The Contemporary World

Camille Ocampo
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
• A political and economic phenomenon
•Identities, ethics, religion, ecological
sustainability, and health
• A process
•Emergent and socially constituted
• Basic features:
• A group of countries located in the same
geographically specified area
• Regionalization vs. Regionalism
• Regionalization – regional concentration of
economic flows
• Regionalism – political process characterized by
economic policy cooperation and coordination
among countries
• A way of cooping with globalization
• Military defense
• Example: NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
• Pooling of resources
• Example: OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries)
• Protect a country’s independence from the pressures of
superpower politics
• Example: NAM (Non-Aligned Movement)
• Economic crisis
• 1997 Asian Financial Crisis
• “New regionalism”
• The way they identify problems
• Differ as to form
• Tiny associations vs. huge continental unions
• Differ as to tactics and strategies
• Working with the government vs. Not working with
the government
• Differ as to causes
• Specialized and general
• Resurgence of militant nationalism and
populism
• Continuing economic crisis
• Sovereignty vs. Regional stability
• Differing visions of what regionalism should
be for