Comparative Regionalism ─ Economics and Security

This book comprises the key essays on comparative regionalism by Prof. Etel Solingen.

Comparative regionalism is now an established field of inquiry, with a large community of researchers around the world. This book seeks to provide a window onto the intellectual evolution of this area of inquiry, with a special emphasis on non-European regions. This emphasis is particularly relevant in light of the fact that the abundant literature on the European Union, while important in its own terms, has also marginalized other analytical approaches to regionalism. The intellectual development of a second generation literature on regionalism begins with the earlier debates in the 1990s over the effects of globalization and economic reform on the development of regions, regionalization, and regionalism. These concepts are discussed and clarified at the outset of this volume, as is the overall theme: the deep and complex connections between domestic, regional, and global orders. The nature of domestic ruling coalitions serves as the pivotal analytical anchor explaining these connections.

This shared analytical core—laid out in greater detail in Chapter 2—emerges as a leitmotiv in the analysis of different dimensions of regionalism, from its sources to its varying forms and effects. The book’s different parts focus kaleidoscopically on domestic political economy, democracy, regional institutions, and global forces as they shape different regional outcomes and trajectories in economics and security. Themes as different as the Arab Spring, China’s potential democratization, the role of economic crises in Southeast Asia, Euro-Mediterranean relations, and regional nuclear trajectories in East Asia and the Middle East are traced back to a common analytical core. This thematic breadth sets this volume apart from others dealing with discrete aspects of regionalism--such as regional preferential trade agreements or security institutions--or with discrete regions. Beyond a special emphasis on East Asia and the Middle East, the empirical discussion in this volume draws on other regions of the world as well, including Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Euro-Mediterranean region.

Many of the essays reproduced here address different audiences across both the economics and the security spectrum, and across a wide range of region-specific interests, and this collection provides a focal point that brings these articles together in a new light. The book will be of much interest to students of regionalism, economics, global security and IR in general.

Etel Solingen is Thomas T. and Elizabeth C. Tierney Chair in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of California Irvine and former Chancellor’s Professor. She served as president of the International Studies Association. Her work has been honoured with the American Political Science Association’s Woodrow Wilson Best Book Award and the Robert Jervis and Paul Schroeder Award.