A Written Document in Lesson 5 of

The Contemporary World

Group 3 Members:
Cardoza, Abigail
Castro, Sofia Angelica
Dumalaog, Ma. Carmela
Lineses, Trisha Mae
Lesson 5: A WORLD OF REGIONS
Governments, associations, societies, and groups form regional
organizations and/or networks as a way of coping with the challenges of
globalization. Globalization has made people aware of the world in general, but it
has also made Filipinos more cognizant of specific areas such as Southeast Asia.
While regionalism is often seen as a political and economic phenomenon,
the term actually encompasses a broader area. It can be examined in relation to
identities, ethics, religion, ecological sustainability, and health. Regionalism is also
a process, and must be treated as an “emergent”, socially constituted
phenomenon. It means that regions are not natural or given; rather, they are
constructed and defined by policymakers, economic actors, and even social
movements.

COUNTRIES, REGIONS, GLOBALIZATION

Edward D. Mansfield and Helen V. Milner state that economic and political
definition of regions vary, but there are certain basic features that everyone can
agree on.
 Helen V. Milner (born 1958) is a political scientist from the United States who has written
extensively on issues related to international political economy like international trade,
the connections between domestic politics and foreign policy, globalization and
regionalism, and the relationship between democracy and trade policy

 Edward D. Mansfield is the Hum Rosen Professor of Political Science and Director of the
Christopher H. Browne Center for International Politics at the University of Pennsylvania.
His research focuses on international security and international political economy. He is
the author of Power, Trade, and War. The recipient of the 2000 Karl W. Deutsch Award in
International Relations and Peace Research.

First, regions are “a group of countries located in the same geographically

specified area” or are “an amalgamation of two regions [or] a combination of two
or more regions” organized to regulate and “oversee flows and policy choices.”
 A region is defined as a part of the Earth’s surface with one or many similar characteristics
that make it unique from other areas.
 Second, the words regionalization and regionalism should not be interchanged,
as the former refers to the “regional concentration of economic flows” while the
latter is “a political process characterized by economic policy cooperation and
coordination among countries.”
 Regionalization
(Regionalization is the concentration of economic activities – trade in goods and services,
movement of capital and people – within a particular region or country).
 Regionalism
(Regionalism is the process through which geographical regions become significant
political and/or economic units serving as the basis for cooperation and possibly identity).

Countries respond economically and politically to globalization in various ways.

Some are large enough and have a lot of resources to dictate how they participate
in process of global integration. China, for example, offers its cheap and huge
workforce to attract foreign businesses and expand trade with countries it once
considered its enemies but now sees as markets for its good (e.g. the United States
and Japan). Other countries make up for their small size by taking advantage of
their strategic location. Singapore and Switzerland compensate for their lack of
resources by turning themselves into financial and bunking hubs. Singapore
developed its harbor facilities and made them a first-class transit port for ships
carrying different commodities from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and mainland
Southeast Asia to countries in the Asia-Pacific. In most cases, however, countries
form regional alliance for-as the saying goes-there is strength in numbers.
Countries form regional associations for several reasons. One is for military
defense. The most widely known defense grouping is the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) formed during the Cold War when several Western European
countries plus the United States agreed to protect Europe against the threat of the
Soviet Union (Germany). The Soviet Union responded by creating its regional
alliance, the Warsaw Pact, consisting of the Eastern European countries under
Soviet domination. The Soviet Union imploded in December 1991, but NATO
remains in place.
Countries also form regional organizations to pool their resources, get better
returns for their exports, as well as expand their leverage against trading partners.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was established in
1960 by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela to regulate the production
and sale oil. This regional alliance flexed its muscles in the 1970s when its member
countries took over domestic production and dictated crude oil prices in the world
market. In a world highly dependent on oil, this integration became a source of
immense power. OPEC’s success convinced nine other oil-producing countries to
join it.
 9 other countries that joined the OPEC:
- Qatar (1961) - Nigeria (1971)
- Indonesia (1962) - Ecuador (1973)
- Libya (1962) - Gabon (1975)
- United Arab Emirates (1967) - Angola (2007)
- Algeria (1969)

Moreover, there are countries that form regional blocs to protect their
independence from the pressures of superpower politics. The presidents of Egypt,
Ghana, India, Indonesia, and Yugoslavia created the Non- Aligned Movement
(NAM) in 1961 to pursue world peace and international cooperation, human rights,
national sovereignty, racial and national equality, non-intervention, and peaceful
conflict resolution. It called itself non- aligned because the association refused to
side with either the First World capitalist democracies in Western Europe and North
America or the communist states in Eastern Europe. At its peak, the NAM had 120
member countries. The movement, however, was never formalized and continues
to exist up to the present, although it lacks the same fervor that it had in the past.
 Capitalist
(A person who uses their wealth to invest in trade and industry for profit in accordance
with the principles of capitalism.)
 Communist
(A person who supports or believes in the principles of communism.)

