PEACE AND SECURITY STUDIES PROGRAM
Regional Integration and Security
By Haileyesus Muluken(PhD)
Conceptualizing Regionalism and Security
• Region
• Boundaries have a dual role in the creation of
a 'sense of place', namely the establishment
of who is 'inside' and who is 'outside'.
• Regions are most defined in terms of
geographic proximity, it is equally possible to
opt for a non-geographic definition. For
instance, "currency" region, a group of states,
which rely on one member's currency and
whereby these states are not necessarily
located in close proximity.
• Geography does not identify which country
should be included in a region. Thus,
geography is at best an indicator, a sort of
starting point.
• Regions can be found at all territorial levels.
• The other major trend in the world today
alongside globalization is regionalization. The
term “region” has various meanings.
• For the present purposes I use it to signify an
entity encompassing and transcending nation-
states, and potentially including hegemony,
which is one kind of nation-state.
• Although the imperialist powers also sought to
subsume and unify the various regions of the
world that had remained relatively separate
from each other, it was with the rise of
modern capitalism that deeper ties were
forged between such regions and the world
became one.
• The regions did not disappear, however. On
the contrary, they have tenaciously continued
to preserve and assert their identity. The term
regionalization describes this tenacity of
identity. The doctrine of promoting that
advance is regionalism.
• The development of regionalization has come
to attract considerable attention,
• Although varying in scale, character, and
significance from region to region,
regionalization progressed on a worldwide
scale from the latter half of the 1980s through
the first half of the 1990s.
• The tide of globalization did not swell all of a
sudden in the 1990s, however. The
groundwork for swift, international transfer of
enormous quantities of funds was laid in the
1970s when trade and capital liberalization
also gained momentum in developed capitalist
countries, in parallel with the transition of the
international monetary system to a floating
rate system.
• By the 1980s, this wave of trade and capital
liberalization had extended to semi-developed
capitalist countries that had experienced
sustained economic growth, and with this
came the establishment of a global, open-
economy system.
• Multinationalization became another factor
accelerating the international movement of
funds. The 1980s also saw the rise of “neo-
liberalism,” represented by “Reaganomics”
and “Thatcherism,” which may be regarded as
the precursor of today’s globalism
• The economic aspect of regionalization may
be described as efforts to form free-trade
zones and—through the creation of common
markets, the coordination of economic
policies and the implementation of joint
economic policies—to form even larger
economic zones.
• In Western Europe this trend is represented by
the
• European Community (EC) and the European
Union (EU); in North America by the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); and
in South America by the Mercado Común del
Cono Sur (MERCOSUR).
• In Asia, meanwhile, the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been
enlarged and consolidated, and efforts have
even been made toward integration at the
pan-Pacific level in the form of the Asian
Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference
(APEC)
• Like globalization, regionalization has had an
enormous impact on the environment of
nation-states. By extension, regionalization
has also had a strong impact on the prevailing
hegemony as one kind of nation-state,
• Regionalization has further had a regulating
effect on multinational companies through
measures such as corporate laws, competition
policies, and labor policies.
• The EC/EU is an example of regionalization
and also, as closer examination of its form and
content reveals, of regional integration. In
terms of its relations with nation-states,
regional integration takes the form of
collective management and exercise of
sovereignty by nation-states through such
means as the transfer of partial sovereign
power to a joint organization
Regional Integration
• A process in which states enter into a regional
agreement in order to enhance regional
cooperation through regional institutions and
rules.
• The objectives of the agreement could range
from economic to political, although it has
generally become a political economy
initiative where commercial purposes are the
means to achieve broader socio -political and
security objectives.
• It could be organized either on a
supranational or an intergovernmental
decision-making institutional order, or a
combination of both
Why????
Economic Benefits;
Trade, competition, investment, bargaining
power….
Political benefits;
Security,
Immigration management;
Border crossing,
Policing, and national defense coordination.
• Strong Institution Building;
• Strong Diplomacy;
• Ensuring good governance
Economic Integration
Preferential Trade Area;
The members charge each other lower tariffs
than those applicable to non-members;
however there is no free movement of goods
within the area.
Free Trade Area
A free trade area means that the barriers
and quotas to mutual trade are removed. For
instance, the members of the North American
Free Trade Area (NAFTA), Canada, Mexico and
the United States, pledge to do away with the
barriers to mutual trade.
• Unlike a customs union, each member
continues to determine its own commercial
relations with non-members.
