Introducing Regional Integration   UNU-Programme for Comparative Regional Integration Studies UNU-CRIS Course Structure: Online course, self-paced study

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Course Description

This course is designed as a general introduction to regional  integration, and is particularly aimed at non-specialists. It reviews some of the main definitions of what constitutes a region, and  identifies the basic concepts and approaches to integration. The course portrays both the diversity and the hierarchical nature of
regionalism, and calls attention to the motivations that lead groups of states and regions to elect for one particular form of regional cooperation over another.

The course guides the learner through a description of integration across the political, economic and security arenas, and highlights the existence of both micro-regions (sub-national) and macro-regions (supranational). Attention is given to both long-established and more recent systems of regional integration, and to the particular forms that regionalism has taken in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe. The overall aim of this course is to equip the reader with the basic tools necessary to understand the variety and scope of cooperation across countries and within countries, while appreciating the dynamic and complex nature of such arrangements.