Glossary
Action - A physical act, a concrete step in a given situation. An action is the practical expression of a policy.
Actor - A Participant or player.
AER - Assembly of European Regions was created in 1985 and it is the political organization of the regions of Europe. It represents the interests of the regions at the European and international level. The AER has 250 member regions from 25 states and 12 member interregional organizations.
Andean Community/ Andean Integration System - A political and economic regional organization made up of Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. The Andean Pact was signed in 1969, with the aim of creating a customs union, which is since 1995 operational. The Andean Group pledged to establish a Common Market in 2005. The Andean Community started operating in 1997.
ANZCERTA - Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement (CER Agreement) entered into force in 1983 with the aim to create a Free Trade Area between Australia and New Zealand.
ASEAN - Association of Southeast Asian Nations is an international organisation, which was established in 1967 and currently brings together ten Southeast Asian states: Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
APT (ASEAN Plus Three) - A regional forum, which brings together the 10 ASEAN states plus China, Japan and Korea.
ARF - ASEAN Regional Forum was established in 1994 and links together 22 countries plus the EU, which have an impact on are involved in the security of the Asia Pacific Region. These countries are Australia, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Canada, China, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, the EU, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, United States, and Vietnam.
Bipolarity - When the power is distributed between two poles, for instance the international political system under the Cold War was considered to have a bipolar structure: the United States and the former Soviet Union.
CACM - Central American Common Market was established in 1961 and currently encompasses, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua
CARICOM - Caribbean Community and Common Market is a customs union established in 1973 among Antigua and Bermuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago.
Customs Union - An agreement whereby the members implement a common external tariff of customs duties. The aim is to facilitate goods to move freely throughout the union.
Common External Tariff - A common level of duty on goods entering the Customs Union from without.
Common Market - An arrangement whereby the members pledge to remove all obstacles to the free movement of labour, capital, services and persons.
Cross-border region - A special case of a micro-region, one that spreads across different states.
Decision-making - Refers to the making of a choice among often competing alternatives; a rational decision-making process is the process whereby the different alternatives are evaluated in function of the objectives to achieve and whereby the most suitable option is chosen.
Dependence - A system is dependent upon another, if the other is capable of affecting its power.
Disintegration - A decrease of the capacity of a system.
Equilibrium - A situation wherein the several forces working on or in a system keep each other in check, thus producing no net effect.
Economic Union - This is a common market in which there is a complete unification of monetary and fiscal policy.
European Communities - Refers to the European international organisation in several issue areas the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Economic Community (EEC), and the European Atomic Energy Community (EurAtom).
European Union - In November 1993 the official name of the European Community was changed to European Union as a result of the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty by the parliaments of the member states. The EU is the most comprehensive example of regional economic and political integration.
Free Trade Area - An agreement between a group of countries to remove barriers and quotas to mutual trade. Each country retains its own commercial relations with non-members.
Geographic Realm - The basic spatial unit in the world regionalization scheme. Each realm is defined in terms of a synthesis of its total human geography a composite of its leading cultural, economic, historical, political, and appropriate environmental features.
Integration - An increase of a social systems capacity.
Institution - A system forms an institution when if functions according to definite rules, norms, or standards. It is not necessary that these rules, norms or standards have a legal character, nor that they are formulated.
Institutionalisation - Refers to the process by which institutions are formed.
Interdependence - A relation or the relations between systems in which they are mutual sensitive or vulnerable to the decisions or actions taken by the others.
Interest - That what is important to a system, usually including, its survival. National interest refers to matters of importance to a state. Corporate interest refers to matter of importance to the business.
International - In general, it refers to matters outside a state; in particular, it refers to the relations between states.
International Organisation - An institution composed out of member-states. More general, it refers to patterns of behaviour or structures and actors that cross or move beyond the state.
Macro-region - A large territorial unit comprising different states.
Magreb Countries - Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.
Mashreq Countries - Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine.
MERCOSUR - The Southern Cone Common Market established in 1991 that calls for free trade among the member-states and common external tariffs for non-member-states. Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay are members; Chile is an associate member.
Micro-region - A territorial area that is smaller than the state to which it belongs.
Multipolarity - When the power is distributed among various poles, for instance Concert of Europe.
NAFTA - North American Free Trade Area. An agreement established in 1994 between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico with the aim to reduce all barriers to trade among the three states within 15 years.
NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization established in 1949 is a mutual defence organization. Currently it encompasses 19 states.
OSCE - The Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe is a regional security organization established in 1994/1995.
Power - Capability of actors to do things and do them efficiently. More abstract, the capacity of a system to efficiently converting energy.
Preferential Trade Agreement - The members of this kind of agreement charge each other lower tariffs than those applicable to non-members.
Policy - A decision or course of action chosen from alternatives.
Regime - In an international context, regimes refer to implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which actors expectations converge in a given area of international relations. Principles are beliefs of fact, causation, and rectitude. Norms are standards of behaviour defined in terms of rights and obligations. Rules are specific prescriptions or proscriptions for action. Decision-making procedures are prevailing practices for making and implementing collective choice.
Region - A territorially based subsystem of the international system.
Regionalization - Denotes the (empirical) process that leads to patterns of co-operation, integration, complementarity and convergence within a particular cross-national geographical space.
Regionalism - Concerns the ideas, identities and ideologies related to a regional project.
SAARC - South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation was established in 1985. Member-states are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
SACU - Southern African Custom Union was established in 1910 and is the oldest regional economic grouping in Africa. It encompasses Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and South Africa.
SADC - Southern African Development Community was established in 1992. The member-states are: Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Sovereignty - Refers to the right of a state to exercise complete jurisdiction over its own territory. In international relations, states as sovereign units have a right to be independent vis-à-vis other states. As sovereign units, states are legal equals.
Spill-over - Refers to the process whereby successful cooperation between states in a specific sector leads, due to the interconnectedness of social and political issues, to the need to expand the cooperation into related fields.
Structure - The manner in which a systems components are related to each other. Particularly, the array of relationships governing the transformation of systems. The arrangements of parts of a whole, for instance the structure of the international system being defined in terms of the distribution of power among states (bipolar; multipolar; unipolar).
Supranational - Beyond or above the state, having power or authority that is greater than that of single countries.
WTO - World Trade Organization was established in 1995 following the Uruguay Round Negotiations. It is the successor of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). It is the only global international organisation dealing with the rules of trade between states.
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