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Karl Deutsch and those who have taken up his work on security communities universally acknowledge the relevance of increased transnational interactions as a necessary condition for integration. Yet despite an international system increasingly characterized by globalization, in most cases of increased interaction among states dependable expectations of peaceful change, the defining characteristic of a security community, have not followed. Why has increased transnational interaction led to the emergence of security communities in certain cases but not others? This paper attempts to answer this question by positing a multi-level theory of integration, which asserts that integration is contingent on the mutual identification of self-signifying practices common to intersubjectively differentiated groups, which in turn allows for enhancements in social communication and the development of a higher-order level of collective identity. By focusing on concomitant processes of integration at the regional, state and subnational levels, this theory pushes forward the discourse on security communities by explaining the emergence of new social tensions resulting from changes in the meanings of practices associated with integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]