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Regionalism, Multilateralism, and Deeper Integration, by Robert Z. Lawrence. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1996. Pp. 158. $14.95 (softcover).
Regionalism, Multilateralism, and Deeper Integration is one component of the Brookings Project on Integrating National Economies. The book's preface introduces and describes that project as one which explores the opportunities and tensions that arise from the interplay between two facts about the world at the end of the twentieth century. On one hand, the world will continue to organize into nation-states with sovereign governments. On the other, increasing economic integration among such nation-states will continue to erode differences among national economies and undermine that sovereignty.
Each study in the series addresses basic questions concerning the management of international convergence, the intervention of governments in an attempt to influence the consequences that arise from arbitrage pressures, cross-border spillovers, diminished autonomy, and the assertion of psychological and political externalities. The authors identify a continuum of six responses to these influences.
In his introduction Lawrence discusses multilateral and regional agreements that have taken shape over the last decade. He then turns to a discussion on the positive and negative effects of regional arrangements. Lawrence points out that neither past experience nor traditional trade theory provides an adequate guide to current regional arrangements. The introduction sets the tone for a discussion of deeper integration (integration that moves beyond the removal of border barriers) versus shallow integration (trade liberalization).
Lawrence begins his second chapter, "Globalization and the Demand for Deeper Integration," with an examination of different business groups that support various regional arrangements. He posits that because of the broad support given to regional arrangements by both large...