INTERREGIONALISM TRENDS IN THE WORLD POLITICS AND ANALYSIS OF EUROPEAN UNION AS A GLOBAL ACTOR

Abstract

The European Union is the most intergrated regional block in the World which presents an ideal example for the other regions. The regional intergration of the EU not only includes economical components but also political, cultural and identical components which have vital role on the way of EU’s identity and interests formations. In this article it has aimed to answer a research question namely, “Why the EU has to pursue pure interregionalism in its foreign and trade policies and what extent could EU pursue pure interregionalism ?” The possible answer of this question will be elaborated in the fields of identical considertaions of the EU as a social, political and cultural entity or actor in the international society and economical considerations which stresses the descreasing competiteveness of the European market compared to its counterparts. The EU may be assessed as the initial example of the actor of the post-modern or post-Westphalian multilateral framework which stresses the decentralization of governance and inclusion of the many actors such as multinational coporations, international organizations, sub-national institutions and NGO’s in the multilateral decision-making process. Consequently the EU may find its identity and interests in a post-modern conception of the state and it has to empose this regional identity formation process to other parts of the globe for the purpose of legistimazing its existance not only around the world, but also on its own demos. On the other hand, EU has to empose its core standarts such as labour and enviroment standarts to other counterpart regions for continuning its welfare system without descreasing its competitiveness. As a result, The EU could achieve this strategy more effeciently in an international relations practice which mostly lean on pure interregionalism. Because it is more easy to perceive three or four regional blocks rather than hundreds of states.