This is the first of five volumes reporting on the UNU-WIDER study on New Regionalism. It deals with the conceptions and meanings of two processes which probably will have a crucial influence on the shape of the 'new world order' - globalization and regionalization. These studies relate to each other as challenge to response, globalization being the challenge of economic and cultural homogenization of the world and regionalization being a social and political reaction. The leading writers in the field contribute thought-provoking and fascinating articles to this volume.

Foreword by Giovanni Andrea Cornia
Prologue to the Five Volumes
Notes on the Contributors
Introduction by the Editors
Globalization and the New Regionalism: The Second Great Transformation; B.Hettne
Rethinking the New Regionalism in the Context of Globalization; J.H.Mittelman
Regionalization in Response to Polarising Globalization; S.Amin
Political Regionalism: Master or Servant of Economic Internationalisation?; H.Hveem
The New Regionalism: Impediment or Spur to Future Multilateralism?; P.S.Mistry
Globalism and Regionalism: The Costs of Dichotomy; R.Pettman
Regionalization and Its Impact on the Theory of International Relation; K.Lähteenmäki & J.Käkönen
Regionalism and World Order After the Cold War; R.Falk
New Regionalism in Southern Africa: Part of or Alternative to the Globalization of the World Economy?; B.Odén
Transnational Integration and National Disintegration Revisited; O.Sunkel & M.Mortimore
Index

BJÖRN HETTNE is Professor at the Department of Peace and Development, Göteborg University. He is the author of a number of books and articles on development theory, international political economy, European integration and ethnic relations.

ANDRAS INOTAI is Director-General of the Institute for World Economics, Budapest. He Headed the task force for Hungary's EU-integration Strategy (from February 1996), and was a Staff Member of the World Bank, Washington, DC (1989-1991).

OSVALDO SUNKEL is Professor of Economics, at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration and Co-ordinator of the Sustainable Development Program, Centro de Análisis e Políticas Publicas, Universidad de Chile, as well as special advisor to ECLAC.