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The globalizing world has forced various actors to look beyond their borders and establish relationships with other actors, in order to reflect the current demands of society. The European Union (EU) was able to reflect on this situation very effectively, since the impact of the European integration process does not end only at the external borders of its member states. The main objective of the article was to define the European Union as an important geopolitical actor that can effectively spread its values and norms across the entire political map of the world. The scope of the EU's external impact beyond the borders of the European integration area was identified through the theoretical approaches of inter-regionalism and External Governance. The author analysed how the EU can spread values and standards towards selected groups of actors, namely candidate countries, countries of EU neighbourhood and other regional integration organizations. The emphasis was not only on the process of how the EU can spread its norms and values, but also on how they are accepted by the affected actors. The large scale and institutionalized form of the EU's external impact documents the effort to actively act beyond its external borders. The spread of values and norms towards external actors contributes to the strengthening of the geopolitical position, where the EU represents an actor with a wide global reach. In addition, the article offered a prognosis of which actors will likely to be exposed to stronger external influence from the EU in the coming years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the trajectory of Ecuador as a small state within the inter-regional negotiation process for the completion of a Multiparty Trade Agreement (MTA) between the European Union (EU) and the Andean Community (CAN). It considers some of the influential factors that shaped this inter-regional relationship, particularly Ecuador's bargaining power vis à vis the EU, in order to shed light upon the clout the country was able to exert in such a negotiation. It also discusses some dimensions that highlight Ecuador's small country status (smallness) and the variations within inter-regional dynamics. Some findings and remarks are provided to conclude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the inter-regional security cooperation between ASEAN and the EU with a specific focus on counterterrorism. The research methods are based on a comparison of regional counterterrorism governance between the two regions and a close reading of Plan of Actions for the enhancement of ASEAN-EU relations documents from 2007 to 2018. The results show that CT cooperation is about facilitating a more comprehensive security governance cooperation where European standards and experience are transferred to Southeast Asia for purposes of regional security and diplomatic relations. In addition, this research also shows that EU-ASEAN CT cooperation has not been geared specifically to combat radicalism, or as part of a Counter Violent Extremism program; rather, the inter-regional cooperation has mainly focused on building a common normative framework in responding to terrorism within the corridor of democracy and preempting the terrorist networks from exploiting connectivity networks. Finally, implementation of security and political cooperation between the EU and ASEAN tend to rely on the existing extra-regional dialogue fora within ASEAN as well as direct engagement between the EU and third parties comprising each of the ASEAN states.

The Covid-19 pandemic brings back to the fore traditions of interconnected health governance in Africa, both at regional and inter-regional levels. Using the early pandemic responses of ECOWAS and the African Union as empirical case studies, we reconstruct (1) how already established regional actors in managing pandemics, such as the West African Health Organization (WAHO), are (2) now interacting with a newly established continental institution, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), established in response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa (2014–2016). This is bolstered by policy responses coordinated by the African Union Chairperson and (3) forms of inter-regional pandemic governance that are being developed between ECOWAS and the African Union. Against this backdrop, we briefly develop a more conceptual argument on the relevance and nature of inter-regional cooperation between the African Union and ECOWAS. First, when compared to other world regions, interlocking forms of regionalism have allowed many African governments to respond to Covid-19 early on. In view of poorly equipped national health systems, and an array of other demanding challenges, early responses have at least bought affected states time to prepare national health systems, start mutual learning and organize international assistance – despite all shortcomings that still exist. Second, regional crisis response has been an opportunity to (re)negotiate the division of labor between the African Union and ECOWAS, which has been already ongoing in the area of governance, peace and security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text asks how Europe and Latin America/Caribbean responded to the virus COVID-19 and addressed the challenges for public health. Consequently, we identify five regional governance gaps and explore their application during the management of the pandemic: information and knowledge, norms and principles, public policies, institutions and material resources. From a comparative perspective, we analyse in a two separated sections if the regional governance in the EU and Latin America/Caribbean in these areas increased (or not). Finally, we emphasize similarities and differences and explain the causes behind the diverse evolution of the collective management of the pandemic in both regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU’s 2015 new trade strategy: Trade for all: toward a more responsible trade and investment policy, highlights its key role in keeping markets open worldwide and lists the Asia-Pacific region as the priority party for signing Regional Trade Arrangements (RTAs) with the EU. The new strategy allows the EU and its member states to initiate talks on economic cooperation agreement (ECA) with Taiwan. This article takes the EU-Asia interregional cooperation as a case study while exploring the role of Taiwan in the region. The first section describes the shift in EU’s trade policies and the special features of the types of interregionalism between the EU and Asia. The second section explores the bilateral trade relations. The third section evaluates the opportunities and the internal and external challenges and limitations of an EU-Taiwan ECA, emphasizing the factor of mainland China. The final section provides conclusions on the influence of an EU-Taiwan ECA on the relations of EUTaiwan considering economic and non-economic factor

