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Regional organizations (ROs) have been created across the globe. In the period between 1945 and 2015, there is a total of 76 ROs, which on average are equipped with competencies in around 11 different policy areas. There are two trends. First, both the number of ROs states have joined increases sharply over time as do the number of policy competencies states delegate to ROs. Second, not all states are equally inclined to nurture regional integration. To shed light on these patterns, this paper adopts a state-centered perspective. Based on rationalist international relations and regional cooperation theories, it develops hypotheses on state motives to join ROs and to delegate policy competencies to them. The analysis reveals several interesting insights: First, powerful states are proponents for regional integration. They join ROs, as they can be used as arenas or means to further national interests. Second, trade is also an important incentive. The stronger the trade interests of states are, the more ROs they become members of and the more policy competencies they equip their ROs with. Third, authoritarian states are less inclined to nurture regional integration and join ROs, since they might place limitations on governmental leeway in the future.

\"Can a bold investment in education turn around the economy of an entire city? Gene I. Maeroff, a former education reporter for the New York Times, explores how the nonprofit group Say Yes to Education has instituted a network of reforms in Syracuse, New York, that supports students at every level from kindergarten through college. He traces out how Say Yes and the Syracuse school district built a coalition of partners in business, education, and local and state government, implemented a series of programs to improve the school system, and reached out to support students. Telling the story and identifying the strengths of this remarkable and replicable program, Maeroff shows how this focused, directed, and broad-based coalition has created a model for reviving the economy and civic fabric of American cities by investing in children's education\"-- Provided by publisher.

What does it take to belong to a region and exert power over it? The scholarship on regional powers has elaborated sophisticated indicators to establish nuances of power, but the depiction of the region has remained vague. Most approaches are characterised by a narrow territorial interpretation that does not properly take into account power wielded by geographically distant actors. Using the case of France in Central Africa this article argues that a distant state can a) hold a dominant share of military, economic and soft power, b) use this power for hegemonic behaviour and c) be recognised as a leader in the region by both internal and external actors. The main specificity of distant actors as regional powers is the greater necessity for a legitimising narrative. France tackles this hurdle with the help of regional organisations that reproduce imperial structures. By holding the informal status of a quasi-member in regional governance structures, France participates in region-building processes from the inside rather than the outside.

Overlapping regionalism results from the fact that states are members in multiple regional organisations (ROs) at the same time. This explorative article provides the first comprehensive mapping of overlapping regionalism today and illustrates that it is not only confined to Africa or Asia, but also prevalent in the Americas and Europe. Furthermore, more than 60 ROs that are currently in place have overlaps to one another, but some share more member states and policy competencies than others. Since overlapping regionalism can have negative implications for the effectiveness of individual regional integration projects, due to the possibility or rule and action conflicts, this article not only maps the conflict potential, but also examines why overlapping regionalism varies between RO dyads. It shows that overlapping regionalism can be driven by opportunities and incentives. While there are global pattern, such as the finding that RO dyads have greater overlaps the longer they have coexisted, some regional particularities exist as well.

The six major regional organizations (ROs) covered in this special issue all originated prior to the rise of liberal internationalism, and were repurposed by it. After 1989 they converged towards a common discourse on democratic conditionality, and developed a capacity to discipline and sanction non-compliance, preferring persuasion and appeals to regional norms rather than coercion. This concluding overview highlights the relevance of such metaphors as ecosystem, family resemblance, and peer review; and directs attention to the temporal and spatial scope conditions of the cases considered; and to the bargaining involved. As the ecosystem of liberal internationalism and regional democratic solidarity has faded, ‘pushbacks’ have appeared from regimes ‘targeted’ for sanctions and/or ‘shaming.’ Since states must coexist in permanent interaction with their neighbors, and because the democratic ‘like-mindedness’ of regions fluctuates, such RO stigmatization cannot be a one-shot game. Rather, it will be interactive, and contextually negotiated over time.

