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We study intergenerational social mobility in Mexico at the subnational level to determine whether poorer regions have similar rates of social mobility as richer ones. We approximate socioeconomic status with an index that captures the variability across households in durable goods, services and education of household heads for both adult children and their parents. The estimated indicators suggest a clear north–south gradient in social mobility: the children of poor parents in the northern regions experience greater upward mobility than in the central and southern regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper pilots an approach for using trademark data to study regional diversification. Bridging the respective literatures, we develop a regional trademarking-intensity measure that can shed new light on how different regions diversify while also accounting for changing industrial structures and income levels (regional gross domestic product). The approach reveals that density has a moderate effect on trademarking intensity and confirms the strong relationship between new firm formation and regional diversification. These effects are found to vary by sector and to be sensitive to industry-level employment and turnover. Lastly, the analysis indicates that regional diversification differs sharply between urban and peripheral regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why and how do regional politics develop outside the context of a coherent regional economy? Alongside the familiar logic of city-regional growth coalitions, we introduce a less familiar logic of regional imaginaries actively constructing strategies in novel scalar configurations. We explore this second logic of regionalism in the case of the Toronto–Waterloo 'Innovation Corridor'. We highlight three important forces: the productive ambiguity of the region as a spatial and strategic concept; the centrality of regionalism entrepreneurs in constructing a political agenda; and the importance of extrospective policy-making for establishing a rationale for collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Abbott Government announced its White Paper review of the Australian Federation on June 28, 2014. Set against this backdrop, discussions of the future of Australian local government may provoke an assumption that its role will be cruelled. However, reflection suggests that such an assumption is misplaced. In particular, when the complexities of regionalism in Australia are considered, the potential role of local government begs revisiting. We argue that local government ought to adopt a forthright position in the current debate, particularly with respect to financial reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Although the role of organized business in regional economic integration is well documented, extant scholarship portrays them as mere legitimizers and partners of regional policy. This neat categorization fails to capture the complicated, ‘multiscalarity’ of business and overall civil society's role in regional governance. Drawing insights from social constructivism and empirical evidence from fieldwork conducted in 2012 and 2013 on the interactions between the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and region-wide business associations and advocacy networks since the early 1990s, this article shows that although African business groups are relatively new actors at the regional stage, their impact on regional governance is substantial. This is not only in terms of getting governments to adopt particular policies or the ability to hold the state accountable, as functional institutionalists might argue, but also in terms of the regional socialization effects, namely the willingness and ability to frame issues that influence the choices of political decision-makers. Business regional governance roles also straddle competing conventional roles, and sometimes counter the neoliberal vision of regional integration, even among those that owe their emergence to regional organizations. The study also challenges the pervasive view of business actors (especially in Africa) as simply profit-seekers by highlighting the ways business actors have deployed and acted on principled beliefs about regional identity collectively or individually to forge denser and relatively effective policy coalitions that signal unfolding changes in the direction of regional policy in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article aims to understand the basic characteristics of regionalism in Brazilian foreign policy. For this purpose, it goes over the recent history of Brazilian involvement in regional trade and security arrangements in South America. It also examines the manner in which economic uncertainties, brought about by the 2008–2009 global financial crisis, affected Brazilian foreign policy towards its region. Based on this historical analysis, it defines five key aspects that characterise Brazilian behaviour in the region, namely: post-democratisation regionalism; presidential regionalism; reactive regionalism; concentric/multilevel regionalism; and instrumental regionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article contributes to the ‘new’ European regionalism by discussing the role that regional identity can play in regional development. It is based on the concept of ‘regional identity’ as the keystone of the institutionalization of the region and as consisting of two intertwined and complementary components: the regional consciousness of the inhabitants and the identity of a region. Through the heuristic study of relevant scholarly articles, the authors critically discuss six case studies from European countries dealing with the relationship between regional identity and regional development and published in the first decade of the new millennium. To date, research has examined the role of