The Past, Present and Future of a Discipline

Although regionalism is a long-standing feature in international relations only since the 1960s and more emphatically since late 1980s scholars have shown a dedicated interest in the phenomenon. The literature is nonetheless disarticulated. This article takes one step back to take two steps forward. First it clarifies commonly used terms in the field as region, regionalism and regionalization and spells out its historical context. Second it focuses on the past by elaborating on the theoretical approaches put forward over the last fifty years and by highlighting the topics that concerned scholars. Thirdly, it channels attention to the future of regionalism introducing a tentative agenda for research where issues as regionalism and peace, micro-regionalism, in/out regional mechanisms, inter-regionalism, and the role played by the United States gain a particular relevance. Rodrigo Tavares Dept. of Peace and Development Research, Gothenburg University (PADRIGU) Box 700 405 30 Gothenburg Sweden [email protected] Rodrigo Tavares is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Peace and Development Research, Gothenburg University (PADRIGU). In 2003/2004 he was a Visiting Research Scholar at University of California at Berkeley. He authored “Contribution of Macro-Regions to the Construction of Peace: A Framework for Analysis” published in the Journal of International Relations and Development, 7 (1) in 2004. 1 This article draws from my Ph.D. work funded by the Portuguese governmental foundation Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia. I would like to express my gratitude to T.J. Pempel and Mark Dallas for their helpful comments. However, I remain solely responsible for any possible incongruence.