1 Parts of this section draw on Hettne, Björn and Söderbaum, Fredrik, ‘The Future of Regionalism: Old Divides, New Frontiers’, in Cooper, Andrew F., Hughes, Christopher W. and De Lombaerde, Philippe (eds), Regionalisation and Global Governance. The Taming of Globalisation? (London: Routledge), pp. 61–79Google Scholar .

2 Haas, Ernst B., and Schmitter, Phillipe C., ‘Economics and Differential Patterns of Integration. Projections about Unity in Latin America’, International Organization, 18:4 (1964), pp. 259–299CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Schmitter, Philippe C., ‘A Revised Theory of Regional Integration’, International Organization, 24:4 (1970), pp. 836–868CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Dell, Sidney S., A Latin American Common Market? (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966)Google Scholar .

3 Etzioni, Amitai, Political Unification: A Comparative Study of Leaders and Forces (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965)Google Scholar .

4 Nye, Joseph S. Jr, ‘Comparing Common Markets: A Revised Neo-Functionalist Model’, International Organization, 24:4 (1970), pp. 796–835CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Nye, Joseph S., Peace in Parts: Integration and Conflict in Regional Organization (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1971)Google Scholar .

5 Ernst B. Haas, ‘The Obsolescence of Regional Integration Theory’, Berkeley, CA: Institute of International Studies working paper (1975).

6 Higgott, Shaun Breslin and Richard, ‘Studying Regions. Learning from the Old, Constructing the New’, New Political Economy, 5:3 (2000), pp. 333–352Google Scholar .

7 Bhagwati, Jagdish, The World Trading System at Risk (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993)Google Scholar .

8 Anderson, Kym, and Blackhurst, Richard (eds), Regional Integration and the Global Trading System (Harvester: Wheatsheaf, 1993)Google Scholar ; Cable, Vincent and Henderson, David (eds), Trade Blocs? The Future of Regional Integration (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1994)Google Scholar .

9 Hettne, Björn, Inotai, Andras and Sunkel, Osvaldo (eds) Globalism and the New Regionalism (Macmillan, 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Farrell, Mary, Hettne, Björn and Van Langenhove, Luk (eds), The Global Politics of Regionalism. Theory and Practice. (London: Pluto Press, 2005)Google Scholar ; Cooper, Andrew F., Hughes, Christopher W. and De Lombaerde, Philippe (eds), Regionalisation and Global Governance. The Taming of Globalisation? (London: Routledge, 2008)Google Scholar .

10 Hettne, Björn, ‘The Europeanization of Europe: Endogenous and Exogenous Dimensions’, Journal of European Integration, 24:4 (2002), pp. 325–340CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

11 Söderbaum, Fredrik and Shaw, Timothy M. (eds), Theories of New Regionalism. A Palgrave Reader (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

12 Mansfield, Edward D. and Milner, Helen V. (eds), The Political Economy of Regionalism (New York: Colombia University Press, 1997)Google Scholar .

13 Laursen, Finn (ed.), Comparative Regional Integration (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005)Google Scholar .

14 Wiener, Antje and Diez, Thomas (eds), European Integration Theory (Oxford, 2003)Google Scholar .

15 Acharya, Amitav, Constructing a Security Community in Southeast Asia: ASEAN and the Problem of Regional Order (London: Routledge, 2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Acharya, Amitav, ‘How Ideas Spread: Whose Norms Matter? Norm Localization and Institutional Change in Asian Regionalism’, International Organization, 58:2 (2004), pp. 239–275CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Katzenstein, Peter J., A World of Regions: Asia and Europe in the American Imperium (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005)Google Scholar ; also see ‘Roundtable: Peter J. Katzenstein's Contributions to the Study of East Asian Regionalism’, Journal of East Asian Studies, 7:3 (2007), pp. 359–412.

16 Walter Mattli, The Logic of Regional Integration. Europe and Beyond (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999); Amitav Acharya and Alastair Ian Johnston (eds), Crafting Cooperation. Regional International Institutions in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007); Francesco Duina, The Social Construction of Free Trade. The EU, NAFTA, and Mercosur (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005); Mary Farrell, Björn Hettne and Luk Van Langenhove (eds), The Global Politics of Regionalism. Theory and Practice (London: Pluto Press, 2005).

