ABSTRACT
Although they have attracted much recent attention, regional blocs have a long history. As early as 1942-3, as part of the planning for the post-war world, Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill outlined a specifically regional framework for dealing with global problems. At meetings with President Franklin Roosevelt and his advisors, Churchill proposed a world based on three “regional councils”: one each for Europe, the Pacific, and the Western hemisphere. The councils were expected to be formally subordinate to a supreme World Council, comprised of the wartime “Big Four,” but the regions were the keystone. As Churchill put it, “The central idea of the structure was that of a three-legged stool – the World Council resting on three regional Councils . . . I attached great importance to the regional principle.”1
