The unintended consequences of interregionalism: effects on regional actors, societies and structures

The Unintended Consequences of Interregionalism: Effects on Regional Actors, Societies and Structures is an edited volume that offers an alternative perspective to studies on interregionalism. Today, the regional world order is defined around regional pools, however, regional groups and regional organizations are gaining more prominent positions in the international order. Indeed, along with nation-states, regional groups and organizations are acquiring an “actor” role for themselves by establishing diplomatic and economic ties with their counterparts in different regions. This is not a new phenomenon, as the interregional dialogue between regional groups in different parts of the world has been witnessing a resurgence since the 1990s, accompanied by many studies that seek to define and analyze them. That said, most of the existing works on the topic adopt a deductive approach and have a Euro-centric focus, and tend to highlight whether the interregional dialogues achieved their intended goals. The Unintended Consequences of Interregionalism breaks these norms by approaching the topic inductively, while also considering myriad regionalisms, addressing the fact that different regions produce distinct “regionalisms”, and, therefore, a plethora of “interregionalisms” exist. The edited volume presents a unique perspective – one that grapples with the unintended outcomes of interregional interactions.