GEOG 220 – Geopolitics
What is a region?
• Regions are:
– “An area, especially part of a country or the world
having definable characteristics but not always fixed
boundaries” (OED)
– “An administrative district of a … country” (OED)
• Regions are political and historical rather
‘natural’, though physical dimensions often count
• Region as classification of space by government or
official agencies
• Region as spatial consciousness of individuals and
communities
• Region: “a medium and outcome of social
practices and relations of power that are
operative at multiple spatial and temporal
scales, among which the region might serve as
a kind of fix’ Dictionary of Human Geography
What is regionalism?
• Ideas and practices that conceive of politics,
economics, and identity in regional rather
than ‘national’ terms
– Trade organizations
– Defense
– Governance
Varieties of regionalism
• Scale:
– Sub-state or sub-national regions
– Supra-state or transnational / international regions
• Aims:
– Political project: the recognition or creation of a political identity
and governance
=> Regional autonomy
e.g. Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq
=> ‘sovereignty pooling’
e.g. European Union
– Economic project: economic integration
List two regions in the neighbourhood …
Regional political
movement: Cascadia
Regional Trade Agreement:
North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA)
Views on regionalism
‘Old regionalism’: seeking representation and
secession
 ‘New regionalism’: economic integration and
administrative functions
Supra-state regions
Why is regionalism growing?
• Incentives and pressures on the state from
above and from below
– Above: neoliberalism, economic globalization,
Trans National Corporations (TNCs), supra-state
institutions
– Below: sub-state nationalism
Examining regions and regionalism
• Regional geography: a scale of analysis drawing
from human and physical geography
=> “regional geography”
– Traditional disciplinary approach to dividing and
classifying the world
– Criticized as being mostly descriptive and
essentializing (through its emphasis of regional
‘uniqueness’)
• Geography of regionalism: analysis of
regionalization processes
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• Entry on REGION, pp 630-632
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• Entry on REGION, pp 630-632
Geographies of regions/regionalism
• Regional spaces: regional clustering of economic assets and
activities
=> Driven by competition over Foreign Direct Investments, and
adoption of model of Free Trade
• Spaces of regionalism: (re)assertion of political and cultural
distinctness => intermediary level for territorial
government
=> Driven by relative dissatisfaction with existing state
authorities
=> Combine to bring about ‘resurgent regionalization’
Concepts around regionalism
• New medievalism: divided and overlapping
authority
– Domains of competence move beyond the state
– Pluri-legalism: jurisdictional tensions
• Transborder regionalism:
– Formal and informal practices of transgressing
state borders
Why is regionalism difficult or limited?
• Political institutions are state-based
– Resistance by the state
– Limited options for departure from state institutions
• Regionalism not a panacea to problems of statecentered politics
– Reproduction of political tensions between the
governing and the governed
– Decentralization can aggravate factors in the quality of
institutions