Week 1 - Summarized Notes + Flashcards

Flashcards covering core vocabulary terms, theoretical frameworks, key historical figures, and analytical challenges in Comparative Regionalism.

Comparative Regionalism

The third wave of regionalism scholarship (2010s–present) that studies interactions between formal and informal structures, as well as state and non-state actors, across a multiplex world order featuring rising non-Western powers.

Old Regionalism

Post-WWII regional scholarship focused on state-led, formal regional organizations operating under a neofunctionalist logic, using the European Union as an implicit template.

New Regionalism

Post-Cold War regional scholarship that widened analysis to non-state and informal actors, viewing regionalization as an open-ended process driven by globalization.

Regionalism

Purposive interaction, formal or informal, among state and non-state actors of a given area in pursuit of shared external, domestic, and transnational goals.

Regionalization

An open-ended, market-driven, or informal process of growing economic, social, and physical interconnectedness within a geographic region.

K.M. Panikkar

An Indian scholar-diplomat who, in 1948, challenged Western, hegemonic conceptions of regionalism by proposing regionalism as a tool for non-Western regions to address social, economic, and developmental challenges.

Hegemonic Regionalism

The historical concept that world order should be managed by regional power blocs, each dominated by a local Great Power (equated by K.M. Panikkar with Lebensraum).

Calvo Doctrine

An 1868 Latin American doctrine emphasizing local state autonomy and rejecting intervention by external great powers in regional affairs.

Drago Doctrine

A 1902 Latin American doctrine opposing foreign armed or diplomatic intervention for the collection of public debts, reinforcing regional non-intervention principles.

Pan-Movements

19th- and 20th-century anti-colonial regional ideologies (such as Pan-Africanism, Pan-Arabism, Pan-Asianism, and Pan-Americanism) rooted in shared history, culture, and resistance to colonial rule.

San Francisco Conference (1945)

The founding UN conference where Latin American and Arab delegates successfully advocated for Chapter VIII (Articles 33/1 and 52/2) in the UN Charter to formalize the role of regional organizations in conflict resolution.

Ernst Haas

A leading neofunctionalist scholar who noted in 1961 that conditions for European integration were not readily transferable to non-Western contexts, later declaring regional integration theory obsolete in 1975.

Norm Subsidiarity

The process whereby local actors create, adapt, or reaffirm rules and norms regionally to manage regional order and defend against external hegemony or global standards.

Multiplex World Order

Amitav Acharya's concept describing an international system characterized by multiple, cross-cutting international orders and rising non-Western powers rather than a single liberal hegemony.

Composition (Acharya's Challenge)

The challenge of defining what counts as a 'region' and determining which states or entities belong in it (e.g., whether Turkey belongs in 'Europe').

Efficacy (Acharya's Challenge)

The challenge of evaluating whether regional institutions successfully achieve their stated goals and implement signed protocols (e.g., SADC's 1996 Free Trade Protocol).

Performance (Acharya's Challenge)

The challenge of deciding whether regional organizations should be judged by their own unique standards or by European Union supranational benchmarks.

Theorizing Strategy (Acharya's Challenge)

The debate over whether to build regionalism theories inductively up from local case studies or to test general theoretical models top-down from Western experiences.

Autonomy (Acharya's Challenge)

The challenge of determining whether regions can act as independent players in international politics rather than merely reacting to Great Power competition.

Identity-Community-RO Nexus

Jeffrey Checkel's analytical framework examining how regional identity shapes community building and institutional design in regional organizations.

Africrats

Thomas Tieku's term for African Union Commission bureaucratic staff and practitioners who actively exercise agency by shaping strategy rather than merely administering policy.

Pan-African Rhetorical Trap

Daniel Mumford's concept describing a normative environment where outcomes aligned with Pan-African norms become irresistible, compelling member state convergence.

The Comparison Problem

The methodological challenge in comparative regionalism where research remains dominated by single-region case studies or coding frameworks that inadvertently smuggle European benchmarks back in.

Comparative Regional Organizations Project (CROP)

A systematic cross-regional coding initiative that attempts to compare regional organizations globally, though criticized for using categories based on EU institutional forms.

Track-Two Diplomacy

Informal and unofficial policy networks, think tanks, and epistemic communities that engage in dialogue to foster regional cooperation and norm diffusion outside state channels.

ASEAN Way

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations' diplomatic approach based on informal consultation, consensus-building, non-interference, and respect for national sovereignty.

VeCo Grading Scale

The 100-point grading scale used in POL111G, where A is 85–100, B is 73–76, C is 62–65, D is 50–53, and F is 0–49.