Introduction to International Rela-tions

Regional Integration

Jaechun Kim

Globalization and

Regional Integration

 Origins of European Regional Integration

Regional integration in Europe is one of the most interesting developments in IR… quite successful despite the skepticism…

European integration is not a recent thing… it is the result of gradual process… since the end of the WWII…

What was the underlying rationale for creating in-tegrated Europe?

Europe had been the center stage of IR before the two world wars… Industrial Revolution and French Revolu-tion… Europe’s history had not been pretty! European history is history of warfare…Late 19th and early 20th c. National egoism… Clash of na-tional interests WWI interwar period Europe was problematic… History repeats and outbreak of WWIIFrustration with the failure of European nation states af-ter WWII … with the limit of Europe based on nation states… Got to do something about our system!! Started seeking alternative form of political organization in Europe

Initially, integrationists envisioned Federalist Europe.

What is federalism?Council of Europe was tried …

Was this successful? Why? Why not?

Importance of ECSC in 1952ECSC stands for what? Compared to the Council of Europe, ECSC was not very ambitious! But worked as catalyst for further development !

Importance of ECSC is that it reflected the France and German efforts to make recurrence of war impossible..Why??

Proposed by French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman

  

Why did the ECSC act as catalyst for Eu-ropean Integration?

Conviction that integration will proceed by piecemeal approach… move toward integration little by little… instead of doing it altogether!Set the tone for incrementalist approach

But idea of one large political union was not abandoned…!!

Incrementalism has characterized the subse-quent developments of European Integration… Understanding incrementalism is key to under-standing potentials and limitations of European Integration…

History of EI (refer to the textbook!)Treaty of Rome in 1957 European Economic Community (EEC) six founding members: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany.

The Maastricht Treaty in 1993 European Union (12 coun-tries); Euro

Theories of EI

Neo-functionalism…

Supranationalist approaches vs. intergovernmental ap-proach.

 

Supranationalist

Politics above the level of states are the most sig-nificant actors in the development of European In-tegration… Supranational European institutions are actors of significant importance…. they have independent impact on individual state members…

Integration process is driven by these institutional dynamics… Spillovers or positive externalities created by these institutions… neofunctionalist interpretation…

Similar to neo-liberal institutionalist approach to IR…

 

IntergovernmentalistStates are the most important actors… So investigate politics between and within states…

Integration – a series of bargains among states!Institutions facilitate these bargains among states!Supranational institutions, laws, and bargains reflect na-tional interests of the member states, particularly power-ful states…Close to Realist approach in IR…

 The role of the European Institutions (Refer to the textbook.)

The European CommissionThe European ParliamentThe European Court of JusticeThe European Central Bank…

 The EU Today

EU in economic front regulation of coal and steel industry monetary policy, trade policy.

EU and Intl TradeEU has established unified fronts in trade area (s-ingle actor) as well as in monetary policy… EU is one of the biggest players in international trade EU’s share of global trade is about what? Largest unified market in the world? Cooperative with the US in security issues (particu-larly during the Cold War era); not in trade issues

28 states Austria  Belgium  Bulgaria  Croatia  Cyprus  Czech Republic  Denmark  Estonia  Finland  France  Germany  Greece  Hungary  Ireland  Italy  Latvia  Lithuania  Luxembourg  Malta  Netherlands  Poland  Portugal  Romania  Slovakia  Slovenia  Spain  Sweden  United Kingdom

EU and its Monetary Policy…Euro as single currency regulating monetary policies (more critical than regulating trade poli-cies)!

EU has overcome many crises before…

In the midst of crisis, no c’ries are trying to with-draw from EU…

European integration will move forward despite the crisis…

“EU will remain the most ambitious and success-ful example of voluntary international cooperation in world history” (A. Moravcsik).

Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)

Not very impressive record in this policy area… why? Not speaking with one voice…e.g., support for the US war in Iraq

Last symbol of sovereignty… most European countries want to guard their national autonomy in this policy area

OSCE(Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, 1994); CSCE(CSCE : Conference on Security and Coopera-tion in Europe, 1975)

Efforts to integrate this policy area has moved very slowly and cautiously…

Achieving cooperation is much more difficult in security is-sues than in economic issues…

Regional Integration vs. Globalization: Euro-pean Integration, is it a part of Globalization, or is it against it??

Integration as turbo-charged globalization?European Integration accelerated the process of Globaliza-tionEurope has been moving toward liberal trade, deregula-tion, and tight monetary policy (hence low inflation)…Europe advocated liberal economic policies that contrib-uted greatly to the liberalization of global economy… Europe fed on Globalization and Europe also benefited from Globalization.

Globalization is also about social and cultural exchange… E Integration enhanced greater mobility of culture and people… not just money and goods…

Integration as protection against Globalization…Regional Integration enabled to confront the challenges of Globalization…a single county can’t face the chal-lenges of Globalization… look at the fragility of economies of individual countries in Asia!!Defensive mechanism…

Jagdish Bhagwati Spaghetti bowl effect!

 Regional Integration Beyond Europe

NAFTAAPECASEANMERCOSUR

Can European experience be replicated in other regions?

Asian Regional Integration? Possibility? Why not in Asia

Disparity of the region; geography

Disparity of power; size; culture

Absence of hegemon (leader countries)

Nationalism

Less significant historical shocks!

India

China

DPRKU.S.

Russia

IndonesiaPhilippinesSingapore

MalaysiaVietnamThailandBrunei

Cambodia

European Union

Bangladesh Pakistan Sri Lanka East Timor

AustraliaNew Zealand

Laos

CanadaPapua New Guinea

Six Party Talks

ARF

ASEAN

ASEAN+3East AsiaSummit

NEAPSMNEACD

CSCAP

SCO

Mongolia

KazakhstanKyrgyzstanTajikistan

Myanmar

UzbekistanJapan ROK

Existing Multilateral (Security) Insti-tutions in Asian Region