regional identity as both a successful and unsuccessful driver in regional development. From the case studies, a third possible role of regional identity is identified: regional identity as a barrier to regional development. Further, the article discusses the relationship between these three roles and attempts to identify factors causing the differentiation of the effects of regional identity in the context of regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the mid-1950s, social scientists in the USA began trying to understand the geography of economic problems using quantitative methods and theoretical models. Subnational regions had the ideal proportions for performing this research, which led to the creation of a new subject area, ‘regional science’. When regional economic imbalances shot up the political agenda in Britain in the 1960s, advocates of regional science saw an opportunity to expand the reach of their subject. This article examines the migration of American regional science to Britain and explores why its ideas and organisational model met with opposition. It argues that the transnational transfer of academic networks is more complex than has been acknowledged and that British regional research and policy was more influenced by American ideas than is commonly recognised. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper aims at investigating to what extent there is a differentiated regional banking strategy in the Brazilian economy. Based on the Post Keynesian theory of regional liquidity preference (Dow, 1993), the paper analyzes consolidated balance sheets of bank branches located in different Brazilian regions. Through the analysis of indicators built using this database, the paper finds evidence to support the thesis that the Brazilian banking system's strategies are heterogeneous across the territory. Furthermore, we conclude that this behavior reinforces existing uneven regional patterns of development of the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The repeated reterritorialisation of economic development policy has resulted in a congested institutional environment characterised by a confused, and confusing, nested spatial hierarchy of interventions. Nevertheless, advocacy for perpetual institutional manoeuvring has proceeded largely unchecked leaving important questions unanswered regarding both the desirability of adding to/modifying the institutional landscape of cities and also the viability of such policies in light of existing attachments to long-established administrative geographies. In calling for further research, this paper conducts a preliminary investigation of the mutation of sub-city Urban Regeneration Companies (URCs) into city-regional City Development Companies (CDCs) and suggests the expansive critical realist epistemology as a potentially worthwhile methodological starting-point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is on the extent to which emerging forms of regional economic governance may be read as the burgeoning formation of regionally constituted, self-governing communities, and yet, somewhat ambiguously, as a new technology of central government. It begins by considering the distinction between 'governance' and 'government' and the extent to which current regional economic governance practices in the state of New South Wales, Australia, hold the promise of regional autonomy. With reference to the French philosopher and historian, Michel Foucault, a brief history is sketched of government rationality, indicating how the historically changing aims of government implicate various concomitant technologies. With this in mind, it is argued that contemporary regional economic governance practices in NSW do not so much reveal a new-found regional autonomy but rather a new technology of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the emergence of the region as a platform for achieving economic competitiveness and social equity. We use a combination of empirical exercises to examine the timing and degree of actor interest, including convergence regressions and coefficients of variation analysis to see if regional economic and social performance is more heterogeneous, and logistical analysis to determine what metropolitan-level factors can explain the rise of regionalist interest by business organizations and/or social justice organizations. We find that performance is, in fact, generally more heterogeneous, that different actors are motivated by different factors, and that interest by business groups seems to trigger a “reactive regionalism” by equity proponents (but not the other way around). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, international relations in the Asia-Pacific were characterized by an emphasis on security affairs. Following the Asian financial crisis of 1997/98, this pattern has changed. In the early 21st century, policy makers in the region put emphasis on the deepening of economic relations. Both in trade and finance, new patterns of governance have emerged. The reasons are manifold. First, traditional security threats are not as important as they used to be. Second, the experience of 1997/98 as well as the current crisis have demonstrated that economic instability is of greater concern than security threats. Third, the economies of the Asia-Pacific are deepening their ties both at the level of production and with regard to investment flows. Despite these structural changes, the level of cooperation continues to be relatively low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural resources are today the object of considerable attention in regional economics. Ground for new forms of innovation these resources have given rise to numerous works aiming at understanding the emergence and organisation of culture based economic activities and at identifying the role of these activities in regional development and urban planning. The objective of this article is to explore the way in which resources, and in particular cultural resources, are incorporated into production processes on the one hand, and the consequences on the resources of doing so on the other hand. Becoming an economic resource, a cultural “object” (symbol, image, cultural heritage, traditional know-how, etc.) becomes embedded within commercial relationships. The question we address here is what are the causes and consequences of this commodification of culture for the production systems, the customers and for the local communities which put a certain number of their constitutive elements into play. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional economic and social development is an important public issue in most countries, yet among the least successful. In Australia, some 40 years of trial and error regional strategy appear to have had limited success in securing long-range economic and social development leading to more diversified economies, population growth and converging regional wellbeing. The paper explores the nature of Australia's regional development problem and its causes as a prelude to summarising governments' changing capacity to influence and control events. Given this background, it sketches an emerging governance system, particularly in the State of New South Wales, designed to ameliorate regional adversity. Finally, it assesses the system's current and prospective functionality and impediments to system improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2004 and 2006, proposals were made at APEC summits to establish a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP). This was an essentially a reworking of an idea first raised in the mid-1960s to create a Pacific Free Trade Area, or PAFTA. Although the PAFTA initiative never advanced, it helped lay the first organizational foundations for regional economic community building in the Asia-Pacific. The recent FTAAP proposal thus brings us full circle to the antecedent origins of APEC itself. If realized, an FTAAP would also create a free trade zone that would encircle the Pacific Rim economy and thereby subsume the region's now large number of bilateral and sub-regional free trade agreements (FTAs) into one unified agreement. Yet there are many inherent problems with establishing an FTAAP. These broadly relate to deconstructing the preferentialism of existing bilateral and sub-regional FTAs, achieving a consensus on the technical policy content and ideational principles on which an FTAAP would be based, and addressing various geopolitical issues such as reconciling the formation of a pan-regional Asia-Pacific FTA with an already fragile multilateral trading system. Growing interest in a 'rival' East Asia Free Trade Area project presents another geopolitical challenge. In considering these and other questions, it is concluded that many obstacles will remain in the path to realizing an FTAAP, and that this may not actually be a desirable objective to pursue for some time yet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lagendijk A. (2007) The accident of the region: a strategic relational perspective on the construction of the region's significance, Regional Studies 41, 1193-1207. In both academic debate and popular perceptions the region is presented as an important entity in economic, political, social, and spatial processes. This has resulted in a strong performative role of the region not only in mainstream debates across these domains, but also in a wide range of political and policy processes and practices. Recent critiques have challenged certain key features of the dominant perception of the region, notably its portrayal of the region as something bounded and fixed. But what triggered the emphasis on the region in the first place? To what extent can the significance of the region be attributed to broader political, economic, and social shifts? To what extent does it present a more accidental outcome of processes and actions that, in combination, happened to put the region centre stage? To address/explore these questions, the paper will adopt the Strategic Relation Approach (SRA) launched by Jessop and further developed by Hay and Sum.,, [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hudson R. (2007) Regions and regional uneven development forever? Some reflective comments upon theory and practice, Regional Studies 41, 1149-1160. In recent years, for a variety of reasons, there has been a resurgence of interest in 'the region' from a variety of both intellectual and practical perspectives, with the somewhat surprising result that regional studies have come to be of central concern and the region has come to occupy a central place in social scientific discourse and political debates. In this, questions of power loom large. This paper examines four, to a degree inter-weaving, sets of key questions, framed by a concern with who has the power of decision, in both intellectual debates about regions and regional policy and practice. First, how is the region to be defined? Secondly, how can the concept of governmentality deepen one's understanding of regions? Thirdly, how are 'the region's interests' to be defined? And finally, how is regional economic development to be defined? Problematizing what is meant by the terms 'region' and 'development' in these ways and posing and exploring questions such as these will allow the study of regions to be taken forward in a progressive manner in the future... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an editorial that tackles the main issues and practices in regional studies, in reference to the formulation, methodology, governance and political policies. The author states that regions provide conceptual and analytical focus for economic, political and ecological change. He adds that regional studies and geography have struggled with issues related to relevancy, influence and policy practicality.

