ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book takes us around in the world, from Central America, via South America to Europe, West Africa, the Persian Gulf and East Asia. It take us through different theories and approaches to the study of regional integration and co-operation. Political Union is reached when 'integration is extended beyond the realm of economics to encompass such fields as anti-crime policy and foreign policy, eventually including security policy'. The European Union (EU) has gone much further in pooling and delegating sovereignty than other integration schemes or wider international regimes such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, now embedded in the World Trade Organization. In comparisons between the EU and other regional institutions, people therefore need to add supranational institutions to those mentioned by Robert O. Keohane in 1989.
