Regionalism

Not-guilty verdicts, mistrials, and impunity for the Bundy family and many of their supporters in the armed confrontations over public land use in Nevada and Oregon. Expanded access for private oil, gas, mining, and logging industries and the downsizing of national monuments such as Bears Ears lead by Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. A number of highly contentious debates and sensationalized events have again focused attention on land held in the public domain by the United States. This essay argues that federal land policy as a form of colonial administration has been constitutive for the logic of expectation as property in what is now the United States. From the state land cessions negotiated on behalf of the Articles of Confederation to the preemption acts (1830–1841) to the homestead acts (1862–1916) to present-day demands for land transfer, the acquisition and disposal of the so-called public domain have been central to westward colonization, the consolidation of the nation-state, and the promise of land ownership as the ostensible foundation of individual liberty. These dynamics are evident in contemporary conflicts over public lands and arguments for the transfer of public lands to either state or private ownership. Approaching the Bundy occupations as flashpoints that illuminate competing interpretations and claims to land within the history of westward colonization, this essay seeks to demonstrate the ways in which expectation emerges from particular economies of dispossession of indigenous peoples that have historically worked through and across the division of public and private property.

Le Royaume ambitionne d’être reconnu comme une puissance africaine émergente dans son identité comme dans son espace de projection. Afin de satisfaire ces ambitions, l’appareil diplomatique se développe et se modernise, tandis qu’une identité de rôle singulière émerge autour de la notion de « juste milieu ». Cette étude présente, sur le plan empirique, les conditions de l’élaboration et de la conduite de cette politique africaine, et analyse, sur le plan théorique, l’évolution de l’identité de rôle marocaine à l'échelle internationale.

This study examines the role of political factors in attitudes toward World War II in contemporary Ukraine. The question under examination is which factors determine public views of the principal warring sides and their leaders in Ukraine. This paper uses a representative national survey specifically designed for this research project and conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in 2012. It analyzes the roles of regionalism, political party preferences, ethnicity, language, age, and sex in attitudes toward the Red Army, Soviet partisans, the German Army (Wehrmacht), and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) during the war, as well as toward the wartime leaders of the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and the UPA. The analysis of the survey data shows that regional values, political party preferences, ethnicity, language, and age have significant effects on views of the Soviet Army and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army during the war and attitudes toward the wartime activities of Joseph Stalin and Roman Shukhevych. Public perceptions of the German Army and Adolf Hitler in Ukraine do not vary much across regions, political parties, and ethnic, language, age, and sex groups.

La publicación que presentamos busca dar cuenta sobre la crisis estructural que atraviesa Venezuela, la cual se refleja en la tragedia humanitaria que vive su población, en la destrucción de su aparato productivo y en el desmonte de sus instituciones políticas, lo que le ha dado paso a un régimen autoritario que viola sistemática y flagrantemente los derechos humanos de sus ciudadanos. Las consecuencias de tan grave crisis han traspasado las fronteras de los países vecinos y ha impactado a toda la región. Venezuela es percibida hoy como una fuente de inestabilidad que puede poner en peligro la seguridad regional. Al mismo tiempo, Venezuela se ha convertido en un tablero geopolítico y geoeconómico de la grandes potencias, en donde Estados Unidos, Rusia y China han venido desplegando sus estrategias para velar sus intereses. De cara a la complejidad de la crisis venezolana y sus consecuencias domésticas, regionales y globales, esta obra reflexiona sobre el carácter multidemensional de los retos e impactos que ello representa para los propios venezolanos y la comunidad internacional tanto en el presente como en un futuro cercano.

Despite a growing number of specific comparisons of selected aspects of regionalism (especially regarding regional institutions and the role of power) in selected regions (particularly in the Triad: Europe, East Asia and North America), there is virtually no systematic debate regarding the fundamentals of comparison, such as “what to compare”, “how to compare” or “why compare”. Consequently, the purpose of this chapter is to contribute to the general discussion about “the problem of comparison” in the study of regionalism and regional integration. It does not attempt a detailed empirical comparison of a set of pre-defined regions according to a fixed set of variables. The chapter will provide an overview of the state of comparative regional integration and regionalism, an outline of the main debates and controversies, and a discussion of the state of the research field and directions in which it ought to be moving.