The aim of this article is to analyse the nexus of integration and disintegration processes in the post-Soviet space. On the one hand it considers 'formal' regionalism projects and the reasons for their inefficiency, and explores the real impetus behind the repeated attempts at top-down regional integration by post-Soviet elites. On the other hand, it analyses the bottom-up regionalisation of the post-Soviet space through the investment activity of Russian corporations, and demonstrates possible effects of this process for institutional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the development of the Australia–Japan partnership in building regional institutions such as the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council and the Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation over the last three decades since the NARA Treaty was signed in 1976. In a unique partnership, academics, business people, politicians and officials in both countries were central to establishing these regional economic institutions. This article, however, argues that while both countries had shared understandings on regional issues during the first two decades after the treaty, the last decade has seen divergent regional understandings, especially over the rise of China. Japan sees the growing influence of China as a political obstacle due to growing bilateral tensions arising from historical and territorial issues, while Australia finds it a great economic opportunity to promote its trade with and attract investments from China. This differing understanding on China between both countries may act as a major hurdle to the effective and functional partnership in East Asian regionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the results of research to explore a range of attempts to develop new regional forms, and considers the degree to which they accord to conceptualisations of the ‘new regionalism’ and accounts of the changing territorial structure of the state. It highlights the array of new regional configurations which now extends across the territory of the European Union, discussing the influence exerted by the growth of interest in European spatial planning over the course of the 1990s and considering the degree to which readings of new regionalist rhetoric have informed both the creation and substance of a number of recently conceived regional entities. The paper concludes by considering the implications posed by the growth of these new regional configurations for attempts to interpret the rescaling of governance and the reterritorialisation of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an overview of regionalism as is being developed within the framework of the Organization of Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC). It examines the character of BSEC regionalism arguing that significant diversification of its core business (i.e., trade facilitation) towards non‐economic issues has occurred since BSEC’s conception in 1992. The article further concludes that given BSEC’s limitations and its members’ priorities, it becomes vital for the future of the Black Sea regionalism that the BSEC develops a structured and constructive relationship with other regional and international actors, particularly the EU, which possesses both the resources and the expertise to move ahead with regional projects. Turning the BSEC into a credible partner with a clear strategy will give a new meaning to the notion of Black Sea regionalism in a united Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New forms of regionalism are now a central element in global governance. It is sometimes suggested that new regionalism represents an opportunity for transnational civil society activism. I explore this argument through a comparison of processes of collective action in two emerging frames of regionalism governance in the Americas, the FTAA/Summit of the Americas and Mercosur. I show that, while civil society activism has regionalized to some extent in relation to both hemispheric regionalism and sub-regionalism, this process is far more marked in the former. I suggest, further, that the influence of civil society actors in regionalist governance in the Americas is extremely limited. This is due to persistent institutional barriers to inclusion, the practical obstacles for many groups of scaling up to the regional/transnational level and the particular difficulties associated with accessing trade-based negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Government's now-defunct plans for elected regional assemblies in England were principally economic and administrative in focus, and therefore paid little attention to perceptions of regional culture or identity and therefore to questions over regional boundaries. A comparison of two regions of England-Cornwall and the North-East-indicates that regional identity played some role in each. In Cornwall, which is not a standard region, regional campaigners began with an almost ethnonationalist perspective and refocused their campaign on economic and administrative issues. In the North-East, shared economic history and experience characterised the early campaigns, and less successful attempts were made to extrapolate regional identity from this. This relates to historical Labour Party uneasiness about territorial identity, a factor that is far less present in Cornwall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on the catalytic effect of the European Union in the spread of regionalism in Asia. Development of institutional responses to complement the governance capabilities of the nation states; Role of the multiplicity of institutional forms on the geographic and demographic variability characteristic of regional groupings; Appeal of multilateralism to countries concerned with national security.

The article synthesises the lessons drawn from Unity and Diversity in Development Ideas: Perspectives from the UN Regional Commissions. Confronted with the different realities of their regions, the UN Regional Commissions gave different answers to similar issues such as regional cohesion, development, and regionalisation versus globalisation. Their analyses and policies often had an impact beyond the limits of the region where they were elaborated and, conversely, the Commissions also acted as the regional arm of the United Nations, adapting some UN principles and agreements to regional circumstances. The regret is expressed that the wealth of analyses and policies accumulated in the UN regionally and globally has not been used to elaborate an alternative development paradigm that would restore intellectual leadership to the UN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is examined whether the six countries comprising the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are sufficiently compatible to form a viable economic and financial block in the Gulf region. Despite long and numerous governmental attempts since the mid 1980s, and in spite of public pressures to expedite the process, these countries have thus far failed to achieve full economic and financial integration. Empirical