1 Central European University
Department of International Relations
COMPARATIVE REGIONALISM (4 Credits)
Lecturer: Dr Daniel Izsak
Office Hours: D-419, on Thursdays with prior appointment
Course Description
War-torn Ukraine’s plea to be swiftly admitted to the European Union was a poignant reminder that supranational regions, regional integrations, or regional regulatory regimes have a crucial role to play in the global order: they may provide their members with security, institutional calculability, economic benefits, or an expression of their members’ values and identity. Peter Katzenstein argued that “ours is a world of regions”. But how to think about regions in a fundamentally state-centric world? Are they just another “onion layer” between states and globalisation? And if globalisation is a key feature of the world economy, what is the role of regions, if any?
The course examines the political, security, economic, and ideational logics to regional integration, their place in the global order, and their connection to economic globalisation and the deglobalisation tendencies of the past few years. The course will engage with the role of state and non-state actors in regions of many shapes and sizes around the world as it considers the processes underpinning them. With the US-China ‘trade war’, the securitisation and re- regionalisation of value chains in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the course will reflect on the ‘globalisation vs. regionalisation’ debate and ask whether ‘globalisation’ is heading towards a
‘world of regions’.
The course is designed as a mix of interactive lectures and seminar discussion based on the required readings; it will engage with IR, IPE, and regionalism debates and concepts. It assumes little or no background in the field.
Learning Outcomes
Through engagement with current issues and related scholarly debates students will gain a better understanding of the diverse approaches to the study of regions, as well as the complexity of processes shaping them. By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. develop a critical understanding of the different processes that shape the various types of regions, regionalism, and regionalisation
2. will gain a better understanding of the functioning of the various types of regional regulatory regimes, as well as placing it in the context of globalisation.
3. ability to analyse and discuss regional integration schemes in a comparative perspective Course Requirements
There are no pre-set right-or-wrong answers to the issues raised in this course; we will search for them together during seminar-style discussions by drawing on relevant texts, concepts, and theories, following in-class student presentation(s). Students do not need to have done prior
2 studies in the field. The course focuses on external, security, economic, ideational, and institutional aspects of integrations around the world.
All students can successfully complete this course by fulfilling the formal requirements as well as demonstrating intellectual engagement, effort, and preparation: willingness to go beyond simple summaries and easy answers during class discussions and in the required papers. To succeed in this course, students are required to prepare for and actively participate in in-class discussions.
They are to thoroughly read the required texts for each class. Students are required to critically engage with the texts when preparing for each class. This means, on the most basic level, identifying (taking notes, highlighting) the main arguments, their strength and weaknesses, and the theoretical concepts (when relevant) applied by the author(s). Please do not hesitate to ask for help and/or consultations.
1. Attendance and active participation(!) in class discussions based on the
readings (15 % of final grade). Attendance rules of the department apply. (Please do not use laptops in class.)
2. One 1500-word (excluding footnotes and bibliography) short paper (double- spaced, Times New Roman, 12-points). (20% of final grade). The paper should follow the structure, format, and style of standard academic papers. Students are to select a topic from those discussed in class; the required readings should only serve as a starting point, additional and relevant literature should be used to identify and map out an academic debate, critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the discussed concepts, leading to a potential research question. (Further details are to be discussed in class). Submission deadline: Wednesday, 8 February, 23:59 CET. Submit via Moodle in *.doc format (file name: yourname.doc). Late submission will result in downgrading. Consulting with the Centre for Academic Writing is
strongly advised.
3. One 10-minute long, in-class presentation (20% of final grade), which should relate to the topic for the day, but it should not be a simple summary of the required readings. Rather, it should use the readings as a starting point only and engage with the related scholarly literature to raise a puzzling question, to support an argument, or critically comment on an interesting aspect. The presentation should also apply the discussed concepts to empirical cases in a comparative manner. Sign up on the sign-up sheet after the first class.
4. One 3500-4000-word long (excluding footnotes and bibliography, double- spaced, Times New Roman 12-points) research paper (45% of final grade). Topics are to be discussed with the instructor but in general, should relate to any of the topics covered in this course. Submission deadline: Wednesday, 5 April, 23:59 CET. Submit via Moodle. Late submission will result in downgrading. Consulting with the Centre for Academic Writing is strongly advised. (Please beware that CAW is only available on weekdays.)
All departmental requirements about academic dishonesty, etc. apply. Late submission of assignments without prior approval will result in downgrading.
