ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at a particular set of regional integration schemes. Regional integration schemes have multiplied and the importance of regional groups in trade, money and politics is increasing dramatically. The chapter reviews the main theoretical approaches to regional integration in both political science and economics. It summarizes the insights of several institutional schools of thought that offer fertile ground for thinking about the process of integration. The chapter discusses some of these ideas in the context of regional integration, introduces the demand condition, and illustrates the analytical framework drawn from a wide range of integration projects. It describes the analytical framework developed at pan-Arab regional integration and evaluates the feasibility and desirability of three integration options in terms of the categories elaborated in the analytical part. Those are: a 'New Middle East', a closer Maghrib union and a Euro-Mediterranean integrated economic space.