The period of the eighties is the main subject of my story. The aim is to analyze the crisis in the functioning of the Belgian State and society, which culminated at the end of 1985, and to provide background facts. This is a crisis that has so far been little analyzed. Reasoning back from that crisis can only be properly discerned the various elements that have dragged society along in today's very deep and almost hopeless crisis.
A few facts that should indicate the situation at the end of 1985 ... A whole series of factors come together and interact. First, there is a dynamic, but mainly pacifist mobilization of the young people for peace; a mobilization that at that time mainly revolves around whether or not to place American cruise missiles in Belgium. In the period October 1984-December 1985 an organization emerged that presented itself as an extreme left, the Cellules Comunistes Combattentes. It commits acts of violence, attacks that were not aimed at people, but which nevertheless involve a victim. The CCC comes out of nowhere, is said to come from extreme left-wing circles and consists of no more than 6 to 10 people. They ensure that violence is increasingly the subject of public debate. At the end of 1985, 4-5 persons responsible for the attacks they claimed were arrested.
At the same time an even more serious social drama occurs. In the first half of the eighties, a destabilization of the state takes place in all kinds of areas. A climate of tension is created. This tension among the entire population is mainly borne by people who have remained unknown to this day, who have gradually become known as the "Gang of Nijvel. There, too, a spiral of violence that has certainly occurred from 1983 onwards, and it is no coincidence that it reached its peak at the end of 1985. There is talk of terror, of apparently criminal violence, which in its methodology and in its timing pointing to political aims down to the smallest detail.
[...] In the first half of the eighties a third phenomenon occurs. In line with the Cold War, the Belgian government consulted the ally in the USA. Some of the best investigators from the Belgian police world (gendarmerie and judicial police) were sent to the US to receive training in undercover work. This training had a dramatic effect. As in many other European countries, they were given a training that only fit within the framework of American law. That American law permits far more than is customary in any other European democracy. The trained people came back with a formidable education that only suited the American context, but was totally illegal in the Belgian framework In Belgium, it is not allowed to proceed to arrests by provocation, ie by inciting to commit a crime.
[..] The dynamics that the Belgian state has shown recently lay in a completely different field, namely in the field of decentralization to absorb the contradictions between the Flemish and the Walloon communities as well as the uneven economic development between the industrialized, traditionally socialist south and the Flemish north where wealth accumulated more and more, while the traditional industrial structure in Wallonia has entered a very deep crisis. This uneven development has forced the state to a very far-reaching decentralization, which in the minds of some should end in secession (as the Lega Nord wants in Italy). It is mainly the extreme right that is aiming for this.
The "Vlaams Blok/Flemish Block" systematically conducts a political offensive that has only one goal: to abolish democracy by means of the detour of splitting Belgium into two pieces. When one sees in this development what is left of essential functions of the old unitary state - and these are in the first place justice, internal affairs, police services, military - then it must be concluded that it is precisely those sectors of the old state structures that are subject to a deep crisis; a crisis that poses a major threat to democracy.
What alternative is left to the old unitary structures now that the attention of politicians and the population is shifting more towards the new regional structures; now that the old state has been undermined by the anti-democratic forces of the Cold War, while the formation of the new regional states is partly driven by the extreme right; an extreme right that puts the theme of nationalism at the center of the propaganda and the aversion to everything that for them is not proper to the nation with all the discriminatory undertones that entails. Belgium faces a dilemma and a complex situation that is partly the result of what went wrong in a number of Western democracies as a result of what has been called the Cold War.

In a crisis scenario caused by the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemics, a number of social, political, and economic vulnerabilities, which were coming up in the past few years, are aggravated. This set of vulnerabilities do not limit itself to a local reality, since it exposes some deficiencies at the national and international levels. Regional mechanisms for integration and multilateralism, promoted by international organizations, have been an option used as countries are facing the virus. The exchange of information and data about infected people worldwide, the development of a cure, or even a vaccine have been at the top of international institutions' discussion agenda, and the Southeast Asian countries apparently do the same.