17 Russett, Bruce M., International Regions and the International System. A Study in Political Ecology (Chicago: Rand & McNally & Co., 1967)Google Scholar ; Cantori, Louis J. and Spiegel, Steven L., ‘International Regions. A Comparative to Five Subordinate Systems’, International Studies Quarterly, 13:4 (1969), pp. 361–380CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Cantori, Louis J. and Spiegel, Steven L. (eds), The International Politics of Regions. A Comparative Approach (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1970)Google Scholar .

18 See Markus Perkmann and Ngai-Ling Sum (eds), Globalization, Regionalization and the Building of Cross-Border Regions (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002); Fredrik Söderbaum and Ian Taylor, Regionalism and Uneven Development in Southern Africa. The Case of the Maputo Development Corridor (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003).

19 Social scientist should re-examine the spatial assumptions that are taken for granted. A good starting-point for this debate is the overview of metageographical constructs as East, West, Europe, North, South, etc. done by Lewis and Wigen. Martin W. Lewis and Kären E. Wigen, ‘The Myth of Continents. A Critique of Metageography’ (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1997).

20 Slocum, Nikki and Van Langenhove, Luk, ‘The Meaning of Regional Integration. Introducing Positioning Theory in Regional Integration Studies’, Journal of European Integration, 26:3 (2004), pp. 227–252CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

21 Luk Van Langenhove, ‘Theorising Regionhood’, UNU/CRIS e-Working Papers (2003), nr. 1.

22 Nye, Joseph S., Peace in Parts. Integration and Conflict in Regional Organization (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1971), p. viiGoogle Scholar .

23 Ibid., pp. 26–7.

24 ‘Regional cooperation’ can be defined as an open-ended process, whereby individual states (or possibly other actors) within a given geographical area act together for mutual benefit, and in order to solve common tasks, in certain fields, such as infrastructure, water and energy, notwithstanding conflicting interests in other fields of activity. ‘Regional integration’ refers to a deeper process whereby the previously autonomous units are merged into a whole.

25 ‘Regionalism’ represents the policy and project, whereby mostly state actors cooperate and coordinate strategy within a particular region or as a type of world order. It is usually associated with a formal programme, and often leads to institution-building. ‘Regionalisation’ refers to the process of cooperation, integration, and cohesion creating a regional space (issue-specific or general). Andrew Hurrell makes a more nuanced distinction between five different categories of regionalism: (1) social and economic regionalisation; (2) regional awareness and identity; (3) regional inter-state cooperation; (4) state-promoted regional integration, and (5) regional cohesion. Hurrell, Andrew, ‘Regionalism in Theoretical Perspective’, in Fawcett, Louise and Hurrell, Andrew (ed.), Regionalism in World Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 39–45Google Scholar .

26 Rugman, Alan M., ‘Regional Multinationals and the Myth of Globalisation’, in Cooper, Andrew F., Hughes, Christopher W. and De Lombaerde, Philippe (eds), Regionalisation and Global Governance. The Taming of Globalisation (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2008), pp. 99–117Google Scholar .

27 Acharya, Amitav, ‘Democratization and the Prospects for Participatory Regionalism in Southeast Asia’, Third World Quarterly, 24:2 (2003), pp. 375–390CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Warleigh, Alex, ‘Europeanizing Civil Society. NGOs as Agents of Political Socialization’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 39:4 (2001), pp. 619–639CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Söderbaum, Fredrik, ‘Regionalisation and Civil Society. The Case of Southern Africa’, New Political Economy, 12:3 (2007), pp. 319–337CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

28 Breslin, Shaun, Higgott, Richard and Rosamond, Ben, ‘Regions in Comparative Perspective’, in Breslin, Shaun, Hughes, Christopher W., Philips, Nicola and Rosamond, Ben (eds), New Regionalisms in the Global Political Economy (London: Routledge, 2002), p. 13CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

29 Söderbaum, Fredrik and Taylor, Ian (eds), Afro-Regions: The Dynamics of Cross-Border Micro-Regionalism in Africa (Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute, 2008)Google Scholar .

30 Markus Perkmann and Ngai-Ling Sum (eds), Globalization, Regionalization and the Building of Cross-Border Regions (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002); Fredrik Söderbaum and Ian Taylor, Regionalism and Uneven Development in Southern Africa. The Case of the Maputo Development Corridor (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003).

