ABSTRACT
Since 1945, regional cooperation and interregional relations have become structural dimensions of global governance. Looking at regionalism and interregionalism only as symptoms of the fragmentation of the global framework, as liberal economists do, is useless, outdated and wrong. Some regions are developing their own identities and interregional relations, including via inclusive trade arrangements, even better than in the previous five decades. Such regional relationships are no longer a matter of mere rational choice alone. Instead, they often reflect political decisions as well as shared values, standards and socio-economic models. In the new, unstable and uncertain context of the third decade of the new century, it is worth noting that both the US under Trump and Russia under Putin were and are explicitly looking for the dismemberment of the EU. The southern neighbourhood is also facing security and economic challenges: food shortages, massive unregulated migration flows, potential terrorist threats and instability in many Arab countries.