El impacto mundial de la pandemia de COVID-19 no es todavía ponderable; sin embargo, es factible identificar las variables principales que actualmente definen la evolución del entorno estratégico. A partir de ellas, se pueden establecer escenarios prospectivos globales y analizar su impacto especifico en Latinoamérica.

Este trabalho se propõe a analisar a política externa brasileira voltada a integração regional do Brasil, a partir do prisma do seu smart power, de forma a promover a cooperação e interdependência entre os Estados. Assim, também busca-se compreender a necessidade de buscar novas formas de influência e liderança na América Latina, redefinindo as estratégias tradicionais de cooperação. Inicialmente, será feito um breve histórico a respeito da integração regional latino-americana e das iniciativas de política externa brasileiras em relação a esta. Em seguida, a análise da integração regional será direcionada ao âmbito do smart power brasileiro, de maneira a investigar como essa atuação poderia favorecer as inciativas de integração brasileiras. Por fim, pretende-se fazer uma análise e indicativo acerca das ações da política externa brasileira para a integração regional nos últimos anos, além de responder a seguinte pergunta problema: como o smart power brasileiro poderia fortalecer a integração latino-americana e alçar o Brasil como expoente na liderança regional? No trabalho, apresenta-se que o Brasil, na hipótese de valer-se do smart power como estratégia de política externa para definir seu papel de líder regional, poderia potencializar os resultados da integração, promovendo uma cooperação mais efetiva na busca pela interdependência entre os Estados. No entanto, devido ao protagonismo econômico que exerce frente aos blocos regionais e ao papel de destaque que ainda dá às intenções de projeção internacional, o país é visto muitas vezes como uma “ameaça” ao desenvolvimento dos outros países da região. É nesse sentido que se observa que a política externa do Brasil, ainda que orientada para a integração regional, dispõe de estratégias e recursos – como o fortalecimento do smart power nas estratégias de política externa – para potencializar os avanços de integração e tornar-se um líder regional efetivo, em busca de mais realizações na integração e desenvolvimento da América Latina.

In recent years, there has been a resurgence of regionalism and regional initiatives in the Southwest Pacific, driven primarily by the Australian government. There is little doubt that the new regionalism has largely been prompted by the Australian government's realigned security agenda following the September 11 and Bali terrorist attacks, and broader concerns about 'non-traditional' security risks. However, what is novel about this recent drive for regionalism in the Southwest Pacific is that rather than constituting a transformation of the interstate terrain, it is primarily aimed at the transformation of the state itself. The spaces where the new regionalism is found are mainly located within states. Earlier forms of regionalism, which to some extent continue to exist, typically involved intergovernmental agreements to facilitate freer trade or establish defence alliances between states. In contrast, the new regionalism constitutes various modes of multilevel governance that work to selectively dislodge the linkages between territory and political authority and/or jurisdiction, building transnational forms of regulation and surveillance into the state. This is not simply a descriptive issue but one that has considerable implications for our analysis of the social and political implications of such regional programs, as well as the kinds of coalitions emerging to support or resist these.

This book is a critical and multidisciplinary IPE of the unequal structures of South American development and uneven insertions in the global order following the decline of the commodities boom. The work explores the extent to which regional development issues are related to merely a decline of commodities´ prices and/or to the resilience of the historical structures within an unequal world order. Thus, the authors seek first to analytically explore the regional issues beyond the formal limitations of North American and Eurocentric approaches. Secondly, they empirically scrutinize the complex dimensions of regional inequality and global insertions. Aspects analysed include economic reprimarization, the impact of China, development finance, trade and regional value chains, knowledge and technology, regional and transnational organised crime, cities, economic integration and the Global South. Preface. Fredrik Söderbaum 1. The IPE Puzzle of Regional Inequality, Political Instability an...

