James Wesley Scott

European and North American Contexts for Cross-border Regionalism

SCOTT J. W. (1999) European and North American contexts for cross-border regionalism, Reg. Studies 33 , 605‐617. This paper discusses cross-border regionalism within the supranational contexts of the European Union and the developing North American Free Trade Area. Focusing on planning and regional development issues, cross-border regionalism as a new form of governance is investigated, based on a comparison of supranational integration logics, co-operation frameworks and instruments, and co-operation agendas and strategies. In both contexts, discrepancies between programmatic objectives and co-operation results are striking, eliciting questions as to the greater potential significance of cross-border regionalism. The paper argues that theories of political regulation and constructivist perspectives might help relate cross-border regionalism to broader economic, political and cultural variables, explaining how regionalist agendas and strategies emerge, and how they are a response to local interests and as...

The EU and ‘Wider Europe’: Toward an Alternative Geopolitics of Regional Cooperation?

In response to enlargement, the EU’s ‘Wider Europe’ initiative and emerging European Neighbourhood Policy envisage ‘positive interdependence’ with neighbouring countries of the ‘East’ and ‘South’. ‘Partnerships’ are seen as an alternative to direct EU membership and thus as a sustainable incentive for regional cooperation. In order to be effective, such regional partnerships must transcend market logics and accommodate heterogeneous economic and socio-political realities. However, Wider Europe is characterised, in terms of realpolitik, by competing rationales of ‘stability’, ‘prosperity’, ‘sustainability’ and ‘security’ and thus by considerable potential for exclusionary policies. It is unclear whether exclusion can be counterbalanced by multilevel and ‘de-centred’ forms of regional engagement that also define Wider Europe. Applying a pragmatic approach, discussion will centre on rationales, discourses and reconceptualisations of European space upon which the notion of Wider Europe is being constructed and on whether they signal gradual changes in the direction of a ‘post-Westphalian’ geopolitics.In response to enlargement, the EU’s ‘Wider Europe’ initiative and emerging European Neighbourhood Policy envisage ‘positive interdependence’ with neighbouring countries of the ‘East’ and ‘South’. ‘Partnerships’ are seen as an alternative to direct EU membership and thus as a sustainable incentive for regional cooperation. In order to be effective, such regional partnerships must transcend market logics and accommodate heterogeneous economic and socio-political realities. However, Wider Europe is characterised, in terms of realpolitik, by competing rationales of ‘stability’, ‘prosperity’, ‘sustainability’ and ‘security’ and thus by considerable potential for exclusionary policies. It is unclear whether exclusion can be counterbalanced by multilevel and ‘de-centred’ forms of regional engagement that also define Wider Europe. Applying a pragmatic approach, discussion will centre on rationales, discourses and reconceptualisations of European space upon which the notion of Wider Europe is being constructed an...

Inducing Transboundary Regionalism in Asymmetric Situations: The Case of the German-Polish Border

Abstract The German‐Polish border region, located along the European Unions eastern boundary, is characterized by sharp disparities in living standards and development. It also is a zone of contact between two very different political traditions and cultures that often have confronted each other in conflict. Since 1990, cooperation attempts on the German‐Polish border have been actively encouraged by EU and German government agencies and supported through the creation of Euroregions, intergovernmental advisory boards, and other international bodies. Transboundary regionalism is seen as a means of promoting integrated development and socioeconomic cohesion within the context of European expansion and integration. However, evaluations of German‐Polish cooperation indicate that the creation of new institutions of cross‐border planning is not enough; in order to be effective, German‐Polish transboundary regionalism must not only prevail against policy discontinuities caused by administrative mismatches but a...

Europe of Regions

The development of the European Union (EU) has been closely associated with and influenced by regional scale and the evolution of regional perspectives on various political, economic, and social issues. Europe of Regions suggests that regions are a vital locus of economic competitiveness, democratic governance, and cultural identity. During the heyday of European regionalism in the 1980s and 1990s, official policy discourse fed expectations that regions would be given a greater voice and more active role in national and Community decision-making processes. The EU has indeed developed a sophisticated development policy framework that includes regions as partners. However, many of the regionalist scenarios envisaged for post-Maastricht Europe have not materialized. Only few regions can be regarded as powerful actors within the EU and the creation of new institutions representing regional interests within the EU has been rather modest. Despite this, regional scale remains a powerful leitmotiv of governance and development within the EU.

