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REGIONALISM - Coggle Diagram
REGIONALISM
AFRICA UNION -
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Established in 2002, form of political regionalism, aimed to give african nations bigger voices on a global stage - can be seen as backlash against colonial and neo colonial interference in Africa, aims to reduce poverty and increase growth and improve human rights, empowering africa by acting as its own peacekeeper
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Loosely modelled on the EU, intergovernmental decision making
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Plans for the future inc a HR court , central bank and monetary fund
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Successes- Has a new partnership for Africsn development NEPAD- anti poverty initiative - have an agreement with the west to promote good political and economic practice in return for aid and investment , its peacekeepers have replaced UN peacekeepers on the continent e.g in somalia and Darfur- troops within the region tend to have greater legitimacy so command more respect
Failures- Morocco left after disagreement to allow disputed territory of Western Sahara to join AU, but rejoined in 2017
Lack of action - criticised as certain people are seen as dictators in the organisation , some plans have been too financially ambitious for its poorer countries to fund , so it has looked to China, china has made sig investment in AU inc paying for its HQ
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THE ARAB LEAGUE -
Aims to encourage cooperation between member states to promote interests and affairs- hopes to unite Arab states
Originally formed to free the remaining arab states from colonial rule and prevent a jewish state in palestine
Headquarters in Cairo and has 22 members from middle east, egypt, iraq
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Successes- Agrees supporting palestines, greater sense of purpose since arab spring - backed UN action against Ghaddafi in Libya- suspended syria over its repression of protests
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Decisions made but the league are only binding for countries that voted for them, hs made some parts of the league completely redundant, not able to offer unified response for libya during arab spring
USMCA -
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Followed a year of negotiation at a time where president trump was making a number of trade relation changes like ceasing negotiation on the Trans Pacific Partnership and increasing tariffs with China
Focused on reducing trade barriers and tariffs particularly in textiles, agriculture between US, Mexico and Canada
Had the intention of increasing trade , integrating Mexico - bringing it in line with the higher wages of North America and discouraging migration and promoting manufacturing in the region in order to increase productivity
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USMCA maintains a lot of similar elements of NAFTA but with some important updates including an agreement to review it every 6 years and for it to expire after 16 years
Most notable areas of change are a focus on regional protectionism of automobile exports - 0% tariffs on cars where 75% made in North America, changes to steel and aluminium tariffs, greater access to canadian dairy markets and canada receiving duty free on American goods they buy online
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IMPACT OF EU -
PEACE AND SECURITY - has been sucessful for preventing conflict between member states - 1931 France , germany signed the Paris treaty which established the ESCS - initial trade agreement was a way of ensuring peace and stability between france and germany by encouraging cooperation
- so initial reasons for Eu were economic but came at a time when peace and security were desired after end of the seocnd world war
- the level of integration is now so high that war between these member states is unthinkable
- EU received Nobel Peace prize in 2012 for 'six decades' of contribution towards international peace and security
ECONOMIC - euro came into circulation in 2002 - single market currency
- Four freedoms of movement' - Goods, capital , services and people'
- were challenges in implementing the euro- all members had to spend responsibly
-non binding guidelines failed in 2008 crisis when Greece experienced a debt crisis and other states had to bail them out
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL - European Social Fund- 10% of EUs budget that contributes to projects aiming to reduce unemployment
EU has harmonised labour laws with directives - social policy on workin hours etc.