This chapter focuses on uneven economic performance and on two dimensions of the evolving Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) forum. The first dimension is the gradual and persistent institutionalization of the bloc. The second dimension is the outreach process and its regional and global dilemmas. The critical position of BRICS regarding global neoliberalism contrasts with the political path adopted by Brazil since the coup in August 2016. Brazil has been applying severe austerity policies based on a neoliberal script, thus showing the intrinsic contradiction at the heart of the evolving institutional consolidation of BRICS. The final declaration reiterated the importance of international cooperation while stressing the need for reform of the international financial institutions to ensure that the systemic importance of the BRICS countries would be institutionally recognized. Certain tendencies are evident when it comes to institutional densification.

This paper is an overview of the shifts in the internal migration patterns in Romania for the last six decades. In the first part a literature-based brief overview of the trends and patterns of internal migration during communism will be presented. In the second (more extensive) part, a statistical-data based analysis of the internal migration trends and patterns over the last 25 years will be provided. The breakdown of the Romanian communist regime (in December 1989) was the beginning for a major change in the general demographic and socioeconomic context of the internal migration and regime of the Romanian internal migration control. In terms of the demographic context, the period of the communist regime was characterised by relatively high (though territorially significantly differentiated) fertility rates and overall population increase. In socioeconomic terms, industrialisation and the subsequent urbanisation give rise to a significant and dynamic context of migratory opportunities and subsequent flows of internal mobility. Nevertheless the migratory processes emerged in this particular demographic and socioeconomic context were to large extent controlled by the state, and, since external migration was very limited, occurring within the national territory. The means of internal migration control during communism During the communist period, the state closely controlled the labour market, and via economic investment policies and by various administrative procedures, not just stimulated but to some extent pointed the tracks for the internal mobility paths. Especially in the initial phase of the communist industrialisation process, major industrial settings were established in regions with existing infrastructure. Since these customarily were not located in regions with high fertility rates, substantial migratory movement from less developed to more prosperous regions were induced (Turnock 1970).

Global supply chain integration is not only a rapidly growing feature of international trade, it is responsible for fundamentally changing trade policy at international and domestic levels. Given that final goods are produced with both domestic and foreign suppliers, Ka Zeng and Xiaojun Li argue that global supply chain integration pits firms and industries that are more heavily dependent on foreign supply chains against those that are less dependent on intermediate goods for domestic production. Hence, businesses whose supply chain would be disrupted as a result of increased trade barriers should lobby for preferential trade liberalization to maintain access to those foreign markets. Moreover, businesses whose products are used in the production of goods in foreign countries should also support preferential trade liberalization to compete with suppliers from other parts of the world.
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Fragmenting Globalization uses multiple methods, including time series, cross-sectional analysis of the pattern of Preferential Trade Alliance formation by existing World Trade Organization members, a firm-level survey, and case studies of the pattern of corporate support for regional trade liberalization in both China and the United States. Zeng and Li show that the growing fragmentation of global production, trade, and investment is altering trade policy away from the traditional divide between export-oriented and import-competing industries.