evidence suggests that this apparent failure is unlikely the outcome of economic or financial incompatibility among the countries in the region. The results imply that more efforts should be directed at resolving possible sociopolitical differences that may have hampered real progress toward the emergence of a genuine and effective bloc in the Gulf region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyse some relevant aspects of regional disparities in the EU. The paper departs from standard analysis of convergence by tracking the evolution of the entire distribution, both by using nonparametric techniques and spatial econometric techniques. The main results confirm that: (a) regional disparities across the EU are large and persistent; (b) the ranking among the European regions is very stable; (c) there is a noticeable regional income polarization in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism increasingly features in strategic regional policy documents, being considered important to regional economic prospects. Consequently many regions, notably those less prosperous, have expended significant resources in developing tourism attractions, promoting tourism events and supporting tourism-based operations. In this resource context, the difficulties in assessing the economic contribution of this diverse (and often atomised) set of activities are of concern. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and others have suggested Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSAs) as a suitable method of providing consistent economic evaluation of tourism-based activity. Yet the provision of an accurate and reliable set of accounts, which informs policy decisions and resource directions, is far from easy. This paper examines some of the methodological difficulties in constructing a TSA at the regional level and implications for deriving an effective tourism policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1997, cooperation initiatives involving Asian countries have become more visible and ambitious. These initiatives reflect incentives for regional cooperation in Asia that are the product of prior levels of regional integration and international developments. While many countries in the region stand to gain from more substantive cooperation, they are likely to find certain cooperative goals difficult to achieve. This difficulty cannot be ascribed to the commonly cited obstacles to cooperation in Asia: economic diversity, inter-state political rivalry and the influence exercised by the US. Rather, parts of the new regional agenda are complicated by the kind of government organizations that exist in some countries. Government organizations that lack domestic regulatory capacity are poorly equipped to participate in some regional initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advances the argument that moves towards regional integration need to be understood as 'regional governance projects' undertaken by domestic actors and coalitions. Regional political projects--such as open regionalism--have roots in domestic structures, and it is this which defines the broad configuration of the regional political economy. On the basis of this framework the paper suggests, first, that the strategy of open regionalism was contingent on a particular configuration of power and interests in the domestic and external economy (embedded mercantilism). Second, this system of embedded mercantilism depended on a set of domestic coalitions between tradeable and non-tradeable sectors of the economy. The non-tradeable sector in Southeast Asia was entrenched within a particular system of political patronage. Third, the Asian crisis and other structural changes in the international economy have made these domestic coalitions less sustainable, thereby creating opportunities for new forms of regional governance projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the impact of democratic transitions in Southeast Asia on regional co-operation, and the relationship between this process and the development of a non-official regionalism. Until now, regionalism in Southeast Asia has been essentially elite-centred and politically illiberal. The emergence of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations was founded upon the common desire of its members, which had by then retreated significantly from their postcolonial experiments in liberal democracy, to ensure regime survival. This orientation was further institutionalised by asean's doctrine of non-interference, which helped to shield its members from outside pressures towards democratisation. But with democratisation in the Philippines, Thailand and more recently Indonesia, the asean model of elite-centric regional socialisation has been challenged. The civil society in the region demands greater openness in Southeast Asian regionalism. The article proposes a conceptual framework for analysing the relationship between democratisation and regionalism, with the key argument being that the displacement of traditional patterns of regional elite socialisation has been offset by potential gains such as advances in regional conflict management, transparency and rule-based interactions. But the realisation of a more 'participatory regionalism' in Southeast Asia faces a number of barriers, including obstacles to further democratisation, the continued salience of the non-interference doctrine and the diminished space for civil society in the wake of the 11 September terrorist attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) has conventionally been explained as a project of open regionalism adopted by the asean member governments to attract foreign direct investment to the region through the 'carrot' of the single regional market. Yet, when the same governments incorporated an investment liberalisation component programme within the AFTA project in 1998, they opted to accord full national treatment and market access privileges to foreign (non-asean) investors at least 10 years later than to domestic or asean national investors. Although member governments removed this particular discriminatory clause in September 2001, the fact that a distinction between foreign and domestic investors was adopted and maintained for a three-year period is puzzling given AFTA's acknowledged role as a magnet for foreign investment. Although AFTA is clearly a response to the pressures of globalisation, the available theoretical models of the relationship between globalisation and regionalism are unable to account for this empirical anomaly because they do not make a distinction between foreign-owned and domestic-owned capital. This paper advances the notion of 'developmental regionalism' as a way to incorporate domestic-owned capital in analysing the globalisation-regionalism relationship, which allows for a more robust explanation of the empirical puzzle outlined above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the original framework of 'open regionalism' underpinning the Mercosur is petering out, and consequently the regional governance project in the Southern Cone is undergoing