THE WORLD OF REGIONS

Governments, associations, societies, and groups

form regional organizations and/or networks as a
way of coping with the challenges of globalization.
Globalization has made people aware of the world
in general, but it also has made Filipinos more
cognizant of specific areas such as Southeast Asia.
REGIONALISM
It can be examined in relation to
identities, ethics, religion,
ecological sustainability, and
health
is also a process, and must be
treated as an “emergent, socially
constituted phenomenon
COUNTRIES,
REGIONS, AND
GLOBALIZATION
Edward D. Mansfield Helen V. Milner
REGIONS
a group of countries located in the same
geographically specified area
REGIONS
an amalgamation of two regions [or] a combination of
more than two regions” organized to regulate and
“oversee flows and policy choices
REGIONALIZATION
It refers to the regional
concentration of economic
flows
REGIONALISM
a political process characterized
by economic policy cooperation
and coordination among
countries
Countries respond economically and
politically to globalization in various
ways. Some are large enough and have
a lot of resources to dictate how they
participate in processes of global
integration.
China, for example, offers its
cheap and huge workforce to
attract foreign businesses and
expand trade with countries it once
considered its enemies but now
sees as markets for its goods
Other countries make up for their small size by
taking advantage of their strategic location

Singapore Switzerland
Singapore developed its harbor
facilities and made them a first-class
transit port of ships carrying different
commodities from Africa, Europe, the
Middle East, and mainland South East
Asia to countries in the Asia-Pacific. In
most cases, however countries form a
regional alliance for—as the saying
goes—there is strength in numbers.
Countries also form regional organizations to
pool their resources, get better returns for
their exports, as well as expand their leverage
against trading partners
The Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) was
established in 1960 by Iran, Iraq,
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and
Venezuela to regulate the
production and sale of oil.
This regional alliance flexed its
muscles in the 1970s when its
member countries took over
domestic production and dictated
crude oil prices in the world market
In a world highly dependent on oil, this
integration became a source of immense power.
OPEC’s success convinced nine other oil-
producing countries to join it.
Moreover. There are countries that form
regional blocs to protect their
interdependence from the pressure of
superpower politics. The presidents of
Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, and
Yugoslavia created the Non-aligned
movement (NAM) in 1961 to pursue
world peace and international
cooperation, human rights, national
sovereignty, racial and national equality,
non-intervention, and peaceful conflict
resolution
It called itself non-aligned because the
association refused to side with either
the First World capitalist democrats in
Western Europe and North America or
the communist states in Eastern Europe.
. At its peak, the NAM had 120 member
countries. The movement, however, was
never formalized and continues to exist
up to the present, although it lacks the
same fervor that it had in the past
Finally, economic crisis compels
countries to come together. The
Thai economy collapsed in 1996
after foreign currency speculators
and troubled international banks
demanded that the Thai
government pay back its loans
A rapid withdrawal of foreign investments bankrupted the
economy. This crisis began to spread to other Asian countries
as their currencies were also devalued and foreign
investments left in a hurry. The International Monetary Fund
(IMF) tried to reverse the crisis, but it was only after the
ASEAN countries along with China, Japan, and South Korea
agreed to establish emergency fund to anticipate a crisis that
the Asian economies stabilized
The crisis made ASEAN more “unified and
coordinated.” The Association has come a long
way since it was formed as a coalition of countries
which were pro-American and supportive of the
United States intervention in Vietnam. After the
Vietnam War, ASEAN continued to act as a military
alliance to isolate Vietnam after it invaded
Cambodia, but there were also the beginnings of
economic cooperation
NON-STATE
REGIONALISM
• This “new regionalism” 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 territorial
defense to food security.”
• Organizations representing this “new regionalism” likewise
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). Finally, “new
regionalism” is identified with reformists who share the same
“values, norms, institutions, and systems that exist outside of
the traditional, established mainstream institutions and
systems
• Their strategies and tactics likewise vary. Some organization
partner with governments to initiate social change. Those
who work with governments (“legitimizers”) participate in
“institutional mechanism that afford some civil society groups
voice influence in technocratic policy-making processes
For example, the ASEAN issued
its Human Rights Declaration in
2009, but the regional body left it
to member countries to apply the
declaration’s principles as they see
fit. Aware that democratic rights
are limited in many ASEAN
countries, “new regionalism”
organizations used this official
declaration to pressure these
governments to pass and
regulations that protect and
promote human rights.
IN South America, left-wing governments
support the Hemispheric Social Alliance’s
opposition to the North American Free
Trade agreement (NAFTA), while
members of the Mesa de Articulacion de
Asociaciones Natinales y Redes de
ONGs de America Latina y El Caribe
(Roundtable of National Associations and
Networks and NGSOs in Latin America
and the Caribbean) participate in “
forums, summits and dialogues with
presidents and ministers
A group called the Citizen Diplomacy
Forum tries to influence the policies
and programs of the Organization of
American States. In Southeast Asia,
the organization of an 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
Activists across Central and South America Established the
Rainforest Foundation to protect indigenous peoples and the
rainforests in Brazil, Guyana, Panama, and Peru. Young
Christians across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas,
and the Caribbean formed Regional Interfaith Youth Networks
to promote “conflict prevention, resolution, peace, education,
and sustainable development. The migrant forum in Asia is
another regional network of NGOs and Trade unions
“committed to protect and promote the rights and welfare of
migrant workers
These organizations’ primary power lies in their moral
standing and their ability to combine lobbying with pressure
politics. Unfortunately, most of them are poorly financed,
which places them at a disadvantage when dealing with their
official counterparts who have large state funds. Their impact
in global politics is, therefore, limited.
New regionalism differs
significantly from traditional state
to state regionalism when it comes
to identifying problems.
states treat poverty or
environmental degradation as
technical or economic issues that
can be resolved by refining
existing programs or state
agencies, making minor changes
in economic policies, and creating
new offices that address these
issues
new regionalism advocates such
as the NGO Global Forum see
these issues as reflection of flawed
economic development and
environmental models. By ‘flawed”,
they mean economic development
plans that are market-based,
profit-driven, and hardly concerned
with social welfare, especially This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