Customs Union
A customs union goes further than a Free
Trade Area and requires its members to
implement a common external tariff on
imports from outside the Union, whereby the
aim is to facilitate goods to move freely
throughout the union.
Common Market
To get rid of the obstacles for the free
movement of labour, capital, services and
persons are eliminated.
• The instruments necessary to establish a
common market are:
A trade liberalization programme;
Common external tariff;
The coordination of macroeconomic policy;
and the adaptation of sectoral agreements.
• Economic Union
It is the highest form of economic integration
arrangement;
Free trade among member states;
Common tariff wall on trade with non-member states;
Free movement of labor and capital within member
states;
Unitary monetary and fiscal policies(common
currency/common central bank;
Political Integration
• Political integration involves the strengthening
of a political system, in particular the scope
and capacity of its decision-making process.
Besides this institutional aspect of integration,
there is as well the normative dimension of
creating a political community.
• political integration is interpreted as the
creation of supranational institutions.
• OAU as an example… The key concern of the
organization was to free the African continent
of the colonial yoke. Thus, the emphasis of the
Organization of African Unity was rather on
political than on economic issues.
• Security Integration
NATO , Warsaw Pact.
Security governance policies
• The security governance framework is based
on four dimensions of security policy,namely,
policies of assurance, prevention, protection
and compellence.
Policies of assurance relate to measures taken
in post-conflict situations.
Policies of prevention deal primarily with root
causes of conflict and the non-proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction.
Policies of protection aim at protecting
society from external threats, for example,
transnational terrorist organizations,
organized crime and corruption.
Policies of compellence involve peacemaking
and peace enforcement interventions
• The four security governance policies are
helpful for comprehensively understanding
the activity of regional organizations, the level
of autonomy or empowerment complements
the explanation with regard to the willingness
of member states to deepen security
cooperation.
Why???
• Because
• Regional organizations reflect the security
governance consensus of the member states
by choosing some security policies overothers
• Most regional organizations have expanded
their agendas to respond to the increasing
complexity of security threats, particularly in
declarations and statements.
• EU is the only organization that fulfills the
matrix of the four dimensions of security
governance policies and the four stages of
levels of autonomy.
• Regional organizations play a significant role in
stimulating and reproducing regional
governance orders. Some organizations, such
as the EU, aim at transforming norms and
practices of security governance
• There has been ample debate on the regional
security orders resulting in three different
models. The first is the perspective of the
English School, in which Barry Buzan (2012)
suggests four characteristics of regional
security orders: power-political, coexistence,
cooperative and convergence.
• The second model is offered by Paul (2012)
who identifies regions comprising forms of
pluralistic security community, enduring
rivalry, stability and limited Conflict and partial
security community.
• The third model is suggested by Sperling
(2009) who categorizes four different systems
of security governance: collective defense,
collective security, Westphalian security
community and post-Westphalian security
community.
• More explanation on such models and security
issues and we will discuss….
General Remarks
• Regional integration initiatives, at least eight
important functions:
The strengthening of trade integration in the
region
The creation of an appropriate enabling
environment for private sector development
The development of infrastructure programs
in support of economic growth and regional
integration
The development of strong public sector
institutions and good governance;
The reduction of social exclusion and the
development of an inclusive civil society
Contribution to peace and security in the
region
The building of environment programs at the
regional level the strengthening of the region‘s
interaction with other regions of the world.
Old and New Regionalism
• Regionalism is by know means a new
phenomena. Cross national, cross community
interaction.
•
• The term ‘new regionalism’ is widely used in the
debate. There is, however, some confusion over
its meaning and the differences compared to ‘old
regionalism’.
• This confusion is primarily explained by the fact
that regionalism can be ‘new’ in a variety of ways.
• The current wave or era of regionalism is
sometimes referred to as the ‘new regionalism’.
• It is also possible to speak of new regionalism
in a spatial sense,referring to a region, a real
emerging region, that did not previously
experience regionalism
• This dimension is relevant since the regional
phenomenon is now being transformed from
a mainly European project and model during
the first wave of regionalism towards a more
global and diverse phenomenon.
• The most important features of the new
regionalism are its worldwide reach, extending
to more regions, with greater external
linkages’.
• Compared to the old regionalism in the 1960s,
today’s regionalism is not only emerging more
or less all over the world, often it also takes
different shapes in different parts of the
world.
• Whereas the old regionalism was generally
specific with regard to objectives and content,
and (often) had a narrow focus on preferential
trade arrangements and security alliances, the
number, scope and diversity of the new
regionalism have grown significantly during
the last decade.