31 Jessop, Robert, ‘The Political Economy of Scale and the Construction of Cross-Border Regions’, in Söderbaum, Fredrik and Shaw, Timothy M. (eds), Theories of New Regionalism. A Palgrave Reader (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2003), p. 183Google Scholar . Also see Katzenstein, Peter J., The Culture of National Security. Norms and Identity in World Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996)Google Scholar .

32 Söderbaum, Björn Hettne and Fredrik, ‘Theorising the Rise of Regionness’, New Political Economy, 5:3 (2000), pp. 457–474Google Scholar ; Hettne, Björn, ‘Beyond the New Regionalism’, New Political Economy, 10:4 (2005), p. 548Google Scholar .

33 Iver B. Neumann, The Region-building Approach, in Söderbaum and Shaw, Theories of New Regionalism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).

34 Hettne, Björn, and Söderbaum, Fredrik, ‘Theorising the Rise of Regionness’, New Political Economy, 5:3 (2000), pp. 457–474CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

35 Dorrucci et al., for example, compare the conditions for monetary integration in the EC in the 1960s and 1970s with the corresponding conditions for Mercosur in the 1990s. Several other researchers have followed similar approaches. Ettore Dorrucci, Stefano Firpo, Marcel Fratzscher and Francesco Paolo Mongelli, ‘European Integration: What lessons for other regions? The case of Latin America’, ECB Working Paper (2002), nr. 185; Dorrucci, Ettore, Firpo, Stefano, Fratzscher, Marcel and Mongelli, Francesco Paolo, ‘The Link between Institutional and Economic Integration: Insights for Latin America from the European Experience’, Open Economies Review, 15:3 (2004), pp. 239–260CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

36 Luk Van Langenhove, ‘Theorising Regionhood’, UNU/CRIS e-Working Papers (2003), nr. 1.

37 Karl W. Deutsch, et al., Political Community and the North Atlantic Area: International Organization in the Light of Historical Experience (Westport Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1957).

38 Barry Buzan, People, States and Fear: An Agenda for International Security Studies in the Post-Cold War Era (New York and London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991); Barry Buzan and Ole Waever, Regions and Powers. The Structure of International Security (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

39 Lake, David A. and Morgan, Patrick M., Regional Orders. Building Security in a New World (Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania University Press, 1997)Google Scholar .

40 Tavares, Rodrigo, ‘Understanding Regional Peace and Security. A Framework for Analysis’, Contemporary Politics, 14:2 (2008), pp. 107–127CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

41 Mundell, Robert A., ‘A Theory of Optimum Currency Areas’, American Economic Review, 51:4 (1961), pp. 509–517Google Scholar .

42 Lewis, Martin W. and Wigen, Kären E., The Myth of Continents. A Critique of Metageography (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997), p. 10Google Scholar . See for a discussion on the ‘Western’ dominance of IR theory: Waever, Ole, ‘The Sociology of a Not So International Discipline: American and European Developments in International Relations Author(s)’, International Organization, 52:4 (1998), pp. 687–727CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Tickner, Arlene, ‘Seeing IR Differently: Notes from the Third World’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 32:2 (2003), pp. 295–324CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

43 Breslin, Shaun, Higgott, Richard and Rosamond, Ben, ‘Regions in Comparative Perspective’, in Breslin, Shaun, Hughes, Christopher W., Philips, Nicola and Rosamond, Ben (eds), New Regionalisms in the Global Political Economy, (London: Routledge, 2002), p. 2CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

44 Breslin, Shaun, Higgott, Richard and Rosamond, Ben, ‘Regions in Comparative Perspective’, in Breslin, Shaun, Hughes, Christopher W., Philips, Nicola and Rosamond, Ben (eds), New Regionalisms in the Global Political Economy (London: Routledge, 2002), p. 11CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

45 Hurrell, Andrew, ‘The Regional Dimension of International Relations Theory’, in Farrell, Mary, Hettne, Björn and Van Langenhove, Luk (eds), The Global Politics of Regionalism. Theory and Practice (London: Pluto Press, 2005), p. 39Google Scholar .

46 Axline, Andrew W. (ed.), The Political Economy of Regional Cooperation. Comparative Case Studies (London: Pinter Publishers, 1994)Google Scholar ; Marchand, Marianne H.., Bøås, Morten and Shaw, Timothy M., ‘New Regionalisms in the New Millennium’, Third World Quarterly (special issue), 20:5 (1999), pp. 897–910CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Bach, Daniel (ed.), Regionalisation in Africa: Integration and Disintegration (Oxford: James Currey, 1999)Google Scholar .