ECJ interprets law and ensure its applied fairly across all memebr states
- key arguement that that the EU imposed too many directives on the UK
HUMAN RIGHTS- ECHR created in 1950 to prevent the repeat of HR abuses of WW2
- has been criticised in lacking will and inscentive to militsrily intervent to rpotect HR - fro its lack of playing a leading role in the genocide that took place in former Yugoslavia
1992- European commision established Directive general for Humanitarin AId and civil protection- sends humanitarian aid to countries at risk
ENVIRONMENT - EU created environemntal laws at regional levels - thse may have not been able to be agreed at international levels due to Eu's small size and it doesnt havre to balance needs of devloping an devloped states
Pleged to be carbonn neural by 2025 and achieve 20 by 20 by 20 goals by 2020 - but EU countries heavy reliance on coal has made this a challenge
_ EU has observer status in UN and its main role in G20 is environmental portection
POVERTY- World leader in donoer of Offical Developemtn assisatnce - 75.2 billion euros of aid in 2019- largest sum of this went to europe - CAP has been criticised from blocking developing countries to sell produce into EU - caters for half of the US budget
CONTRAINTS TO EU
ECONOMIC- 2008 financial crisis hit europe hard - demonstrated that the eu is not immune to fluctuating global markets
- Economies of greec, italy, spain, portugal and ireland are still recovering and the bailout ot these national economies was expensive for member states
Expansion has also caused economic strain as newer economies tend to be weker creating an economic burden on stronger states
Significant disagreement beetween member states over policies likes CAP - highligths diffulty in organisaing agrement between 27 different countries
STRUCTURAL POWER- the EU cannot be a superpower as it lacks a fugure head or centrak authoiry that exist in supwerpower member states
- diverese set of interests reduces the EUs ability to act as a unified player on the global stage
the Uks decision to leave the EU was detrimental on its structural power and turned urope as a counterbalance to the US- the UK's 'special relationship with the US' helped to boost the Eu influence on the international stage
POLITICAL- impingement of soverinty- brough to force when Uk decidied to leave EU in 2016 referedum but has been longstanding tension in EU
debate of freedom of movemnt- paryicularly in european migrant crissi- putting internal pressue on migration between members - major moral hazards on how to control immigration- immigrants are making tougher, more dangerous journeys so there is the debate on whether accepitng migrants will lead to more taking the risk of journey
Democratic deficit- citizens in democratic countries should have the right to vote over its suprantional elements but they cannot- european parliament is only directly elected body and had to make decisions alomgside council of ministers - does not have final say
this is problematic as the EU promotes liberal values of freedom and democracy - some argue it has damaged it ssoft power
MILITARY - most significant wekaness of the Eu is its lack of central military power- it employs forces for humanitarin intervention but does nto have a standing army of its own
It relies on NATO for its military defence- has been criticised for being the US's military puppet
EU has been seen as weak for allwoing genocide since WW2 to happen in its backyard
EU has developed a commo security policy - but has been susceptible to national secuirty failures with a number of terrorist attacks taking place across recent years
Regionalism is a group of countries in a geographical region that come together to form whats known as a bloc- they share similar aims/incentives - goal of cooperation
The EU is an excellent example of regionalism due to its advance level of unique integration- involves 27 european countries - UK was the first country to leave the Eu on 31 of jan 2020 after its 47 year membership - key arguemnt of leave campaign was that regional org take away too much power and soverignty from the UK- but key arguement of Remain was that in an increasingly globlised world the EU gave Uk acess to free trade with nearest neighbours
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Intergovernmentalism- all states make decisions, member states bound together to make mutually beneficial agreements - their soverignty remains intact as no institution can enforce them to make decision sthey do not agree with
Federalism involves a balance of power between a central authority thats above nation state level authority and state level authority
The Eu can be seen as an exaple of federalism as it has integrated so widely and deeply - The European Comisiion is the only part that can propose new laws - to be apporved 55 % of member states have to agree that represnete 65% of the population in council of ministers - qualified majority voting - suprantaionalism is named the EU's democratic deficit as it imposes decision son memebr states that they did not vote for
ECONOMIC - states cooperate to negotiate usually trade deals , they share the same economic aims etc.
e.g NAFTA which is now the USMCA- trade agreement betwen US, Mexico and Canada reducing trade barriers to allow free trade between the countries
States can implement protectionist policies to portect their domestic trade e.g by decreasing imports to encourage domestic population to buy from inside country- the Eu is protectionst over agriculture industry- provides CAP which are subsidied given to farmers in order for them to produce their goods cheaper
Supranationalism is when a regional organisation can impose decisions on member states - it requires erosion of its soverignty for its sucess but arguably countries can still choose to leave international organisations e.g brexit so still remain soverign entities that can prodominently act in their own self interest
Political - usually to tackle issues that involve collective action responses - requires states to share similar cultural ties/values - states in these regional blocs can beenfit from pooling soverignty- being more powerful collectively than individually - e.g ASIS( Alliance of small Island States )- gave small islands unified voice in stressing the risk they face as islands to climate change
Security- involves states strengthening their regional borders- millitary agreements/ alliances- usually involves agreeingt that an attack on one member state will trigger a reaction inn every member states- NATO is the EUs most influential security org- almost every eu member is a member of NATO
Compatibility with globalisation - arguably regionalism has enhanced globalisation by effectively organising member states to make the process of cooperation more efficient
- however regionalism can also be argued to be a stumbling bloc to globalisation as regional org can becom emore inward looking and states can begin to focus too much on their part of the world and lose sight og the global picture
Economic regionalism can also impinge onn globalisation - implementation of portectionist policies