ABSTRACT
After the breakdown of the Bretton Woods arrangement the international system had been moving into a structure often referred to as unipolar, that is, characterized by the presence of a single superpower, the United States. Over the past two decades, however, the distribution of power, especially economic power, has been changing as new global players such as India, China, Russia and Brazil have shown economic and political dynamism as well as ambition to play a leading role in world affairs. Long-term projections place India’s and China’s GDP at levels that could match those of the US over the next few decades. The world is moving away from a unipolar structure and will be increasingly characterized by a multipolar one. A parallel and related phenomenon is the proliferation of limited agreements, 1 be they regional or bilateral, which involve very diverse groups of countries. The interaction between nation states, regional agreements and the global dimension may well lead to the establishment of a system of governance which may provide some form of international order. Starting from this perspective, this chapter seeks to offer suggestions on how to link the three levels of analysis: national, regional and global in the process of global governance. The discussion will take a dual approach. The ‘top-down’ approach which considers the influence the higher levels exert on the lower ones: how the globalization of the international system affects the evolution of regional agreements, and how the latter influences the domestic policies of nation states. 2 The ‘bottom-up’ approach which looks at the opposite direction of influence: how the development of regional agreements shape the characteristics of the new international system.
