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Multipolarity and the future of economic regionalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2016

Jorge F. Garzón
Jorge F. Garzón*
Affiliation:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, Germany
*
E-mail: jorge.garzon@giga-hamburg.de
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Abstract

This paper inquires into the effects of an emerging multipolar world upon economic regionalism. While IR scholarship has been making a strong case for the regionalization of world politics after the end of the Cold War, the fact that most of the rising powers are also the sole regional powers of their home regions has led some scholars to argue that the advent of multipolarity can only strengthen this general trend towards a more regionalized international order. In this contribution, I challenge these arguments by proposing an alternative way of thinking about how multipolarity is developing. The implications of this interpretation are that the emergence of multipolarity may actually generate powerful centrifugal forces within regions, which would have adverse effects on well-known forms of complex economic regionalism that diverse regional groupings have been implementing thus far. This applies particularly to the global south, where intraregional economic interdependencies tend to be weak. The proposition is tested through a case study and by examining empirical findings across several world regions.

Keywords

multipolarityemerging powersregional powersregionalismregional integrationsmall states
Type
Original Papers
Information
International Theory , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , March 2017 , pp. 101 - 135
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2016 

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