Without any doubt, regional integration will continue to be one of the driving
forces that will shape the world polity and economy in the years to come. Regional
integration is thereby understood as covering a variety of forms and modalities.
From a governance point of view, scholars are now focusing on the present and
future role that the (macro-)regional level might play in a complex multilevel
governance context. Both theoretical approaches and real world cases show that
the regional level is likely to maintain and probably increase its importance in the
global governance architecture. There is not necessarily a consensus, however,
about certain causalities or tendencies. It is not clear, for example, whether regional
economic integration contributes or not to multilateral economic governance,
whether the regional level is an optimal level for the provision of certain public
goods, whether regionalism contributes or not to regional and global political
stability, whether it contributes to the alleviation of underdevelopment and poverty,
whether it contributes to ‘good’ and democratic governance, whether interregionalism
will become more and more important in international relations, etc.
In order to find answers to these types of questions, scholars need to have good
data at their disposal and a good understanding of the dynamics and mechanics of
regional integration processes. All too often facts and trends are taken for granted
and not scientifically verified. New theories or theoretical ideas do not always have
a solid empirical basis. On the other hand, policy-makers, regional leadership and
civil society do not always have the necessary monitoring tools at their disposal to
follow up these processes, define their political positions and propose and design
policies and measures.