Contribution of macro-regions to the construction of peace: a framework for analysis

Abstract

Regionalism, a long-standing and established phenomenon in international relations, has gone over the last two decades through a process of reformulation, visible in the keenness demonstrated by political decision makers in implementing and participating in macroregional constructions and in the academic interest in conceptualizing the phenomenon through a broader and less orthodox agenda. The objective of this article is to investigate the link between the nascent regional architecture of the world and peace building. To answer the question ‘does regionalization contribute to peace?’ we introduce a multidimensional and heterogenous framework based upon five interrelated levels of integration, defined in terms of ‘regioness’. In the text we will highlight the agents of peace instruments and the characteristics of peace involved at each level of ‘regionness’.