On the Political Economy of Cross-Border Regionalism: Regional Development and Cooperation on the US-Mexican Border

Subnational paradiplomacy, in the words of Panayotis Soldatos (1993: 48), ‘refers to direct international activity by subnational actors (federated units, regions, urban communities; cities) supporting, complementing, correcting, duplicating, or challenging the nation-state’s diplomacy’. At the same time it is an attempt to rationalize the policy-making process in order to make it more responsive to subnational needs and, thus, more effective. Hence, the rationales for transnational regionalism generally involve a desire on the part of local actors to interact more directly and effectively with partners across national boundaries and thereby promote their interests. Consequently, economic development and resource management issues appear increasingly to be addressed by interorganizational coalitions and/or NGOs at the local and subregional levels; even in countries with strong interventionist traditions they are no longer the exclusive domain of state agencies.

Transboundary cooperation on Germany's Borders: Strategic regionalism through multilevel governance

Abstract Germany has played a central role in elevating transboundary cooperation to the relatively high political status it now enjoys within the European Union (EU) for geopolitical, economic, and historical reasons. In promoting transboundary cooperation, Germany has pursued an agenda of institutionalization based on the vertical and horizontal integration of different spatial levels of transboundary interaction through both state and nonstate actors that represent European border regions. This essay characterizes and discusses the development of transboundary cooperative organizations along Germanys border and the attempts to establish a system of multilevel governance to address border‐related issues. Germanys track record in the latter respect is mixed. Intergovernmental rivalries, as well as basic design flaws in European policy are singled out as primary obstacles to more effective cooperation. The overall political context of transboundary regionalism is framed here in terms of Germanys pivotal economic and political role within the overall project of European integration. Given the ambiguities of cooperative experiences, the essay concludes with more general research questions regarding the significance of transboundary forms of regional governance within an evolving European Union.

The institutionalization of transboundary cooperation in Europe: Recent development on the Dutch‐German Border

Paying particular attention to legal and organizational aspects, this article attempts to analyze transboundary institution-building within the context of European integration and changes in European regional policy. Based on a short case study of the Dutch-German EUREGIO, it is argued that new EC regional development programs and national government support have helped this border area association define strategies enabling it to circumvent legal technicalities, establishing defacto (although not dejure) public agencies responsible for coordinating transboundary cooperation efforts. Additionally, the EUREGIO and other Dutch-German border area associations have vigorously pursued transboundary economic development schemes that have tended to cement working relationships and elicit central government support. Europes progress in transboundary cooperation must be viewed in the context of developments taking place there, especially the growth of a unitary market and political and economic union. Nevertheless, it is suggested that North American border regions may be able to learn from European experience - particularly in the light of the North American Trade Agreement - developing strategies that mobilize local political sentiment and help overcome the influence of ideologies of national sovereignty at regional, state and national levels.

Baltic Sea regionalism, EU geopolitics and symbolic geographies of co-operation

Abstract This paper situates an emerging Baltic Sea regionalism within the larger geopolitical context of European integration and enlargement and focuses on the role of spatial planning and regional development policies. Increasingly, symbolic geographies and visionary planning concepts are being employed to support a notion of Baltic regional community while promoting broader “Europeanization”. Through generating positive visions of what regional co-operation can achieve, symbolic planning could be contributing to effective social, economic and environmental agenda-setting in the Baltic Sea Region. However, questions remain as to the accessibility of planning processes and imbalances between planning goals and resources available to realize them.

Borderlands into Bordered Lands. Geopolitics of Identity in Post-Soviet Ukraine

As a person who has studied borders for the last twenty-odd years, I personally find it astounding that obsolete and often obscurantist stereotypes still dominate Western political thinking when it comes to interpreting political change in Post-Soviet states. In a similar vein, a German journalist once queried me on whether the significance of the “borders of Europe” had really changed since 1991. He was particularly intrigued by the powerful cartographic—and schoolbook—imagery of the Ural mountains as an “eternal” structural border between Europe and Asia. When asked of my opinion about the Urals as border I found it difficult to respond, given the irrelevance of the issue to a useful understanding of contemporary geopolitics. The case of Ukraine is similar. The Western geographic imaginary of the country appears rather limited and basically boils down to a highly simplified notion of national-ethnic duality between Ukraine’s Eastern and Western regions. The “geosimplifications” of the Post-Soviet era are, of course, not limited to musings of Western experts and would-be experts. Much new geopolitical thinking in Russia also interprets relations with the European Union in terms of civilizational competition—albeit mixed with a powerful dose of Pan-Slavic ethnopolitics. Here again, Ukraine is seen as a borderland between East and West, essential to Russian security and economic interests but also threatened by “Europeanization” from the European Union.