47 Alex Warleigh and Ben Rosamond, Theorising Regional Integration Comparatively. An Introduction, Paper presented at ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops, Nicosia (25–30 April 2006).

48 The idiographic/nomothetic division has its origins in psychology but can be applied to all other social sciences. See, Smith, Jonathan A., Harré, Rom and Van Langenhove, Luk, Rethinking Methods in Psychology (London: Sage, 1995)Google Scholar .

49 Finn Laursen, Comparative Regional Integration. Theoretical Perspectives (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003); Telò, Mario (ed.), EU and New Regionalism. Regional Actors and Global Governance in a Post-Hegemonic Era (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007)Google Scholar ; Warleigh, Alex, ‘In Defence of Intra-Disciplinarity. European Studies, the New Regionalism, and the Issue of Democratisation’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 17:2 (2004), pp. 301–318CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Warleigh, Alex, ‘Learning form Europe? EU Studies and the Re-thinking of International Relations’, European Journal of International Relations, 12:1 (2006), pp. 31–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

50 Hix, Simon, ‘The Study of the European Community: The Challenge to Comparative Politics’, West European Politics, 17:1 (1994), pp. 1–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar , and Hix, Simon, The Political System of the EU (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999)Google Scholar . His point was not to disregard comparative analysis, claiming that EU was to be compared with other polities rather than regions.

51 See Ben Rosamond for a detailed discussion about the relationship between EU studies and international studies. Rosamond, Ben, Theories of European Integration (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000)Google Scholar ; also see Warleigh, Alex, ‘In Defence of Intra-Disciplinarity. European Studies, the New Regionalism, and the Issue of Democratisation’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 17:2 (2004), pp. 301–318CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Warleigh, Alex, ‘Learning form Europe? EU Studies and the Re-thinking of International Relations’, European Journal of International Relations, 12:1 (2006), pp. 31–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

52 Rosamond, Ben, ‘Rethinking Classical Integration Theory’, in Cooper, Andrew F., Hughes, Christopher W. and De Lombaerde, Philippe (eds), Regionalisation and Global Governance. The Taming of Globalisation (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2008), pp. 80–95Google Scholar .

53 Söderbaum, Fredrik, ‘Comparative Regional Integration and Regionalism’, in Landman, Todd and Robinson, Neil (eds), Handbook of Comparative Politics (London: Sage, 2009)Google Scholar .

54 Axline, Walter A., ‘Comparative Case Studies of Regional Cooperation Among Developing Countries’, in Axline, Walter A. (ed.), The Political Economy of Regional Cooperation. Comparative Case Studies (London: Pinter Publishers, 1994), p. 15Google Scholar .

55 Eichengreen, Barry, ‘Dental Hygiene and Nuclear War: How International Relations Looks from Economics’, International Organization, 52:4 (1998), pp. 993–1012CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

56 Silverman, David, Doing Qualitative Research (London: Sage Publications, 2000), p. 179Google Scholar ; Levy, Jack S., ‘Qualitative Methods in International Relations’, in Brecher, Michael and Harvey, Frank P. (eds), Evaluating Methodology in International Studies (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2002), pp. 140–141Google Scholar ; Maoz, Zeev, ‘Case Study Methodology in International Studies. From Storytelling to Hypothesis Testing’, in Brecher, Michael and Harvey, Frank P. (eds), Evaluating Methodology in International Studies (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2002), p. 163Google Scholar .

57 See also, King, Gary, Keohane, Robert and Verba, Sidney, Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994)Google Scholar .

58 Silverman, ibid., pp. 104–6; Levy, Jack S., ‘Qualitative Methods in International Relations’, in Brecher, Michael and Harvey, Frank P. (eds), Evaluating Methodology in International Studies (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2002)Google Scholar ; Maoz, Zeev, ‘Case Study Methodology in International Studies. From Storytelling to Hypothesis Testing’, in Brecher, Michael and Harvey, Frank P. (eds), Evaluating Methodology in International Studies (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2002), p. 166Google Scholar ; Eisenhardt, Kathleen M., ‘Building Theories from Case Study Research’, in Huberman, A. Michael and Miles, Matthew B. (eds), The Qualitative Researcher's Companion (Thousand Oakes: Sage Publications, 2002), pp. 12–13Google Scholar .