Śladami ostatnich wędrujących pasterzy karpackich. Raport z wiosennego redyku rodziny Szczechowiczów (kwiecień 2018) W ostatnich latach pasterstwo przeżywa swoisty renesans w kulturze po-granicza polsko-słowackiego. Dzieje się tak za sprawą nowych projektów fi-nansowanych z funduszy europejskich, jak również samych pasterzy, którzy po okresie licznych utrudnień wobec tej profesji ze strony komunistycznych rządów różnych krajów wracają sami do tradycji "ojców i dziadów". Etnograficzne badania prowadzone w społecznościach lokalnych pokazują, że wiele współcześnie praktykowanych w nich zwyczajów związanych z pasterstwem przetrwało, zyskując nowe znaczenia, ale i przechowując stare, archaiczne treści kulturo-we. Owe pasterskie zwyczaje mają swoje odległe korzenie w zwyczajowym i określonym częściowo w statutach prawie wołoskim oraz w starych praktykach chrześcijańskich, a w istocie nawiązują też do jeszcze starszych, archaicznych praktyk przedchrześcijańskich. Pasterze wiążą ze swoją profesją rozmaite sensy, jednocześnie wplatając wiele elementów tradycji w cały system współczesnej kultury (lub odwrotnie-wiele elementów współczesnej kultury przenosząc do kultury tradycyjnej), co powoduje, że kultura pasterska staje się obecnie swoistym kolażem znaczeń i sensów, możliwych do odczytywania w różnych konfiguracjach. Aby przyjrzeć się współczesnemu pasterstwu, w dniach 19-26 kwietnia 2018 r. wyruszyłam wraz z rodziną Szczechowiczów z Ratułowa na Podhalu na wiosenny redyk-jako etnografka i badaczka pasterstwa miałam okazję podczas 6 dni marszu z 3 bacami i podbacami przeprowadzić około 500 owiec na trasie o długości 110 km z Podhala (wspomniany Ratułów) przez Orawę na Żywiecczyznę (Soblówka) 1. Moja decyzja spowodowana była badaniami, jakie od 2015 roku prowadzę w obszarze pasterstwa związanego z dziedzictwem kulturowym Wołochów, od Albanii do północnych Karpat. Badania te są częścią grantu NPRH "Wołosi w europejskiej i polskiej przestrzeni kulturowej. Osadnictwo 1 Podczas tego redyku rodzina Szczechowiczów nie tylko udzielała mi wszelkich informacji na temat pasterstwa, ale również pozwalała wykonywać większość codziennych czynności, takich jak: prowadzenie i naganianie owiec, opieka nad jagniętami, budowa koszaru, rozpakowywanie i pako-wanie dobytku na auto, prowadzenie samochodu w celu dowozu owiec i jagniąt. O znaczeniu tego wydarzenia oraz o nowych trendach w tradycjach pasterskich i zmienianiu się tożsamości pasterzy świadczą słowa samego bacy Tadeusza Szczechowicza seniora, które podkreślają dotychczasową nieobecność kobiet w redykach: ,,jak pani przejdzie z nami do Soblówki, to będzie historyczna chwila. Kobiety nie chodziły w redykach". Badania terenowe (dalej: BT), Tadeusz Szczechowicz senior, redyk wiosenny, kwiecień 2018.

Tracing the political development of the Chechen Republic since its secessionist movement in the 1990s, this essay illustrates that the Islamic republic has been gradually pacified and stabilized by unpeaceful means: Authoritarian Conflict Management (ACM) and subcontracting authoritarian governance to the de facto autonomous ruler Ramzan Kadyrov. Building on concepts by Max Weber, Immanuel Kant, and Johan Galtung, this essay acknowledges that the notions of stability and peace concern two dimensions: 1. federal Moscow-Chechnya relations, 2. Chechnya’s internal balance. Though both dimensions evidently stabilized on a basis of coercion (especially by the use of regional networks and the blood feud system by pro-Kremlin Kadyrov), the emerging institutional framework exposes sources of instability, as it depends on individual relationships. Democratic innovations would even pose a threat to this established stability. Additionally, social integration of Chechnya into the Federation might be hampered by ethnic nationalism and xenophobia in Russian society. On the Chechen side, a ‘Russian’ identity is fragile. The collective memory still remembers Russian repressions vividly. Quantitative figures suggest pacification alongside the negative definition of peace. However, the case of Chechnya indicates that positive definitions (e.g. by Galtung) cannot be measured dichotomously; structural violence characterizes Chechen society, but, at the same time, a certain form of social integration took place.

Nested Federalism and Inuit Governance in the Canadian Arctic traces the political journey toward self-governance taken by three predominantly Inuit regions over the past forty years: Nunavik in northern Québec, the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the western Northwest Territories, and Nunatsiavut in northern Labrador. The Canadian federal system was never designed to recognize Indigenous governance, and it has resisted formal institutional change. But change has come. Indigenous communities have successfully mobilized to negotiate the creation of self-governing regions. Policymakers and politicians have responded by situating almost all these regions politically and institutionally within existing constituent units of the Canadian federation. The varied governance arrangements emerging as a result are forms of nested federalism, a new and largely unexplored model of government that is transforming Canada as it reformulates the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the state. ...