This article assesses EU–Africa inter‐regionalism and the reception of EU norms by African actors, by investigating the relations between the European Parliament (EP) and the Pan‐African Parliament (PAP). By exploring this interparliamentary dialogue, the article draws attention to the contradictions of African perceptions on European integration, which is simultaneously seen as an inspiration and a neo‐imperialist project. The EP was considered a role model to the PAP and was also one of its main supporters. However, European involvement in African issues has not always been regarded as positive. Post‐colonial and pan‐African discourses found in African statements have reinforced their resistance to European engagement in African politics. After discussing these ambivalent narratives on the EU, this article addresses the way that these perceptions impact on AU–EU inter‐regional relations, arguing that these mixed views towards the Europeans have undermined the diffusion of EU norms and the levels of trust in this relationship, preventing the joint Africa–Europe strategy from attaining its ambitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2015 Paris Agreement adopted at the twenty-first Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) constitutes a major landmark in the combat against climate change. However, international climate governance and the climate deal have been confronted with concerns about their legitimacy and accountability. In the same vein, while the combat against climate change also takes centre stage in the EU's inter-regional relations, the EU's approach has suffered from democratic deficits as well. Literature on parliamentary diplomacy and interregionalism has pointed at the potential of inter-parliamentary assemblies' monitoring and deliberation functions in addressing the legitimacy gap of intergovernmental agreements. This article puts the focus on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean and climate change, and analyses to what extent and how the Assembly fulfills these monitoring and deliberation functions. In doing so, the article aims to examine how inter-parliamentary assemblies can contribute to the legitimacy of the EU's inter-regional approach to climate change. The analysis is based on quantitative and qualitative text analysis, in-depth semi-structured interviews and participatory observation. The conclusion reads that, while the Parliamentary Assembly of the UfM (PA-UfM) has indeed used its monitoring and deliberative functions, there are several limitations related to the asymmetry between the EU and its Southern and Eastern Mediterranean partner countries, that hamper its potential contribution to add legitimacy to the Union for the Mediterranean's (UfM) climate action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to analyse the policy trajectory of the inter-regional plans to establish a common space in higher education (HE) involving the European Union (EU) and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) regions. Although both regions developed different formats of higher education cooperation programmes, it was in 1999 that an institutionalised bi-regional dialogue appeared – and HE was defined as a strategic partnership. In November 2000, ministers of education on both sides of the Atlantic launched the largest HE project to date: the EU-LAC (ALCUE) HE Common Area, involving 60 HE systems. Understanding (inter-)regional HE policies as an expression of global education policies, I conducted a historical analysis of this inter-regional policy from 2000 until 2018 using Roger Dale's framework of pluri-scalar governance of education. The tracing of the events since 1999 helped unveil the mechanisms of changes in this inter-regional policy. As a result, I was able to differentiate between two moments in the policy process: the ALCUE Project (2000–2008) and the EU-CELAC dialogue (2010–2018). Results point to the defining role of the EU in shaping the inter-regional dialogue in terms of regional mandate and actorness. The research shows that the advent of CELAC as a regional actor in Latin America in 2010 has strengthened the role of the EU in defining the inter-regional HE project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising powers are evolving centres for varieties of conflict as well as development. With a focus on the complexities of the Horn of Africa, we juxtapose Jan Nederveen Pieterse1 on what is rising - States? Inter-regionalisms? Diasporas? Economies? Companies? New technologies? - with the late Jim Hentz2 on non-traditional security (NTS) challenges on the continent. NTS factors include fragile states/ungoverned spaces, migrations and viruses, which continue to undermine contemporary state and governance structures inside and around Africa. In turn, NTS challenges demand alternative and creative ways to address them. We show how the Horn of Africa illustrates all these and other emergent factors in differing proportions over time, including the diversity of diasporas, both intra- and extra-regional. Further, we argue that rising powers internal and regional transnational tensions could impact human security for the foreseeable future. Thus, affecting the prospects for meeting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regionalisation of the world economy is one of the most important developments in global governance in the past two decades. This process has seen ‘inter-regional’ economic agreements emerge between two or more regional groupings. Drawing mainly on the European Union’s external relations, observers accordingly point to the growing importance of regional actors, explaining their agency (or ‘actorness’) with regional attributes such as (supranational) institutional design, size, and member state cohesion. This article challenges this dominant explanation of regional agency. It argues that regional actors are socially, politically, and historically ‘embedded’. Agency reflects the contingency of regional integration processes, the motivations that underpin those processes, and the specific relationships between regions and third parties. This approach explains an important case of inter-regionalism from the Asia-Pacific: CER-ASEAN relations. Since the early 1990s, Australia and New Zealand have used their ‘Closer Economic Relations’ trade agreement for relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. This reflects the ambitions of Australasian officials to shape processes of