a process of redefinition. The article seeks to understand the nature of this redefinition, and contends that this task requires a re-orientation of some of the prevalent ways in which the study of regionalism is approached. Specifically, it highlights the limitations of an understanding of regionalism merely as a reflection of domestic processes, and instead argues for a greater attention to processes of regionalisation and their complex relationship with both regionalism and domestic political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financial settlement has been described as the key to devolution. Public spending above tax in Scotland and Wales has been criticized. Public spending is above tax in seven UK regions, including four English regions. If we treat equal citizens equally, public spending will be above tax in poorer regions. There is nothing extraordinary about spending above tax, but there are important questions with regard to regional levels of expenditure. In four regions (London, South East, Scotland and Northern Ireland) public expenditure is well above the level expected for their degree of prosperity. This article provides possible explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regional economic crisis of 1997–98 placed a large question mark over the advocacy, much proclaimed between 1990 and 1997, that ASEAN was at the centre of a shift in the global order toward a Pacific Century premised on the Association's practices of multilateral cooperation, dialogue, consensus, and non-interference. Does the aftermath of the crisis, and the new agenda posed by the forces of economic globalization and the seemingly irresolvable low intensity conflicts that bedevil Southeast Asia, require radical re-thinking of the relevance of security arrangements in Pacific Asia that are essentially the product of the Cold War era? This study examines this question by considering the curious external conditions in which ASEAN rose to international prominence, how ASEAN erroneously came to be seen in the 1990s as an apparently new form of security cooperation, and how rising levels of violent internal challenges generated by the forces of globalization threaten Southeast Asia's stability. The conclusion is that these forces have exposed ASEAN's constituting incoherence as an imitation community and that consequently it is ill equipped to contend with the pressures exerted by the global information age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outlines the argument for elected regional government that is being made by the North East Constitutional Convention (NECC). Description of the proposed model of an elected regional assembly in England; Role of the NECC; Importance of an assembly; Possible impact of an elected regional assembly on the region.

ABSTRACT Regionalism has come into a new light. Gradually during the post-war period, regionalism has acquired an image of being effectively neutral and capable of replacing the functions of other political units. But even though regionalism has become substantially boosted by the European Union and is a favoured topic in the arsenal of federalist arguments, its final outcome remains highly unpredictable. This article explores the many faces and tasks of the new regionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces several system dynamics methodology used in regional planning in Great Britain. It states that the system dynamics model has been considered to demonstrate the potential of the methodology to represent some of the dynamics and casual relationships of regional systems in a way which has been beneficial for planning. The paper also polarised some discussion of system dynamics methodology in relation to other methods and, in terms of the relative ability to handle time as opposed to space.

The formation of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in 1991 marks a significant change in attitudes towards preferential trading arrangements in the region. In this article, we examine why such a change in policy came about. In so doing, we conclude that mainstream economic approaches do not provide satisfactory explanations for the formation of AFTA. In large measure this is due, we argue, to an overly simplistic explanation of, or disregard for, state behaviour and/or an ahistorical approach which fails to consider the purpose of trading blocs in the global economy of the 1990s. We provide an alternative explanation for the formation of ASEAN which points to the need for an explicit analysis of the political economy of ASEAN states and ASEAN's relationship to the global economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dramatic economic growth in the Asia Pacific has given rise to a both a scholarly and policy oriented debate about the most appropriate organizational form within which any dialogue over the nature economic policy coordination in the region might take place. The most visible exercise in regional economic dialogue over the last few years has been via the evolution of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC). APEC's increasing international profile does not, however, pass uncontested. Some states, and most vocally Malaysia, exhibit a preference for a more 'Asian' and less Pacific' form of regional economic dialogue via the putative East Asian Economic Caucus (EAEC). This paper examines APEC and the EAEC as exemplars of two competing conceptions of regional economic cooperation. The paper demonstrates that enhanced economic dialogue in the Asia Pacific cannot be understood simply in rationalistic, utility maximizing terms. Questions of politics, culture and identity are also shaping up to be extremely important. The outcome of this contest over how an understanding of 'region' in the Asia Pacific will be constituted over the long term is yet to be determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the rule against external interference in Australia. The balance in favour of 'a right to intervene', certainly as far as human rights are concerned, has shifted because in the post-Cold War era, security considerations are no longer paramount. Governments are now less inclined to ignore violations of human rights for the sake, for example, of the unity of the anti-Soviet alliance where in relation to China, the US has reversed its priority of selling China weapons and naval equipment while overlooking the issue of human rights.

The article discusses the basic motives for regional economic cooperation, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation's (APEC) evolution and its fundamental objectives. It is followed by an evolutionary strategy to approach these objectives, outlining the way this can serve the interests of APEC's diverse constituency. The conservative motive for closer cooperation has been, and continues to be, important. There is a growing realisation that the recent record of growth and mutually beneficial interdependence in the region cannot be taken for granted: it will require regular high-level communications to identify emerging opportunities, to reduce obstacles and to defuse frictions.