Regions and Development : Politics, Security and Economics

Why do countries come together in regions? Why do some regions succeed? Are regions economic or political tools, for development or for negotiation?

At the 1996 EADI Conference, the papers presented in the World Trade and Trade Policy workshop looked at the new trends in regionalism from a variety of points of view for different institutions.

They were searching for the effects of regions, for their implications for policy and performance in the developing countries and for international economic institutions, and trying to interpret them in terms of economic and political theory. It is too early to reach structured conclusions. The regions are too new, and evidence on their success and their effects is still limited.

Three conclusions start to emerge: there is some evidence for a more widespread interest in formal regional organisations, although these are taking too wide a range of forms to be treated as a single phenomenon.

The general analyses and comparisons of regions suggest that studying trade motives and effects is not enough; regionalism is a political decision, although some of the individual studies find significant economic effects. Other forces and influences in international relations remain important, and cut across regional interests.