ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we return to the theme of the relationship between economicdevelopment and the role of the state. As Parts 2 and 3 have shown, nation-states have been crucial, both in the struggle for domination over the world economy within the core and as peripheral and semi-peripheral economies have struggled to reduce their dependency on core economies. As the world economy has become more and more globalized, however, nation-states throughout the world economy have had to explore cooperative strategies involving international and supranational (‘trading bloc’) political and economic integration of various kinds. This chapter outlines the rationale for these strategies, describes the scope of the major international and supranational organizations and illustrates some of the more important spatial implications of international and supranational institutionalized integration. Arguably the most successful of the attempts at supranational integration, the European Union, receives the most detailed examination in this chapter simply because its impacts on the world economy have been the greatest. Although it should be borne in mind that international institutions regulating trade, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), have also become increasingly important if less visible arbiters of the global economic integration process. This is why we also examine the WTO in some detail.
