establish an
emergency fund to anticipate a crisis that Asian economies
stabilized.

Non-State Regionalism
It is not only states that agree to work together in the name of a single cause or causes, but
communities also engage in regional organizing. They are called “New Regionalism.”

New Regionalism
a. It varies in form; they can be “tiny associations that include no more than a few
actors and focus on a single issue, or huge continental unions that address a
multitude of common problems from territorials defense to food security.”
b. These organizations rely on the power of individuals, non-governmental organizations
(NGOs), and associations to link up with one another in pursuit of a particular goal (or
goals).

3
The strategies and tactics of this New Regionalism to influence states in a region
1. Some organizations partner with governments to initiate social change.
 Those who worked with governments participate in “institutional mechanisms that
afford some civil society groups voice and influence in technocratic policy-making
processes.
 Example:
a. ASEAN – issued its Human Rights Declaration in 2009 as official declaration to
pressure the governments to pass laws and regulations that protect and promote
human rights, since they are aware that democratic rights are limited in many
member countries.
The organization of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights was in
part the result of non-government organizations and civil society groups
pushing to “prevent discrimination, uphold political freedom, and
promote democracy and human rights throughout the region.
2. Other regional organizations dedicate themselves to specialized causes.
Example:
a. Activists across Central and South America established the rainforests in Brazil, Guyana,
Panama, and Peru.
b. Young Christians across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Americans, and the Caribbean
formed Regional Interfaith Youth Networks to promote “conflict prevention, resolution,
peace education, and sustainable development.”
c. The Migrant Forum in Asia is another regional network of NGOs and trade unions
“committed to protecting and promoting the rights and welfare of migrant workers.”

Challenges to Regionalism
1. Most of this “New Regionalisms” are poorly financed that makes their impact in global politics
limited.
2. The discord that may emerge among this “New Regionalism” just like the disagreements that
surfaced over issues like gender and religion, with pro-choice NGOs breaking from religious
civil society groups that side with the Church, Muslim imams, or governments opposed to
reproductive rights and other pro-women policies.
3. The most serious contemporary challenge to regionalism is the resurgence of militant
nationalism and populism.
 The relationship of US (the alliance’s core member) to NATO has become
problematic after Donald Trump demonized the organization as simply leeching off
American military power without giving anything in return.
 The most crisis-ridden regional organization of today is the European Union when
the anti-immigrant sentiment and populist campaign against Europe have already led
to the United Kingdom voting to leave European Union in a move the media has
termed the “Brexit.”
4. ASEAN members continue to disagree over the extent to which member countries should
sacrifice their sovereignty for the sake of regional stability.
 The association’s link with East Asia has also been problematic since they disagreed
over how to relate to China, with the Philippines unable to get the other countries to
support its condemnation of China’s occupation of the West Philippine Sea.
 When some formerly authoritarian countries democratized, this “participatory
regionalism” clashed with ASEAN’s policy of non-interference, as civil society groups
in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand demanded that the other countries
democratized adopt a more open attitude towards foreign criticism.
5. A final challenge pertains to differing visions of what regionalism should be for:
a. Western governments may see regional organizations not simply as economic formations
but also as instruments of political democratization.
b. Non-Western and developing societies, however, may have different view regarding
globalization.
 Singapore, China and Russia see democracy as an obstacle to the
implementation and deepening of economic globalization because constant public
inquiry about economic projects and lengthy debate slow down implementation
or lead to unclear outcomes.
Conclusion
1. Official regional associations now cover vast swaths of the world.
 The population of the countries that joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Council
(APEC) alone comprised 37 percent of world’s population in 2007.
2. In the same way the countries will find it difficult to reject all forms of global economic
integration, it will also be hard for them to turn their backs on their regions.
 For example, even is UK leaves EU it must continue to trade with its immediate
neighbors and will, therefore, be forced to implement EU rules.
3. The future of regionalism will be contingent on the immense changes in global politics that will
emerge in the 21st century