59 Lieberman, Evan S., ‘Nested Analysis as a Mixed-Method Strategy for Comparative Research’, American Political Science Review, 99:3 (2005), pp. 435–452CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

60 Hoeksma, Jaap A., ‘Voorbij Federatie en Confederatie: De EU als unie van burgers en lidstaten’, Internationale Spectator, 63:2 (2009), p. 84Google Scholar .

61 Hurrell, Andrew, ‘The Regional Dimension of International Relations Theory’, in Farrell, Mary, Hettne, Björn and Van Langenhove, Luk (eds), The Global Politics of Regionalism. Theory and Practice (London: Pluto Press, 2005), p. 39Google Scholar .

62 Kohli, Atul, Evans, Peter B., Katzenstein, Peter J. et al. , ‘The Role of Theory in Comparative Politics. A Symposium’, World Politics, 48:1 (1995), pp. 1–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; also see Africa Today, special issue, 44:2 (1997); Axline, Andrew W. (ed.), The Political Economy of Regional Cooperation. Comparative Case Studies (London: Pinter Publishers, 1994)Google Scholar ; Payne, Anthony, ‘The New Political Economy of Area Studies’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 27:2 (1998), pp. 253–273CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

63 Kohli, Atul, Evans, Peter B., Katzenstein, Peter J. et al. , ‘The Role of Theory in Comparative Politics. A Symposium’, World Politics, 48:1 (1995), pp. 1–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

64 Andrew Moravcsik, The Choice of Europe. Social Purpose and State Power from Messina to Maastricht (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998).

65 Data obtained from the Regional Integration Knowledge System (RIKS), {http://www.riks.garnet-eu.org/} last accessed on 18 April 2008.

66 Iapadre, Lelio, ‘Regional Integration and the Geography of World Trade. Statistical Indicators and Empirical Evidence’, in De Lombaerde, Philippe (ed.), Assessment and Measurement of Regional Integration (London: Routledge, 2006), pp. 66–85Google Scholar .

67 Source: RIKS, {http://www.riks.garnet-eu.org/} last accessed on 18 April 2008.

68 Data gathered by the authors.

69 Budgetary data can further be used to derive (comparative) fiscal integration indicators, in an analogous way as those developed to study decentralisation processes. De Lombaerde, Philippe, and Costea, Ana-Cristina, ‘Comparative Fiscal Integration Indicators’, in De Lombaerde, Philippe (ed.), Assessment and Measurement of Regional Integration (London: Routledge, 2006), pp. 130–145Google Scholar .

70 EIt = trade integration = proportion of intraregional exports to the total exports of the region. EIs = services integration = expenditures on jointly administrated services (including the administration of trade integration schemes) as a per cent of GNP. Source: Nye, Joseph S., ‘Comparative Regional Integration. Concept and Measurement’, International Organization, 22:4 (1968), pp. 861–862CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

71 Such attempts include Hufbauer, G. C. and Schott, J. J., Western Hemisphere Economic Integration (Washington: Institute for International Economics, 1994)Google Scholar ; Dorrucci, Ettore, Firpo, Stefano, Fratzscher, Marcel and Mongelli, Francesco Paolo, ‘The Link between Institutional and Economic Integration: Insights for Latin America from the European Experience’, Open Economies Review, 15:3 (2004), pp. 239–260CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Genna, Gaspare M. and Feng, Yi, ‘Regional Integration and Domestic Institutional Homogeneity: A Comparative Analysis of Regional Integration in the Americas, Pacific Asia and Western Europe’, Review of International Political Economy, 10:2 (2003), pp. 278–309Google Scholar . Most of these attempts used the Balassa framework. Balassa, B., The Theory of Economic Integration (Homewood, IL.: Irwin, 1961)Google Scholar .

72 Note: regional arrangements are ranked from high to low levels of institutional integration. Feng and Genna use the term integration achievement but it is equivalent to institutional integration. Source: Lombaerde, Philippe De, Dorrucci, Ettore, Genna, Gaspare M. et al. , ‘Quantitative Monitoring and Comparison of Regional Integration Processes: Steps Towards Good Practise’, in Kösler, Ariane and Zimmek, Martin (eds), Elements of Regional Integration (Baden-Baden: Nomos. 2008), pp. 149–179CrossRefGoogle Scholar .