Regions and Regionalism in Global Politics

Introduction – One View
The concept of Regionalism has continued to grow, we can now unite and unify regions together to improve their political and economic agreements, the overall effect of this is to strengthen and stabilize globalization.
The revival of old regionalists and the creation of new ones allows us to divide a state into smaller nations, this then gives us a better picture and greater transparency. Not everyone has the same ideology, views, values and beliefs and if we were to leave a state as a whole nation it could give rise to allegations of misconduct and corruption, but unity also isn’t guaranteed if you were to split the state into smaller sections. But there is the increased likelihood of unequal parity and rising tensions as there are so many smaller states within the nation that want to be heard and they all have different views and opinions on how they would like things to be handled. It is a fine balancing act to bring together so many people with different views and needs to be handled sensitively and diplomatically.
Africa – Regional Economic Organization
The African Economic Community (AEC)
As a regional organization the AEC wants to enhance their economic development, based on their own rules, standards and principles, but they need to be capable of making their regionalism globalized if they wish to be successful and seen as a major contender in global politics, although the AEC is pivotal part of Africa’s regional integration; global progress has been slow as continued issues in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia have made democratic consolidation and sustained communications globally very fragile.
Africa’s international economic trade agreements remain steady but they are pushing for better internal integration over global integration; their governments are backing more and more regional organizations with the aim to first better the country, their democratic roots and institutions from within before branching out internationally.
Africa – Regional Security Organization
The Eastern Africa Standby Force
By 2015 EASF aims to have finalized the operations for an integrated regional and continental security standby force that will be able to respond to a wide range of crisis within African continent.
As a regional organization they have the member states best interests at heart and can work closely with them to gain a better understanding of any situation that arises. With them only being regionalized they will only respond to the African nations conflicts and issues, African leaders felt it necessary to regionalize this African organization as they felt that there were complex challenges threatening the stability and security of their continent, and they didn’t want outside nations challenging their decisions and operations and risking the security and safety of their people.

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Their impact on global politics is a positive move towards cohesive crisis management not only in Africa but across the other continents. This is one of many regional organizations unlike the AEC that I think should remain regional as it will work with greater effect rather than globalizing the organization and spreading its resources to thinly that they can’t do what they were conceived to do, and in retaining their regionalism it means that they don’t figure on the global political scale, but the other continents can see what they are doing and achieving and work with them to develop their own security task force.
Asia – Regional Economic Organization
The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO)
The success of the ECO is dependent on their member states, whilst the status and power of the ECO is improving their member states are struggling economically as they lack the basic and correct geographical factors like appropriate infrastructures, sustainable land, and economic factors like poor intra-regional trade agreements and the full cooperation of some regional and international organizations which they need to be able to make greater use of the resources and materials they have, and promote better regional and international relations.
To allow political and economic integration of this regional organization to a global scale they need to be able to be able to show that they have good governance, improved education reform, investing in social improvements, and extensive knowledge of the economy, but the ECO has some very powerful member states, Turkmenistan possess the world’s fourth-largest reserves of natural gas and substantial oil resources (“About Turkmenistan,” ) and Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have gas fields and a pipe line that connects with China. Continued issues with Afghanistan and the Wests mistrust of Iran has prevented outside people investing in economically struggling areas. Political tension with nations states outside of the ECO are causing strained relations within the political field, this doesn’t necessarily have to impact on the ECO but improving those relations could lead to more members joining the ECO and forging better international relations.
Asia – Regional Security Organization
ASEAN Regional Forum(ARF)
The ARF uses a process of official and non-official diplomacy, this make it unique as an international organization because they then have a two pronged approach to the regional political issues and the security issues and their developments. The associated members have the resources via a forum to discuss current security concerns and work together to enhance the overall security and peace within the region.
This organization has a massive impact on global politics and the overall unity of the world; in participating its members have the opportunity to discuss ways to resolve situations without unwanted interference, armed or otherwise, from others, this allows for a greater chance of resolving any security issues through political dialogue and without force being used. To date no armed confrontation has occurred since the ARF was established over 30 years ago. If security issues can be resolved through medication and without the need for conflict management then that country will have increased power within the political world as they will show that they are willing to discuss and negotiate for a peaceful solution.
Positive or Negative
Regionalism can segregate nations and regions, and can cause unhealthy corrupt alliances, but by allowing the unilateral presence of nation state organizations to prosper they can create a positive and productive playing field that will raise their affectivity in Global politics field.
In my opinion, the ever changing and expending world of politics means that, the more regions that are integrated into regional organization then the greater the chance we have of globally and politically effecting change. The more alliances a country can have the more prospects and opportunities it will gain. I see regionalism as neither positive or negative as there are aspects to regionalism that can fall into both categories and most out way the others.
International politics is a finely balanced game of whom you can win as allies and who you can succeed as enemies. Our world is constantly changing and unlikely nations are forming alliances in the hope of achieving global sustenance within the international community, only time will tell if these alliances will be able to work effectively or whether new groups will form and break away from our current international field and attempt to create their own One World Government.
References
About Turkmenistan. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dragonoil.com/our-operations/turkmenistan/about-turkmenistan/