ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out to investigate and map changes and continuities in this "networked world" of regional security organizations. It focuses on inter-regional security cooperation among regional organizations within network structures, and critically assesses the move away from informal structural hierarchies towards the creation of structural hubs. The chapter reviews some key concepts and findings of network analysis and assesses its contribution to understanding and explaining the structure of the network formed by the regional organizations that participate in the international security governance architecture. It focuses on positive relations of security cooperation, and evaluates the strength, rather than only the presence or absence, of links. Regional organizations maintain security relations with groups of countries through ad hoc mechanisms or trans-regional intergovernmental dialogue mechanisms. Based on Jurgen Ruland's analysis, and focusing on security relations among different international actors, the chapter categorizes security cooperation into four types of security relations involving at least one regional organization.