Background Health policy competencies of regional organizations include mandates to create regional health laws and policies, as well as authorities that allow member states to undertake collective actions in the health field. The examination of the health policy competencies of regional organizations is essential, as it constitutes an important prerequisite for regional organizations to govern regional health. This study aims to map the development trajectory of health policy competencies in regional organizations worldwide and investigate their potential correlates. This will contribute to the enhanced promotion of both existing and new regional health cooperation. Methods This retrospective analysis utilized the health policy competencies of the 76 regional organizations worldwide from 1945 to 2015, as investigated in the Regional Organizations Competencies Database. By aggregating member state data from various sources such as the IHME Global Burden of Disease 2019, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization, we extracted the mean values and coefficients of variation for the covariates in regional organization characteristics, socioeconomic and demographic factors, health status and health-system capacity. The correlation between changes in the health policy scope of regional organizations and independent variables was analyzed using Poisson pseudo-likelihood regression with multiple levels of fixed effects. Results From 1945 to 2015, the number of regional organizations with health policy competencies experienced a slow growth stage before 1991 and an explosive growth stage post-1991. By 2015, 48 out of the 71 existing regional organizations had developed their health policy competencies, yet 26 (54.2%) of these organizations possessed only 1–2 health policy competencies. An enhancement in the health policy scope of a regional organization correlated with its founding year, a greater number of policy fields, higher under-five mortality, and larger disparities in trade and healthcare access and quality indexes among member states. In contrast, larger disparities in population, under-five mortality and health worker density among member states, along with more hospital beds per capita, were negatively correlated with the expansion of a regional organization’s health policy scope. Conclusion Since 1991, there has been a surge of interest in health among regional organizations, although health remains a secondary priority for them. The health policy competencies of regional organizations are pivotal for promoting social equity within regional communities. Its establishment is also closely linked to the level and disparities among member states in aspects such as trade, population, child mortality rates, and health system capacity.

Regional organisations (ROs) increasingly act as promoters of democracy by applying sanctions against members who do not comply with collectively agreed norms. Despite the absence of an official sanctions policy, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) does interfere in certain ways into member states’ internal issues in some cases of norm violations. This study empirically explores how and why ASEAN decides to interfere or not in such situations. The findings derived from case studies on Cambodia and Myanmar, drawing on evidence from documents, media, and interview data reveal novel insights on ASEAN regionalism in the context of non-compliant member behaviour. I argue that the informal approach to regionalism provides ASEAN with a lot of room for discretion in responding to members’ norm violations. The article identifies geopolitical preferences, extra-regional interference, and legitimation as explanatory factors for the RO’s varying punitive actions.

Regional organisations (ROs) around the world increasingly use sanctions against member states in situations of democratic crisis. This special issue unpacks the trend of RO sanctions in regions that are both democracy-dense (Europe and the Americas) and autocracy-dense (Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East). We argue that regional sanctions cannot be taken at face value as instruments of democracy promotion. Instead, the politics of regional sanctions unveil controversies over the substance and limits of democracy, as well as over practical processes of regional interference in a sphere that is at the core of ‘domestic affairs’. In this introductory article, we situate the special issue at the crossroads of debates within comparative regionalism, sanctions, and democracy/autocracy promotion, and discuss how the membership premise crucially distinguishes RO measures from foreign policy and United Nations (UN) sanctions.

Two elements define regional integration in Latin America: its extension in time and its plurality. Analyses abound regarding the drivers underlying regional cooperation, the specific institutional design, its effects, and impact. However, studies have not yet provided full answers to the question of how regional institutions emerge and change through time in Latin America. To investigate this rather underexplored issue, I contribute a dynamic analytical framework whereby interests and ideas are taken as factors that interact with each other within a specified institutional environment, thus shaping processes of institutional creation, change and development. The argument advanced is that whereas the role of states and presidents remains constant, ideas and the existing regional organisations face presidents with either limitations or resources depending on the degree of synergy and convergence between states’ material interests and regional ideas and institutions. Based on the particular ideational and institutional configuration, three patterns of change may emerge: creation, conversion, and layering. The paper draws on comparative regionalism and institutionalism studies and empirically explores more than 25 years of regional cooperation in Latin America. Focus is on the comparative assessment of the Common Market of the South and the Union of South American Nations.