Jean Grugel - Regionalism Across the North/South Divide

Regionalism Across the North-South Divide charts the increasingly important trend of regional cooperation between the developed North and the developing countries of the South. It focuses on the responses and reactions of developing countries to the current wave of globalization and explores the state strategies adopted to create this new regionalism. Introductory chapters introduce a theoretical framework, locating the semi-periphery in the context of globalization. Subsequent chapters then present in-depth case studies of the following countries and regions:

This study is invaluable for making sense of what regionalism means for the South and its insights contribute to a wider understanding of international relations, the relationship between globalization and regionalism and the possibility of cooperation within the developing world.

Jean Grugel is Lecturer in Politics, University of Sheffield, UK. Wil Hout is Associate Professor of International Political Economy, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Edited by Hans Keman, Vrije University, The Netherlands and Jan W.van Deth, University of Mannheim, Germany, on behalf of the European Consortium for Political Research

The European Political Science Series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Researchthe leading organisation concerned with the growth and development of political science in Europe. The series presents high-quality edited volumes on topics at the leading edge of current interest in political science and related fields, with contributions from European scholars and others who have presented work at ECPR workshops or research groups.

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State strategies and globalization

Edited by Jean Grugel and Wil Hout

First published 1999

by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.

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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

1999 Selection and editorial matter, Jean Grugel and Wil Hout; individual chapters, the contributors.

The right of Jean Grugel and Wil Hout to be identified as the Authors of this Work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Regionalism across the North-South divide: state strategies in the
semi-periphery/edited by Jean Grugel and Wil Hout.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. International economic relations. 2. Regionalism.
I. Grugel, Jean. II. Hout, Wil.
HF1359.R433 1998 98-25623
337-dc21 CIP

ISBN 0-203-45110-4 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-45965-2 (Adobe e-Reader Format)
ISBN 0-415-16212-2 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-16213-0 (pbk)

The post-war development of inter-state relations can be divided into different episodes. First, the establishment of a bi-polar world with two hegemons (the Soviet Union and the United States) which dominated the world system and the interactions between nation-states. The key concept was military security, which produced an often uneasy type of stability. Second, the emergence of a large number of new states due to decolonisation and of divisions between these states due to the competition between the two hegemons, forming the first and second worlds. In addition to these first and second worlds, a third world came into existence, which was by and large dependent either on the richer capitalist countries or on the established communist states. Political adherence of third-world countries implied their economic dependence on one or other of the more developed worlds. Third, in the wake of the OPEC crisis and the subsequent worldwide economic stagflation, international economic relations changed dramatically and affected all three worlds in one way or another. The longer-term effects of these changes in relations can be observed in various ways: the disintegration of the Communist bloc or second world, the moves towards a more unified Europe, and the growing divisions of the third world in the 1980s. All these developments have been conducive to a reordering and re-orientation of the components that make up the complexion of the aforementioned three worlds. In other words, the existing world order was slowly reconstructed into a politically multi-polar world in which long-standing coalitions between blocks of states fell apart. This phenomenon is particularly visible in states with developing economiesthe Southand has, more often than not, been conducive to the formation of new coalitions between states that cut across the former worlds. According to the editors of Regionalism Across the North-South Divide, this makes it imperative that international political economy be approached from a fresh perspective.