Conflict, Regionalism and Uneven Development

This research project has focused on the possible interactions between political and economic factors determining whether a more self-reliant regionally based space can offer protection from world market forces. The importance of regional integration (NAFTA, APEC, ASEAN, and MERCOSUR) has been inspired by the European example, which is the most institutionalized. Do these constructions conform to the logic of globalization or do they represent defensive counter-movements of regional economies to the unfettered mechanisms of worldwide competition? As of yet, the European Union does not seem to have come to terms with the globalization/regionalization paradox. On the one hand, the EU is seen as adjusting to the demands of the neoliberal discourse, while on the other, simultaneously constructing the socioeconomic and political architecture of a spatial entity, which potentially could offer protection from the global market mechanisms. A kind of "Rhineland" capitalism based on German/continental European socioeconomic and political traditions confronting the Anglo-Saxon model or an alternative more self-centered perhaps Green continental model. Research projects: Jacques Hersh: The Globalization/Regionalization Dichotomy; Steen Fryba Christensen PhD project: State and Business in Argentina´s and Brazil´s Development Policies of the 1990´s in Historical Perspective: Mercosur as a National Strategy for Insertion in the World Economy? Johannes Schmidt: Asean and the New Regional Economic Order in East Asia; Timothy Shaw: New Open Regionalisms in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Several refereed books, one edited issue of an international journal, a number of conference papers and working papers have been the substantial output of this project. Furthermore university financed PhD dissertation will be completed in near future. Partly financed by Danida.