Regional governance and global governance: links and explanations

This article examines the possible links between regional governance and global governance from a regional perspective. It presents and develops a typology of linkages that include: (1) irrelevance; (2) conflict; (3) cooperation; and (4) harmonic relations. Moreover, it suggests three alternative explanations to make sense of the linkages as a function of the nature of the issue area of regional and global governance, the role of pivotal states, and the importance of ideational factors and the diffusion of norms. It succinctly refers to the Latin American experience as an illustration of the nexus between regional governance and global governance in a comparative perspective.