Interregionalism across the Atlantic Space

Frank Mattheis is Senior Researcher at the Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation (GovInn) at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He works on processes that challenge established perceptions of sovereignty and territoriality, in particular regionalism and interregionalism.

At GovInn he has coordinated a work package for the EU-funded FP7-project ATLANTIC FUTURE, which led to the editorship of this book. With a postdoctoral fellowship by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) he currently focuses on the South Atlantic as a space for regional and interregional reconfigurations. Prior, he was senior research fellow at the Centre for Area Studies at the University of Leipzig (Germany), where he receive his Dr. phil. in Global Studies.

Andréas Litsegård (formerly Godsäter) is Senior lecturer at the School of Global Studies at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, where he teaches International Relations, and an Associate fellow at theCentre for the Study of Governance Innovation (GovInn), University of Pretoria. He holds a PhD in peace and development research from the University of Gothenburg. His research interests concern regionalism, governance, civil society, democracy, development cooperation, environmental issues and migration with a geographical focus on Africa.

This book focuses on interregional relations across the Atlantic and the possible evolution of a new, distinctive Atlantic space for international relations. It provides a comprehensive insight into the overlapping linkages of interregionalism in the wider Atlantic space. Additionally, it raises the question of relevance, currently the main question in this field of research: Is interregionalism important because it brings about something new that really matters or is it simply a (perhaps unavoidable) by-product of regionalism? The book conducts an analysis of six interregional relations criss-crossing the Atlantic space, accounting for the multitude of interregional connections within a potential Atlantic macro region and analysing the differences, conflicts and convergences between regional organizations. It engages with the issue of agency in interregional relations, and argues that interregional processes and agendas are always driven and constructed by certain actors for certain purposes.

Chapter 1. The Atlantic Space - A Region in the Making (Andréas Godsäter and Frank Mattheis).- Chapter 2. Debunking Interregionalism: Concepts, Types and Critique - with a Pan-Atlantic Focus (Gian Luca Gardini and Andrés Malamud).- Chapter 3. Volatile Interregionalism: the Case of South Atlantic Relations (Frank Mattheis).- Chapter 4. Actors and Opportunities: Interregional Processes between the Arab Region and Latin America and the Caribbean (Anna Ayuso, Santiago Villar, Camila Pastor and Miguel Fuentes).- Chapter 5. The EU and Africa: Regionalism and Interregionalism beyond Institutions (Nicoletta Pirozzi and Andréas Godsäter).- Chapter 6. Assessing Interregional Relations between North America and Sub-Saharan Africa (John Kotsopoulos and Madeleine Goerg).- Chapter 7. EU-Latin American Relations as a Template for Interregionalism (Anna Ayuso and Gian Luca Gardini).- Chapter 8. The North Atlantic: a Case of Bicontinental Regionalism (Riccardo Alcaro and Patrick Reilly).- Chapter 9.Latin America's Interregional Reconfiguration: The Beginning or the End of Latin America's Continental Integration? (Paul Isbell and Kimberly Nolan García).