This book develops the idea that since decolonisation, regional patterns of security have become more prominent in international politics. The authors combine an operational theory of regional security with an empirical application across the whole of the international system. Individual chapters cover Africa, the Balkans, CIS Europe, East Asia, EU Europe, the Middle East, North America, South America, and South Asia. The main focus is on the post-Cold War period, but the history of each regional security complex is traced back to its beginnings. By relating the regional dynamics of security to current debates about the global power structure, the authors unfold a distinctive interpretation of post-Cold War international security, avoiding both the extreme oversimplifications of the unipolar view, and the extreme deterritorialisations of many globalist visions of a new world disorder. Their framework brings out the radical diversity of security dynamics in different parts of the world.

Regional organizations are an inescapable feature of global politics. Virtually all countries in the world are members of at least one regional or other intergovernmental organization. The involvement of international organizations in the realm of regional peace and security, and their cooperation in this domain with the United Nations, has reached an unprecedented level. Regional organizations have traditionally been formed around economic, political, or environmental objectives, however, over the last decades these organizations have gradually penetrated into the security sphere and developed their capacities in conflict prevention, peacekeeping, or post-war reconstruction. In Europe, Africa, Asia, or the Americas, regional and other intergovernmental organizations have been concurrently empowered by the UN and their own member states to maintain peace and security. Despite suffering from important discrepancies in both their mandates and capacities, regional organizations have become indisputable actors that play a role from the outbreak of a crisis to the reconstruction efforts in the aftermath of a conflict Presenting the most up-to-date critical and comparative analysis of the major regional security institutions, assessing a wide range of regional organizations and providing an accessible and comprehensive guide to 11 key organizations, this book is the first systematic study of the capacities of the most recognized intergovernmental organizations with a security mandate. Regional Security is essential reading for all students of international organizations, peace and security studies and global governance.

A compelling study of the interaction between regional agencies and the UN Security Council that includes a proposal for a regional-global security mechanism, which should be of interest to policy makers worldwide. This ground-breaking exploration into how peace and security might best be attained in the 21st century, its central message is the importance of realizing UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's vision of a "regional-global security mechanism" within the next decade. The book reviews the historical tussle between universalism and regionalism as the cornerstone of international security over the past century, culminating in the "new regionalism" that has characterised international relations in recent decades. The complexities of contemporary regional, sub-regional and other organizations, blessed and burdened with overlapping membership, evolving mandates, and even shifting "focal areas" are analysed. The "multidimensional phenomenon" of regional security is explored--cultural, political and legal--with a view to understanding how regional organizations work today. This book is one of those rare offerings--a policy-oriented prescription for peace and security that is based on factual analysis and creative reasoning. It is a must for national diplomats, regional officials, and international civil servants.

Subsequent chapters analyze the dynamics of interstate conflict in the Third World, the role of Third World countries in the international system, and, especially, the critical impact of the end of the Cold War on the Third World security problematic. Ayoob concludes with a set of explanations intended to help students, scholars, and policymakers decipher the continuing profusion of conflicts in the Third World and the trends and problems that will likely dominate well into the twenty-first century.

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism - the first of its kind - offers a systematic and wide-ranging survey of the scholarship on regionalism, regionalization, and regional governance. Unpacking the major debates, leading authors of the field synthesize the state of the art, provide a guide to the comparative study of regionalism, and identify future avenues of research. Twenty-seven chapters review the theoretical and empirical scholarship with regard to the emergence of regionalism, the institutional design of regional organizations and issue-specific governance, as well as the effects of regionalism and its relationship with processes of regionalization. The authors explore theories of cooperation, integration, and diffusion explaining the rise and the different forms of regionalism. The handbook also discusses the state of the art on the world regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Eurasia, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Various chapters survey the literature on regional governance in major issue areas such as security and peace, trade and finance, environment, migration, social and gender policies, as well as democracy and human rights. Finally, the handbook engages in cross-regional comparisons with regard to institutional design, dispute settlement, identities and communities, legitimacy and democracy, as well as inter- and transregionalism.

This book explains cooperative and confrontational regional orders in the post-Cold War era. Applying a push-and-pull framework to the evolution of regional orders, the book’s theoretical section compares regional dynamics and studies the transformation and authority of governing arrangements among key regional actors who manage security and institutional cooperation. This presents a novel approach to comparing non-Western regional orders, and helps forge a better integration between International Relations disciplinary approaches and area studies. The empirical section analyzes Central Eurasia and South America within the period 1989-2017, using case studies and interviews with decision-makers, practitioners and experts. The volume demonstrates that soft engagement strategies from extra-regional great powers and internationalist domestic coalitions framed in a stable democratic polity are forces for peaceful interaction, while hard engagement strategies from great external powers plus nationalist coalitions within democratic backsliding in key regional powers present negative outlooks for regional cooperation. This book will be of much interest to students of regional security, comparative politics, area studies and International Relations.