Defensive Integration and Late Developers: The Gulf Cooperation Council and the Arab Maghreb Union

Abstract

In the late twentieth century, the world economy is experiencing a trend toward regional integration of national economies. This phe nomenon may be intimately related to the internationalization of trade and financial flows and concurrent pressures for liberalization. In the de veloping world in particular, integration can be viewed as a direct policy response to mounting pressures from the international economy and the as cendance of neoliberal thinking since the 1980s. Both the internationaliza tion of capital flows and the adoption of liberalization policies threaten to diminish state authority over national development strategies. Conceiv ably, regional cooperation can mitigate the uncertainties created by global economic pressures, allowing states to reclaim some control over compro mised aspects of economic sovereignty. This essay focuses on the under lying reasons for the formation of two cooperative arrangements among late developers: the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU).1 My hope is that examining these cases will shed light on the principal bases of the trend toward regionalization in the de veloping world. An analysis of these two cases suggests that external economic forces, such as global price fluctuations or the specter of lost international trad ing opportunities, are important catalysts for regionalization in late devel opers. Reacting in part to changes in the international economy that threaten their economic viability, participants aimed to collaborate on lim ited objectives. Rather than an internally motivated drive toward coopera tion, these countries turned toward this option reluctantly. Within the GCC and AMU nations, domestic interests lobbied vigorously against closer economic coordination with neighboring countries. Governments were loath to cede economic sovereignty to engage in partnerships with neigh bors, many of which were long-standing rivals. The article begins with an exploration of the relationship between re gionalization and internationalization, drawing on analytical approaches