Asian-Pacific regionalism, and the interests of ASEAN officials in consolidating their own process of transnational market-making. Here, regional agency owed to a transforming world economy and the reconceptualisation of regions within new networks of trade governance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article comments on the special issue from a political science perspective. It starts with an attempt at interpreting the contributions from a diffusion perspective. The articles show a sophisticated understanding of diffusion as “interdependent decision-making”, that is multi- rather than uni-directional, focuses on diffusion as a process (not an outcome), and takes a decidedly agency-centered view. The article then highlights some of the empirical findings in this special issue. This concerns, among others, the crucial role of the Council of Europe (CoE) as a laboratory for generating new policy ideas and an agenda-setter, as well as the equally important function of the various parliamentary assemblies as mechanisms by which policy ideas diffuse. At the same time, there is also a power story in this special issue. The EC ultimately dominates the processes in most policy areas. The article concludes with remarks on the fruitfulness of an interdisciplinary dialogue between historians and social scientists as documented by this special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While some authors have suggested that theoretical contributions to the study of inter-regionalism mostly lack sufficient empirical proof, this article shows that there is ample evidence to support key prepositions of all three schools of thought in the debate (neorealism, liberal institutionalism and social constructivism). Existing cooperation mechanisms in Europe-Asia relations are not just ‘talking shops’ but fulfil important functions in the international system. However, the main shortcoming of the inter-regionalism discourse to-date is its analytical one-eye blindness: the political realities of inter-regional cooperation are reduced to interactions between the two region’s foreign policy elites and have a strong focus on dialogue fora such as ASEM. The article explains that the promotion of good regional governance, economic integration and peace-building through development assistance (ODA) is the more effective part of the European Union’s (EU) foreign relations with East Asia as compared to high-level diplomacy in the framework of ASEM or the official EU-ASEAN dialogue.

Colombian relations with European Union on the issue of illicit drugs are mediated by the « Diálogo Especializado de Alto Nivel entre la Unión Europea y la Comunidad Andina sobre drogas », of which Colombia currently occupies the vice presidency. The underlying question that this articles tries to address is how cooperation between these two regional blocks contributes to combatting the illicit drug problem. The general orientations of the international political control structure for illicit drugs is presented, as well as the antidrug policies of the Andean Community and the European Union. Next, the actors, mechanisms and instruments used by the Euroandean dialoue on illicit drugs are presented in order to examine their dynamics and functions as an inter-regional space.

South Africa and the European Union (EU) have a longstanding relationship. Their interaction has evolved through various phases, characterised simultaneously by ambitious partnerships coupled with a degree of wariness. As international dynamics change and Africa becomes an increasingly crucial player in global politics, the relationship between the EU and South Africa exerts a host of influences on how Africa and Europe relate to each other. This article discusses the evolution of EU–South Africa relations and highlights direct and indirect influences that this relationship has on the inter-regional partnership between Africa and Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inter-regionalism refers to regular forms of cooperation between regions or actors from different regions and is a result of the parallel phenomena of globalization and regionalism. Inter-regional links are rapidly developing all around the world and form a new level of global governance. Though originally inter-regionalism typically connected the actors of the so-called Triad, today emerging economies and developing regions are more active and visible participants of inter-regional cooperation. The article examines the perspectives and limitations of inter-regional relations between China and Latin America as a new dimension of deepening Sino-Latin American relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, the inter-regional mechanism which was initiated primarily as a combination of India’s Look East Policy and Thailand’s Look West Policy, need to be reviewed in terms of achievements and difficulties faced so far as it has already completed first 16 years of existence. This article aims to identify its shortfalls and positive aspects in order to understand its potential, if there are any. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Journalists, academics and politicians portray the European Union and China as unitary actors that follow coherent strategies towards ‘Africa’. These perceptions help in turn to sustain a discourse of geopolitical competition: the EU and China are presented as bitter rivals of a new ‘Cold War’. This ‘new scramble for Africa’ narrative is an illusion. Despite official declarations, Brussels’ ties with ‘Africa’ are only a small part of a complex web of relationships. Moreover, China’s presence in Africa is far less monolithic than outside observers assume. However, these flawed perceptions are quite persistent because they serve the ambitions and interests of governing elites. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article intends to look at the role of the EU during the post-Cold War period, as an external factor encouraging regional cooperation in South-Eastern Europe and the protection of individuals both as victims and as sources of insecurity. The paper analyses the implementation of the Stability Pact and the Stabilization and Association Process as clear manifestations of asymmetrical inter-regionalism. It also examines the whole process of the Regional Cooperation Council and argues that it should be considered as a case of ‘sub-regionalism through inter-regionalism’ which could be named dependencia sub-regionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The partnership agreement between Brazil and the European Union challenges the inter-regionalism movement started by the EU and may not correspond to the interests of Mercosur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]