among the poor

Another challenge for new regionalists is the discord that emerge
among them. For example, disagreements surface 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.
Moreover, while civil society groups are able to dialogue with
governments, the latter may not be welcoming to this new
trend and set up one obstacle after another. Migrant forum
Asia and its ally, the Coordination of Action Research on
AIDS (CARAM), lobbed ASEAN governments to defend
migrant labor rights. Their program of action, however,
slowed down once countries like Malaysia, Singapore, and
Thailand refused to recognize the rights of undocumented
migrant workers and the rights of the families of migrants
CONTEMPORARY
CHALLENGES TO
REGIONALISM
• The refusal to dismantle NATO after the collapse of the
Soviet Union, for example, has become the basis of the anti-
NATO rhetoric of Vladimir Putin in Russia. Now, even the
relationship of the United States – the alliance’s core member
– with NATO has become problematic after Donald Trump
demonized the organization as simply leeching off American
military power without giving anything in return
• Perhaps the most crisis-ridden regional organization of today
is the European Union. The continuing financial crisis of the
region is forcing countries like Greece to consider leaving the
Union to gain more flexibility in their economic policy. Anti-
immigrant sentiment and a populist campaign against Europe
have already led to the United Kingdom voting to leave the
European Union in a move the media has termed “Brexit”.
• 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
• Recently, ASEAN countries also
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. Cambodia
and Laos led the opposition favoring
diplomacy over confrontation, but the
real reason was the dramatic increase
of Chinese investments and economic This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-ND

aid to these countries

Moreover, 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
A final challenge pertains to differing visions of what
regionalism should be for, Western governments may see
regional organizations not simply as economic formations
but also as instruments of political democratization. Non-
western and developing societies, however, may have a
different view regarding globalization, development, and
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.
Democracy’s tedious procedures must, therefore, give way
to efficiency
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% of
the world’s population in 2007. These countries are also part
of “smaller” organizations that include the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization, The North American Free trade Agreement, the
Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, and the Union of
South American Nations. Even “Isolationist” North Korea is
part of the regional Forum, which discusses security issues in
the region
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. Even if the UK leaves the EU, it must
continue to trade with its immediate neighbors and will, therefore,
be forced to implement many EU rules. None of this is to say that
regional organizations will remain unaltered. The history of
regionalism shows that regional associations emerge as new global
concerns arise. The future of regionalism will be contingent on the
immense changes in global politics that will emerge in the 21 st
century
GROUP ACTIVITY
WHAT HAVE YOU
LEARNED?