Finally, economic crisis compels countries to come together. The Thai economy
collapsed in 1996 after foreign currency speculators and troubled international
banks demanded that the Thai government pay back its loans. A rapid withdrawal
of foreign investments bankrupted the economy. This crisis began to spread to
other Asian countries as their currencies were also devalued and foreign
investments left in a hurry. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) tried to reverse
the crisis, but it was only after the ASEAN countries along with China, Japan, and
South Korea agreed to establish an emergency fund to anticipate a crisis that the
Asian economies stabilized.
 The Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis that gripped much of East Asia
and Southeast Asia beginning in July 1997 and raised fears of a worldwide economic
meltdown due to financial contagion. The crisis started in Thailand (known in Thailand as
the Tom Yum Goong crisis; Thai: วิกฤตต ้มยำกุ ้ง) with the financial collapse of the Thai
baht after the Thai government was forced to float the baht due to lack of foreign
currency to support its currency peg to the U.S. dollar.
 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) stepped in to initiate a $40 billion program to
stabilize the currencies of South Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia, economies particularly
hard hit by the crisis.
 By 1999, however, analysts saw signs that the economies of Asia were beginning to
recover.

The crisis made ASEAN more “unified and coordinated.” The Association has
come a long way since it was formed as a coalition of countries which were pro-
American and supportive of the United States intervention in Vietnam. After the
Vietnam War, ASEAN continued to act as a military alliance to isolate Vietnam after
it invaded Cambodia. But there were also the beginnings of economic
cooperation.”

NON-STATE REGIONALISM
It is not only states that agree to work together in the name of a single cause
(or causes). Communities also engage in regional organizing. This “new
regionalism” varies in form; they can be “tiny associations that include no more
than a few actors and focus on a single issue, or huge continental unions that
address a multitude of common problems from territorial defense to food
security.” Organizations representing this “new regionalism” likewise rely on the
power of individuals, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and associations to
link up with one another in pursuit of a particular goal (or goals). Finally, “new
regionalism” is identified with reformists who share the same “values, norms,
institutions, and system that exist outside of the traditional, established
mainstream institutions and systems.”
Their strategies and tactics likewise vary. Some organizations partner with
governments to initiate social change. Those who work with governments
(“legitimizers”) participate in “institutional mechanisms that afford some civil
society groups voice and influence [in] technocratic policy-making processes.” For
example, the ASEAN issued its Human Rights Declaration in 2009, but the regional
body left it to member countries to apply the declaration’s principles as they see
fit. Aware that democratic rights are limited in many ASEAN countries, “new
regionalism” organizations used this official declaration to protect and promote
human rights.
In South America, left-wing governments support the Hemispheric Social
Alliance’s opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), while
members of the Mesa de Articulacion de Asociaciones Nacionales y Redes de ONGs
de America Latina y El Caribe (Roundtable of National Associations and Networks
and NGOs in Latin America and the Caribbean) participate in “forums, summits, and
dialogues with presidents and ministers.” Likewise, a group called the Citizen
Diplomacy Forum tries to influence the policies and programs of the Organization
of America States. In Southeast Asia, the organization of an ASEAN
Parliamentarians for Human Rights was in part a result of non-government
organizations and civil society groups pushing to “prevent discrimination, uphold
political freedom, and promote democracy and human rights throughout the
region.”
Other regional organizations dedicate themselves to specialized causes.
Activists across Central and South America established the Rainforest Foundation
to protect indigenous peoples and the rainforests in Brazil, Guyana, Panama, and
Peru. Young Christians across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, and the
Caribbean formed Regional Interfaith Youth Networks to promote “conflict
prevention, resolution, peace, education, and sustainable development.” The
Migrant Forum in Asia is another regional network of NGOs and trade unions
“committed to protect[ing] and promot[ing] the rights and welfare of migrant
workers.”
These organizations’ primary power lies in the moral standing and their
ability to combine lobbying with pressure politics. Unfortunately, most of them are
poorly financed, which places them at a disadvantage when dealing with their
official counterparts who have large state funds. Their impact in global politics is,
therefore, limited.
 New regionalism differs significantly from state-to-state regionalism when it
comes to identifying problems. For example, state treats poverty or environmental
degradation as technical or economic issues that can be resolved by refining
existing programs of state agencies, making minor changes in economic policies,
and creating new offices that address these issues. However, new regionalism
advocates such as the NGO Global Forum see these issues as reflections of flawed
economic development and environmental models. BY “flawed,” they mean
economic development plans that are market-based, profit-driven, and hardly
concerned with social welfare, especially among the poor.
Another challenge for new regionalists is the discord that may emerge
among them. For example, disagreements surface over issues like gender and
religion, with pro-choice NGOs breaking from religious civil society groups that side
with the Church, Muslim imams, or governments opposed to reproductive rights
and other pro-women policies. Moreover, while civil society groups are able to
dialogue with governments, the latter may not be welcoming to this new trend and
set up one obstacle after another. Migrant Forum Asia and its ally, the Coordination
of Action research on AIDS (CARAM), lobbied ASEAN governments to defend
migrant labor rights. Their program of action, however, slowed down once
countries like Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand refused to recognize the rights of
undocumented migrant workers and the rights of the families of migrants.

CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES TO REGIONALISM

Today, regionalism faces multiple challenges, the most serious of which is
the resurgence of militant nationalism and populism. The refusal to dismantle
NATO after the collapse of the Soviet Union, for example, has become the basis of
the anti-NATO rhetoric of Vladimir Putin in Russia. Now, even the relationship of
the United States-the alliance’s core member-with NATO has become problematic
after Donald Trump demonized the organization as simply leeching off American
military power without giving anything in return.
Perhaps the most crisis-ridden regional organization of today is the European
Union. The continuing financial crisis of the region is forcing countries like Greece
to consider leaving of the Union to gain more flexibility in their economic policy.
Anti-immigrant sentiment and a populist campaign against Europe have already led
to the United Kingdom voting to leave the European Union in a move the media
has termed the “Brexit”.
ASEAN members continue to disagree over the extent to which member
countries should sacrifice their sovereignty for the sake of regional stability. The
Association’s link with East Asia disagreed over how to relate to China, with the
Philippines unable to get the other countries to support its condemnation of
China’s occupation of the West Philippine Sea. Cambodia and Laos led the
opposition favoring diplomacy over confrontation, but the real reason was the
dramatic increase of Chinese investments and economic aid to these countries.
Moreover, when some formerly authoritarian countries democratized, this
“participatory regionalism” clashed with ASEAN’s policy of non-interference, as civil
society groups in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand demanded that the other
countries democratized adopt a more open attitude towards foreign criticism.
A final challenge pertains to differing visions of what regionalism should be
for. Western governments may see regional organizations not simply as economic
formations but also as instruments of political democratization. Non-Western and
developing societies, however, may have a different view regarding globalization,
development, and democracy. Singapore, China, and Russia see democracy as an
obstacle to the implementation and deepening of economic globalization because
constant public inquiry about economic projects and lengthy debate slow down
implementation or lead to unclear outcomes. Democracy’s tedious procedures
must, therefore, give way to efficiency.

CONCLUSION
Official regional associations now cover vast swaths of the world. The
population of the countries that joined the Asia Pacific Economic Council (APEC)
alone comprised 37 percent of the world’s population in 2007. These countries are
also part of “smaller” organizations that include the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the North American Free Trade
Agreement, the Caribbean and pacific Group of States, and the union of South
American Nations. Even “isolationist” North Korea is part of the Regional Forum,
which discusses security issues in the region.
 In the same way the countries will find it difficult to reject all forms of global
economic integration, it will be also hard for them to turn their backs on their
regions. Even if the UK leaves the EU. It must continue to trade with its immediate
neighbors and will, therefore, be forced to implement many EU rules. None of this
is to say that regional organizations will remain unaltered. The history of
regionalism shows that regional associations emerge as new global concerns arise.
The future of regionalism will be contingent on the immense changes in global
politics that will emerge in the 21st century.
REFERENCES:
Helen Milner. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Milner
Edward D. Mansfield. (n.d.) Retrieved from
https://www.sas.upenn.edu/polisci/people/standing-faculty/edward-d-
mansfield

Faridi R. (2012, December 17). Concept of Region in Geography [Web blog post].
Retrieved from https://rashidfaridi.com/2012/12/17/concept-of-region-in-
geography/

Yearthirteenme. (2014, May 19). Explain the relationship between regionalism

and globalization. Retrieved from
https://arqshah.wordpress.com/2014/05/19/explain-the-relationship-between-
regionalism-and-globalisation/comment-page-1/

Organization of the petroleum Exporting Companies. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/about_us/25.htm

Capitalist. (n.d.). In Lexico online dictionary. Retrieved from

https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/capitalist

Communist. (n.d.). In Lexico online dictionary. Retrieved from

https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/communist

Shujiro, Urata. (n.d.). Economic Regionalization in East Asia. Retrieved from

https://kyotoreview.org/issue-4/economic-regionalization-in-east-asia/

Abinales, P. N. & Claudio, L. E. (2018). The Contemporary World. Quezon City,

Philippines: C & E Publishing, Inc.