Republic of the Philippines

AURORA STATE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
BALER, AURORA

MODULE 3:
World of Regions

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. Differentiate between regionalization and globalization;
2. Explain how regions are formed and kept together;
3. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of regionalism; and
4. Identify the factors leading to a greater integration of the Asian region.

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. How, for instance, did the Philippines come to identify itself with the Southeast
Asia region? Why is it part of a regional grouping known as the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN)?

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 identifies, 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.

This lesson will look at regions as political entities and examine what brings them
together as they interlock with globalization. The other facets of regionalism will then be
explored, especially those that pertain to identities, ethics, religion, ecological sustainability, and
health. The lesson will conclude asking where all these regionalisms are bringing us as members
of a nation and as citizens of the world.

Edward D. Mansfield and Helen V. Milner state that economic and political definitions of
regions vary, but there is certain basic feature that everyone can agree on. First, regions are “a
group of countries located in the same geographically specified area” or are “an amalgamation of
 Republic of the Philippines
AURORA STATE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
BALER, AURORA

two regions a combination of more than two regions” organized to regulate and “oversee flows
and policy choices.” 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”
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 processes of
workforce to attract foreign businesses and expand trade with countries it once considered its
enemies but now sees as markets for its goods (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
banking hubs. Singapore develop its harbour facilities and made them a first-class trait 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 a
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 in 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. 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.

Soldier from NATO countries hold their flags

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, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia,
and Venezuela to regulate the production and sale of oil. This regional alliance flexed its muscle
in the 1970s when its member countries took over domestic production and dictated crude oil
 Republic of the Philippines
AURORA STATE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
BALER, AURORA

prices in the world market. In a world highly dependent on oil, this integration becomes a source
of immense power. OPEC’s success convinced nine other oil-producing countries to join it.
Moreover, there are countries that form reginal blocs to protect their independence from
pressures of superpower politics. The president 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 an North America or the communist states in
Eastern Europe. As 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 fervour that
it had in the past.
Finally, economic crisis compels country to come together. The Thai economy collapse
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. The crisis began to spread to other Asian countries as their currencies were also
devalued and foreign investments left in 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 crisis made ASEAN more “unified and coordinate.” 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 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 agreed 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 in 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.”
 Republic of the Philippines
AURORA STATE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
BALER, AURORA

Their strategies and tactics likewise vary. Some organizations partner with government 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 issues it’s Human Rights
Declaration in 2009, but the regional body left it member countries to apply rights are limited in
many ASEAN countries, “new regionalism” organizations used this official declaration to
pressure this governments to pass laws and regulation that 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 Articulaciỏn de Asociaciones Nacionales y Redes de ONGs de Amẻrica 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 American States. In Southeast Asia, the organization of an
ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights was in part the 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 dictated themselves to specialized causes. Activists across
Central and South America established the Rainforest Foundation to protect indigenous peoples
and the Rainforest Foundation to protect indigenous peoples and the rainforest 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 their 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 traditional state-to-state regionalism when it
comes to identifying problems. For example, states treat 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.
 Republic of the Philippines
AURORA STATE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
BALER, AURORA

Another challenge for new regionalist is the discord that may merge 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 basis of 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 the
Union to gain more flexibility in their economic policy. Anti-immigrant sentiment and a populist
campaign against Europe have already; ed to be 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 has also been problematic. Recently, ASEAN countries also 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.
 Republic of the Philippines
AURORA STATE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
BALER, AURORA

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 away 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 od 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 also be hard for them to turn their backs on their regions. Even if the UK
leaves the UE, it must continue to trade with its immediate neighbour’s and will, therefore, be
forced to implement many UE 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.
 Republic of the Philippines
AURORA STATE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
BALER, AURORA

ASSESSMENT TASKS:
Activity
Answer the following questions
1. How is regionalism different from and yet a part of globalization?
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2. What is the difference between state-on-state regionalism and non-

state regionalism?
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3. What trigger various regionalist projects?

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