Why Has Regionalism Become Such a Popular Strategy to Cope with Globalization - Coursework Example

Name: Instructor’s Name: Institution: Date: Globalization and Regionalism Introduction Globalization has taken the world by storm. Soon after the cold war, most economic activities took a turn whereby most nations opted for large scale businesses to maximize their profits and to recover economically as fast as possible. The adoption of globalization was so fast and widespread that most nations did not stop to consider the negative effects of the globalization. Regionalism also took place alongside years later, in some countries. Reasons for the regional cooperation may have been varied, but the benefits were the same. Regionalism has existed alongside globalization prompting the question, “which one of the two is better, or are they compatible? “ It has become increasingly visible the numerous unaddressed atrocities and weaknesses that are existing within the system of globalized international relations, given how fast the world is experiencing global shrinking with the improvement in technology and the increasing interdependence between states. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to show how regionalism has been effective in addressing the many faults that have been created by globalization. To fully address this goal, there is need to define globalization as it is known today. By definition, globalization is as a process by which integration of the existing world economies occurs which results into one global economy characterized by policy making through global organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) (Hopkins, p.53). Negative Effects of Globalization The adverse effects of globalization have become conspicuous especially in the cultural, economic, political and/or social contemporary world. Globalization has posed challenges in inter-national and nation-state systems of the world order. Effectively, globalization has managed to undermine the nation-states’ autonomy, capacity and sovereignty. These challenges coupled by other reasons such as promoting peace and security concerns have led to many nations seeking regionalism as an alternative to address the loopholes created by globalization. Economic cooperation can be a powerful tool to use when confidence building is lacking within a given region. The epitome of this tool is the EU given that one of its core goals was to correct the conflict between Germany and France and thereby promote regional integration. Another good example is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the ASEAN with a strong security-seeking motivation through cooperation (Ramkishen p. 28). Motivations for Regionalism Nonetheless economic motivations can be said to be the motivation behind modern-day new regionalism. As stated above, today’s globalization challenges states’ maneuver and their capacity room. It is therefore becomes a viable option to regain some form of control over capital flow through entering in regional blocs. Through regional cooperation states can improve their bargaining power against global economic actors. Therefore, when states enter into regional cooperation it can be interpreted as a way of mitigating the negative effects of globalization (Nilgun, p.6). Further, the strategic trade theory can also be used to explain the economic motivation behind regional cooperation of states. This theory holds that domestic business entities benefit from regional cooperation that is large enough to allow them to scale economies and at the same time shield them from global competition. Regional cooperation therefore facilitates the survival of national companies in a protected market that is big enough in such a way that if the market was not protected global competition, the national companies would fail. States enjoy more feasible, deeper integration and easier to reach agreements without much compromise through regional cooperation. This cooperation can take many dimensions such as security (eg. ARF), political (eg. EU) and economic spheres (eg. COMESA). Negotiations, political or economic or both, are much more complex at the global level (Mikhail , p. 4). Addressing globalization through regionalism Regionalization may be seen as an opposing process to globalization. But is that really the case? By definition, regionalism is regional while globalization is global. Mikhail [p. 4] argues that regionalization in the world system and further in the economic activities of many states, poses a threat to benefits realized from a liberalized global economy especially because regional blocs favor partners over the rest. As noted above, regionalism is a way of countering globalization. In a survey conducted by Financial Times, most Europeans consider globalization to have adverse effects on the society. In this light, most scholars hold the view that globalization should be managed and regulated. The recent developments in the global economic world, regionalism has been noted to be entirely compatible almost a direct encouragement. The end of Cold War created a favorable international context whereby regionalism and globalization could take off. There are many factors and motivations behind regionalism. However, the main goal is to better manage the negative effects brought about by globalization. The scope, depth and objectives of regional blocs vary from one place to the other. However, through regional cooperation policies, global politics have increasingly become regionalized. Just like globalization, increased regionalism diminishes autonomy and sovereignty of nation-states. Regional blocs have their own set of rules that limit states. Further, regionalism in one place in the world