3 Course Outline and Readings
Seminar 1: Introduction (Overview of course, assignment of seminar presentations)
PART I: New Regionalism and the Comparative Perspective
Seminar 2: From Old to New Regionalism
Andrew Hurrell, “Explaining the Resurgence of Regionalism in World Politics”, Review of International Studies, (Vol. 21, No. 4, 1995), 331-358.
Recommended:
Louise Fawcett, “Exploring Regional Domains: A Comparative History of Regionalism”, International Affairs, (Vol. 80, No. 3, 2004), 429-446.
Rick Fawn, “Regions and their Study: Wherefrom, What for, and Whereto?”, Review of International Studies, (Vol. 35, No. 1, 2009), 5-34.
Seminar 3: EU-rope Centrism
Mark Beeson, “Rethinking Regionalism: Europe and Asia in Comparative Historical Perspective”, Journal of European Public Policy, (Vol. 12, No 6., 2005), 969-985.
Tobias Lenz, “Spurred Emulation: The EU and Regional Integration in Mercosur and SADC”, West European Politics, (Vol. 35, No. 1, 2012), 155-173.
Seminar 4: Comparing ‘Apples and Oranges’
Bjorn Hettne and Fredrik Soderbaum, “Chapter 3 – Theorising the Rise of Regionness”, In:
Shaun Breslin, Richard Higgott, and Ben Rosamund, Regions in Comparative Perspective, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2002, 33-46.
Daniel Izsak, Varieties of Regionalisation, Budapest: CEU eTD Collection, 2017, 26-38.
PART II: Regions and the Global Order
Seminar 5: How Regions Were Made
Barry Buzan, “How Regions were Made, and the Legacies for World Politics: an English School Reconnaissance”, In: T. V. Paul (ed.), International Relations Theory and Regional
Transformation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012, 22-46.
Seminar 6: Regions in a ‘World of Regions’
Peter J. Katzenstein, “The American Imperium in a World of Regions”, In: Katzenstein, P. J., A World of Regions: Asia and Europe in the American Imperium, (Cornell University Press, 2005), 208-244.
4 Seminar 7: The End of the American Imperium?
Amitav Acharya, “After Liberal Hegemony: The Advent of a Multiplex World Order”, Ethics &
International Affairs, (Vol. 31, No. 3, 2017), 271-285.
G. John Ikenberry, “The End of the Liberal International Order?”, International Affairs, (Vol. 94, No. 1, 2018), 7-23.
Recommended:
Markus Kornprobst and T. V. Paul, “Globalization, Deglobalization, and the Liberal International Order”, International Affairs, (Vol. 97, No. 5, 2021), 1305-1316.
Seminar 8: Regional Security – A Neoclassical Realist Take
Jeffrey W. Taliaferro, "Neoclassical Realism and the Study of Regional Order", In: T. V. Paul (ed.), International Relations Theory and Regional Transformation, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 74-103.
Seminar 9: Regional Security – A Constructivist Take
Fredrik Soderbaum, “Regional Security in a Global Perspective”, In: Engel, Ulf, and Joao Gomes Porto (eds.), Africa’s New Peace and Security Architecture: Promoting Norms, Institutionalising Solutions, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2010, 13-30.
Vincent Pouliot, “Regional Security Practices and Russian-Atlantic Relations”, In: T. V. Paul (ed.), International Relations Theory and Regional Transformation, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 210-229.
PART III: Regional Integrations and Globalisation Seminar 10: Institutionalisation of Calculability
Max Weber, General Economic History (1924), New York: Collier Books, 275-285 and 338-351.
Barbel Dorbeck-Jung, “Global Trade: Changes in the Conceptualisation of Legal Certainty?” In:
Volkmar Gessner (ed.), Contractual Certainty in International Trade, Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2009, 289-308.
Volkmar Gessner, “Towards a Theoretical Framework for Contractual Certainty in Global Trade”, In: V. Gessner (ed.), Contractual Certainty in International Trade, Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2009, 1-6.
Recommended:
Neil Fligstein, The Architecture of Markets: an Economic Sociology of Twenty-First Century Capitalist Societies, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001, 27-44.
Volkmar Gessner, Theories of Change – the Governance of Business Transactions in
Globalising Economies, In: Volkmar Gessner (ed.), Contractual Certainty in International Trade, Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2009, 175-213.
5 Seminar 11: Regional Regulatory Regimes
Walter Mattli, “Comparative Regional Integration: Theoretical Developments”, In: Erik Jones, Anand Menon, Stephen Weatherill (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the European Union, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, 777-794.
Laszlo Bruszt and Gerald A. McDermott, “Introduction: The Governance of Transnational
Regulatory Integration and Development”, In: Bruszt and McDermott (eds.), Leveling the Playing Field: Transnational Regulatory Integration and Development, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014, 1-30.
