Rethinking regionalism and its impact : Westphalia and global architecture.

• Main Author: Phua, Joanna.
• Other Authors: Ralf Jan Diederik Emmers
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Political science::International relations
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/39389
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In May 2007, Nicholas Sarkozy made waves in the international community by declaring his proposal of a 'Mediterranean bloc' in his electoral victory speech (Bennhold 2007). Modeled on the European Union, he envisioned economic integration to be the solution to a region of animosity, conflict and strife. While to date this proposal has fallen flat, it highlights how regional cooperation is increasingly embraced as a strategy to achieving peace and progress. Successes aside, the phenomenon to regionalize races on unabashedly - according to the WTO, by July 2005, Mongolia was the only non-participant in any regional trade agreement. In addition, from merely 74 notifications of regional agreements in 1997, the figure has ballooned to 202 (as of October 2007) and is set to increase (World Trade Organization 2007, "Regional Trade Agreements notified to the GATTIWTO and in force").