has been witnessed to cause a domino effect whereby other nations else adopt the same strategy. This fact can be used to point out that regionalism is global in nature. Therefore, it can further ne said that regionalism is intimately linked to globalization and it actually builds (Robert, p.32). Nilgun [7] agrees with this idea and adds that the age of economic globalization is also the age of regionalization, and the analysis of the new regionalism has been zealous to the links between the two predispositions. As a result, regionalism is seen as crucial part of the globalization’s political economy and the strategies adopted by states in the face of globalization; the rise of regionalism needs to be comprehended within the global reorganization of production and power. Through increased dependence on regionalism to correct the loopholes created by globalization, the world can be seen to move away from global unity. Ramkishen [p. 28] states that regionalism should be taken to be a world order concept. This is because regionalism focuses on creating a regional identity and not a global identity. Regionalism can therefore be said to have its pros and cons, its cons being that it builds up states but leads to a larger conflict on the larger scale. Benefits of regionalism Regional integration is crucial to processes such as accelerated integration and trade liberalization. This is chiefly because sovereignty of a state is restricted through regional integration where economic policy formulation is involved. This eventually leads to a system of global economic. Regionalization is beneficial to individual states and the entire region. These advantages include increased realization and specialization of economic of scale through the pooling of markets and resources. Further, regionalism leads to diversified choice of products and services through increasing access of a wide range of markets. Additionally, regionalism also leads to increased competitiveness of services and goods in global markets facilitated by the increase in intra-regional competition (Ramkishen, p. 28). Also, regionalization fosters opportunities for engineering and scientific exchange and pooling resources together to develop technology and science as well as the establishment of enhanced finance, transport and communication. These benefits emanating from regional integration form the basis of the globalization. This is so because the improvement of the mobility of factors of production requires efficient infrastructure to provide required support. The regional blocs offer this infrastructure (Nilgun, p.6). For instance, in Africa, COMESA is a regional trading bloc that has been very effective in disseminating information on WTO thereby facilitating countries to participate more actively in the global economy. In the economic field, regionalism has effectively aided in securing markets and in addition, it has helped in strengthening economies through establishment of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs). Global institutions such the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund have agreements that bind local governments to the liberalization of markets. This in turn limits their ability to follow up on macro-economic policies. Nonetheless, under RTAs policies are consistent and stable and they cannot be breached by member states. A good example of this is the proliferation of Mexico’s economic and political policies (Hopkins, p.53). Conclusion From what has been debated above, it is clear that there are both consistencies and inconsistencies between regionalization and globalization. Therefore, it cannot be concluded that both of these processes are incompatible entirely. This can be supported by the fact that COMESA and other regional blocs have shown that they are platforms through which globalization in anchored. The incompatibility of globalization and regionalism cannot be held as true given that the success of globalization can be pinned to regionalism, at least to some extent. Regionalism has brought many benefits to nations. This does not imply that regionalism does not have it share of atrocities and weaknesses. The benefits accrued through regionalism overshadow its weaknesses and atrocities when measured against globalization. It has now been viewed as the one of the best strategies in dealing with globalization effects in most economies. Further, international trade organizations depend heavily on the regional blocs to follow up on their policies and to get firsthand information about the situation in the ground. The blocs also act as infrastructure that is available for use by global regulating bodies like the WTO. There is need for regional blocs to be geared towards one direction and objective if globalization is to be effective. Work cited Hopkins, A. G. "The Historiography Of Globalization And The Globalization Of Regionalism." Journal Of The Economic & Social History Of The Orient 53.1/2 (2010): 19-36. Molchanov, Mikhail A. "Regionalism And Globalization: The Case Of The European Union." Perspectives On Global Development & Technology 4.3/4 (2005): 431-446. Onder, Nilgun. "The Turkish Political Economy: Globalization And Regionalism." Perspectives On Global Development & Technology 6.1-3 (2007): 229-259. Onder, Nilgun. "The Turkish Project Of Globalization And New Regionalism*." Alternatives: Turkish Journal Of International Relations 7.2/3 (2008): 86-110. Rajan, Ramkishen S. "Financial Globalization And Regionalism In East Asia." Asian-Pacific Economic Literature 28.1 (2014): 194-195. Read, Robert. "The Implications Of Increasing Globalization And Regionalism For The Economic Growth Of Small Island States." World Development 32.2 (2004): 365. Read More