1. World sub-regions according to United Nations Statistics Division GEOG 220 – Geopolitics

2. 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

3. Region as classification of space by government or official agencies Region as spatial consciousness of individuals and communities

4. 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

5. What is regionalism? Ideas and practices that conceive of politics, economics, and identity in regional rather than ‘national’ terms – Trade organizations – Defense – Governance

6. 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

7. List two regions in the neighbourhood …

8. Regional political movement: Cascadia

9. Regional Trade Agreement: North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

10. Views on regionalism  ‘Old regionalism’: seeking representation and secession  ‘New regionalism’: economic integration and administrative functions

11. Supra-state regions

12. 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

13. 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

14. ‘The point of “doing” the region is not ultimately to divide the world into regions and rest content. It is rather[..] to engage in classifying and modelling geographical phenomena so as to generate questions about their variability and functioning with respect to other phenomena’ ‘region as a medium and outcome of social practices and relations of power that are operative multiple spatial and temporal scales, among which the region might serve as a kind of fix’ Entry on REGION, pp 630-632 ‘The point of “doing” the region is not ultimately to divide the world into regions and rest content. It is rather[..] to engage in classifying and modelling geographical phenomena so as to generate questions about their variability and functioning with respect to other phenomena’ Entry on REGION, pp 630-632

15. 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’

16. 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

17. 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 state- centered politics – Reproduction of political tensions between the governing and the governed – Decentralization can aggravate factors in the quality of institutions