Recommended:
Walter Mattli, “Chapter 3 – Explaining Regional Integration”, The Logic of Regional Integration:
Europe and Beyond, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999, 41-67.
Seminar 12:States, Firms, Labour, IOs
Peter Dicken, Global Shift: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy – 6th Edition, London: SAGE, 2011, 110-127; 178-190 and 202-217.
Seminar 13: From FTAs to Economic Unions
Patrick M. Crawley, “Is there a Logical Integration Sequence After EMU?”, Journal of Economic Integration, (Vol. 21, No. 1, March 2006), 1-20.
Seminar 14: Response to Regionalism in the EU and NAFTA
Francesco Duina, “North America and the Transatlantic Area”, In: Borzel, Tanja A. and Thomas Risse, The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016, 133-153.
Seminar 15: Economic Logic in the Global South
Sebastian Krapohl, “Two Logics of Regional Integration and the Games Regional Actors Play”, In: Krapohl, S. (eds.), Regional Integration in the Global South, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, 33-62.
Sebastian Krapohl, “Games Regional Actors Play: Dependency, Regionalis, and Integration Theory for the Global South”, Journal of International Relations and Development, (Vol 23, December 2020), Read the 3 cases from p. 853.
Seminar 16 (2 March): IN-CLASS EXERCISE
Assessing the drivers of and impediments to (further) integration in North America, Southeast Asia, Europe, etc. To be discussed in class.
6 Seminar 17: Trade Creation – Trade Diversion
Caroline Freund and Emanuel Ornelas, “Regional Trade Agreements”, Annual Review of Economics, (Vol. 2, 2010), 139-166.
Seminar 18: The Negative Consequences of Regionalism
Gustavo A. Flores-Macias and Mariano Sanchez-Talanquer, “The Political Economy of NAFTA/USMCA”, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics, 2019, 1-20.
Robert Hunter Wade, “Is the Globalization Consensus Dead?”, Antipode, (Vol. 41, No. 1, January 2010), 142-165.
Seminar 19: Globalisation vs. ‘Inter-regionalism’
Pankaj Ghemawat, “Why the World Isn’t Flat”, Foreign Policy, (No. 159, 2007), 54-60.
Alan M. Rugman and Alain Verbeke, “A Perspective on Regional and Global Strategies of Multinational Enterprises”, Journal of International Business Studies, (Vol. 35, No. 1, 2004), 3- 18.
Wade Jacoby and Sophie Meunier, “Europe and the Management of Globalization”, Journal of European Public Policy, (Vol. 17, No. 3, 2010), 299-315.
PART IV: Regionalism: ‘An Idea that Reverberates’
Seminar 20: Regional Identities
Jeffrey T. Checkel, “Regional Identities and Communities”, In: Tanja A. Borzel and Thomas Risse, The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 559-579.
Tanja A. Borzel and Thomas Risse, “Identity Politics, Core State Powers and Regional Integration: Europe and Beyond”, Journal of Common Market Studies, (Vol. 58, No. 1, 2020), 21-40.
Seminar 21: The ‘ASEAN Way’
Amitav Acharya, “Ideas, Identity, and Institution Building: From the ‘ASEAN Way’ to the ‘Asia- Pacific Way’?”, The Pacific Review, (Vol. 10, No. 3, 1997), 319-346.
Recommended:
Hyo Won Lee and Sijeong Lim, “Public Feelings toward ASEAN: One Vision, One Identity, One Community?”, Asian Survey, (Vol. 60, No. 5, 2020), 803-829.
Seminar 22: Regional Identity in Africa
Michael Onyebuchi Eze and Katja Van Der Wal, “Beyond Sovereign Reason: Issues and Contestations in Contemporary African Identity”, Journal of Common Market Studies, (Vol. 58, No. 1, 2020), 189-205.
7 Seminar 23: European Identity in Flux
Catherine E. De Vries, “Don’t Mention the War! Second World War Remembrance and Support for European Cooperation”, Journal of Common Market Studies, (Vol. 58, No. 1, 2020), 138- 154.
Matthias Matthijs and Silvia Merler, “Mind the Gap: Southern Exit, Northern Voice and Changing Loyalties since the Euro Crisis”, Journal of Common Market Studies, (Vol. 58, No. 1, 2020), 96- 115.
Recommended:
Laura Cram, “Identity and European Integration: Diversity as a Source of Integration”, Nations and Nationalism, (Vol. 15, No. 1, 2009), 109-128.
Seminar 24: Conclusions
