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‘Theorising the rise of regionness’ by Bjorn Hettne and Fredrik Soderbaum

Abstract While the New Regionalism Theory (NRT), as propounded by Hettne and Soderbaum, tries to address the ambiguities associated with regionalism by taking an interdisciplinary approach, the authors seem to downplay the role of geography in the phenomenon and highlight social processes as the main defining feature of the trend. Furthermore, although they acknowledge the importance of the regional space in the study of regionalism, they seem to point to the notion that this space transcends regional contiguity. This article is a review of the NRT and argues that the new regionalism should be seen in the light of interactions characterised by geographic contiguity and limited by geographic boundaries within a continent. The article illustrates the importance of geography and geographic contiguity over social processes by making reference to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the enlargement of the European Union (EU) as well as the African Union (AU) and the continent-wide economic and political framework proposed in the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) as the modus operandi of the new regionalism.