В статье анализируется содержание терминов «Азиатско-Тихоокеанский» и «Индо-Тихоокеанский», их употребление (узус). Рассматриваются несколько уровней риторики, в первую очередь схоластический и официальный. Проводится сравнительный анализ особенностей использования обоих определений в научных текстах по общественно-политической тематике, а также в правительственных документах и речах политических деятелей. Работа построена на обширном материале на разных языках, включая восточные. Особое внимание уделено дискурсу стран, наиболее активно продвигающих в последнее время термин «Индо-Тихоокеанский».

Bu bölümde, kitabın okuyucular tarafından daha iyi anlaşılmasını sağlamak için kitaptaki bölümlerde geçen uluslararası ilişkiler kavramları başta olmak üzere bazı temel kavramlar açıklanmaya çalışılacaktır (açıklansın, açıklanmasın bu kitabı anlamada bazı önemli kavram ve kişiler, okuyucunun başka kaynaklardan da faydalanması amacıyla metin içerisinde koyu renkte gösterilmiştir). Daha sonra da kitaptaki bazı bölümlerden örnekler verilecektir. Böylece hem bu kavramların daha iyi anlaşılması hem de kitaptaki bölümler arasındaki bağlantıların okuyucu tarafından daha rahat kurulması amaçlanmaktadır. Ancak, okurun dikkatinden kaçmayacağı gibi, sosyal bilimlerin en zor ve en zevkli yönlerinden birisi çok önemli konularda bile temel tanımlar üzerinde çoğu zaman bir fikir birliğinin olmaması, aksine tamamen zıt görüşlerin bulunmasıdır. Bu kavramlar özü itibarıyla çekişmeli (essentially contested) kavramlardır . Örneğin bu durum, devlet, egemenlik, demokrasi, milli çıkar, terör gibi en temel kavramlar için de böyledir.

This article aims to provide a general picture of the patterns of regional inequalities in the Kingdom of Hungary before its dismemberment. It also compares the location of the economic peripheries with areas
dominated by national minorities and traces the changes in these patterns up until 2010 in modern Hungary and the successor states. We
hypothesise that beyond the issues about land, suffrage, and minority, the issue on regional differences should also be considered as these
might enhance or mitigate such differences, thereby either strengthening or weakening the internal cohesion of the state and the society.
The second part of the paper investigates whether regional differences diminished in the broader region due to the regional development policies of the successor states − considering that, unlike in the 1910s, both the regional development planning and the notion of ‘social equality’ became a central part of economic policies. To analyse the abovementioned questions, the GISta Hungarorum (1880–1910) database and the recent statistical data for Slovakia, Romania, and Hungary (2000–2010) were evaluated at settlement level.

En esencia, en el Mercosur se plantean varios problemas en torno a la efectividad de las instituciones creadas en los procesos regionales, de la aplicación y cumplimiento de las normas de derecho, y la dinámica multidimensional de la integración,
que sobrepasa a los intercambios comerciales y plantea desafíos comunes a los ciudadanos que los integran.

The world currently faces a number of challenges that no single country can solve. Whether it is managing a crisis-prone global economy, maintaining peace and stability, or trying to do something about climate change, there are some problems that necessitate collective action on the part of states and other actors. Global governance would seem functionally necessary and normatively desirable, but it is proving increasingly difficult to provide. This accessible introduction to, and analysis of, contemporary global governance explains what it is and the obstacles to its realization.  Paying particular attention to the possible decline of American influence and the rise of China and a number of other actors, Mark Beeson explains why cooperation is proving difficult, despite its obvious need and desirability.

The  challenges  that  official  migration  statistics face in the 21st century are manifold. In line with intensifying globalisation processes, and new patterns  and  types  of  migration,  new  routes  and new  migrant  identities  have  been  emerging. However,  the new trends also  offer  new, potentially usable data sources, tools, and methods for
the measurement of this changing phenomenon. Attempting to  provide  an  overview  of  the Hungarian migration statistical system, the aim of this paper  is  to  promote  interdisciplinary  scientific dialogue  on
migration  and share  some  of  the most  important  figures  and  trends  of  international  migration  in  Hungary,  highlighting  its  remarkable  geographical  aspects  in  the  European context,  and  the  peculiarities,  challenges,  and opportunities of its measurement.

