Since the end of the Second World War the map of the Americas has changed dramatically. Not only were many former European colonies turned into sovereign states, there was also an ongoing process of region-making recognizable throughout the hemisphere and obvious through the establishment of several regional agreements. The emergence of political and economic regional integration blocs is a very timely topic analyzed by scholars in many disciplines worldwide. This book looks at remapping the recent trends in region-making throughout the Americas in a way that hasn’t been at the center of academic analyses so far. While examining these regionalisation tendencies with a historical background in mind, the authors also answer fundamental questions such as: What influences does globalization have on region-making, both on normative regionalism plans as well as on actual economic, political, cultural, military and social regionalization processes driven by state and non-state actors? What ideas or interests lead states in the Americas to cooperate or compete with one another and how is this power distributed? How do these regional agreements affect trade relations and have there been trade barriers set up to protect national economies? What agreements exist or have existed and how did they change with regard to contents and for what reason? The book informs academic as well as non-academic audiences about regional developments in the Americas, in particular those dating back to the last twenty years. Beyond the primary purpose of summarizing the hemisphere’s recent trends, the book also brings clarification in a detailed but easy to understand way about timely issues regarding the institutionalisation, or lack thereof, of the plethora of regional and sub-regional bodies that have emerged in this hemisphere over the past couple of decades.
Author Biography:
W. Andy Knight is Director of the Institute of International Relations (IIR) at The University of the West Indies and Professor and former Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. He served as Governor of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) from 2007 to 2012, co-edited Global Governance journal from 2000 to 2005 and was Vice Chair of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS). Knight has written and edited several books, book chapters and journal articles on various aspects of multilateralism, global governance and peace, and United Nations reform. His recent books include: The Routledge Handbook of the Responsibility to Protect (with Frazer Egerton) -Routledge 2012; Towards the Dignity of Difference?: Neither 'end of History' Nor 'clash of Civilizations' (with Mojtaba Mahdavi) - Ashgate 2012; and Global Politics (with Tom Keating) - Oxford University Press 2010. Professor Knight is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Julian Castro-Rea (PhD, Universite de Montreal) is Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Alberta. His main area of research interest is North American politics (Canada, Mexico, and the United States), both from comparative and trilateral perspectives and he has written extensively on this topic in the three official languages of North America. Among his most recent publications are: Our North America: Social and Political Issues beyond NAFTA (Ashgate, 2012); "Le gachis qu'ils ont fait : comment la droite a ruine les politiques publiques en Amerique du Nord " in Bulletin d'histoire politique, vol. 21, no. 1, fall 2012, pp. 139-149; and "Common Sense or Collusion? Business Interests behind North American Deep Integration", in Fox, Michael and Andrew Nurse, eds., Dynamics and Trajectories: Canada and North America (Fernwood, 2012), pp. 144-160. Hamid Ghany is former Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Senior Lecturer in Government specializing in Parliamentary Studies and Constitutional Affairs. He is Coordinator of the Constitutional Affairs and Parliamentary Studies Unit (CAPSU) at The University of the West Indies, and a well-known commentator and analyst of political and contemporary issues in Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean. He previously served as a member of the Constitution Review Commission (1988-90) under the chairmanship of the late Sir Isaac Hyatali, T.C.; the Tobago House of Assembly Technical Team for discussions with the Central Government (1992 - 1995) under the chairmanship of Mr. Karl Hudson-Phillips, Q.C.; the Prime Minister's Roundtable on Constitution Reform (2008-10) under the chairmanship of former Prime Minister Mr. Patrick Manning, M.P. In 2009 he served as the nominee of Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonzalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, on the Drafting Committee for their new constitution. In 2013 he was appointed Commissioner on a new Constitution Review Commission of Trinidad and Tobago. In 2012 he was awarded the Chaconia Medal (Gold), Trinidad and Tobago's second highest national award, for long and meritorious service to Trinidad and Tobago in the field of education. H.E. Ambassador Albert R. Ramdin, W. Andy Knight, Julian Castro-Rea, Hamid Ghany, Vaughan A. Lewis, Gaspare M. Genna, Mark Kirton, Joseph Y.S. Cheng, Patsy Lewis, Matthew Louis Bishop, Greg Anderson, Annita Montoute, Norman Girvan, Obijiofor Aginam, Fred Judson, Kalowatie Deonandan