El nivel intermedio de gobierno en un estado garantiza la articulación de las funciones estatales entre el centro y la periferia, y su adecuada configuración requiere adecuarse a la realidad del estado en que se encuentra. Colombia vivió una época de federalismo durante el siglo XIX, garantizando una elevada autonomía a los Estados que lo componían. Desde la constitución de 1886 y en la actual configuración territorial de la constitución de 1991 el nivel intermedio (ahora denominado departamento) ha perdido importancia y sus competencias se han reducido considerablemente. Los autores que hacen parte de la presente publicación analizaron, desde distintas perspectivas, el nivel intermedio en Colombia. Se revisó desde la necesidad de profundización y fortalecimiento de la actual configuración por departamentos, pasando por la posibilidad de crear regiones, hasta la constitución de un estado federal, tal como el que se tuvo en el siglo XIX.

También se destacan los análisis hechos sobre la época histórica del federalismo en Colombia, el municipio en el posconflicto y las regiones metropolitanas colombianas. Por último, se acude a otros ordenamientos jurídicos, los de Alemania, Brasil, España e Italia, para conocer sus experiencias sobre su configuración actual del nivel intermedio. Los estudios que componen esta obra son el fruto del foro internacional “Colombia, ¿unitaria o federal?”, que se llevó a cabo en la universidad externado de Colombia los días 30 y 31 de mayo de 2013.

This study deals with the issue of the so-called Spanish regionalism since the end of the nineteenth century to the last decade of twentieth century. This paper attempts to provide an analysis of Spanish transformation from centralized state to regional state and there are emphasized main features of two specific regions -Catalonia and Basque country (called historic regions) in the contrast to the rest of the Spanish state. The text is divided into two basic parts. The first one contains discussion on the regionalism since the end of the nineteenth century to the 1930s. The second one focuses on the Franco era and the period of transition and democracy consolidation until 1986. The author shows and argues there exist main differences between Catalonia and Basque country which distinguishes process of regionalism in these parts of Spain. As the most important factors influencing the regionalism have been identified especially language, economic development and religion. Conclusion estimates prospects of regionalism in connection with European integration and attempts to describe some long-standing features.

The 2020 Munich Security Conference (MSC) highlighted the external and internal security of the European integration project. The recent draft treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States on security guarantees and the proposed agreement on measures to ensure the security of the Russian Federation and the member states of NATO heralded a new stage of confrontation on the subject. The chapter draws on Central Asia as a focal region for the EU and EAEU security strategies in 2001-2020. It argues that the security policies of both unities are not efficient since they use the same postcolonial narrative and similar security imperatives for promoting specific values in Eurasia, exploit the 'civilizing-unifying' element of the great power for improving security and welfare perception. and thus impose themselves to help the dependent region. This half-step approach appears equally unsatisfactory for all parties involved and needs to be reviewed from subordinate to cooperative partnership.

Sub-regional cooperation is a nascent phenomenon in South Asia. Significant sub-regional cooperation frameworks in South Asia include the South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC), the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), the South Asian Growth Quadrangle (SAGQ) initiative and the Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal (BBIN) initiative. The objective of sub-regional cooperation is to ensure proper institutional mechanism in order to boost the quality of development particularly in sectors such as economic and connectivity among the member countries. The current trend of sub-regional cooperation proves that state’s political will and efforts have increased regarding sub-regional cooperation in South Asia. Although, most of the goals and targets remain on paper as they are facing crucial challenges such as bilateral disputes, leadership crisis, lack of good governance, implementation problem, etc. Given this context, the paper will investigate two key questions. First, why sub-regional process of cooperation has not been effective in South Asia? Second, what are the factors that can boost the sustainability of sub regional cooperation in South Asia and how? The paper advocates that the member states of sub-regional groups should act as soon as possible to implement the plans, programmes and activities that
they have adopted and undertake concerted efforts toward sustainable solution.
Keywords: Sub-regionalism, BIMSTEC, BBIN, SAGQ, SASEC