Regionalization, globalization, and nationalism: Convergent, divergent, or overlapping?

This paper examines the interaction among the three forces that shape world politics in the contemporary system: globalization, regionalization, and nationalism. The main thesis suggested here is that these three forces cannot be assessed in isolation, independently from one another, nor from a perspective of either convergence or divergence among them. Rather, globalization, regionalization, and nationalism should be captured and studied as forces relative to and overlapping one another, sometimes antagonistic and sometimes cooperative toward each other but never harmonious. This argument is theoretically relevant both in the context of the world political economy and international security, with special reference to the phenomenon of pluralistic security communities. The Latin American case provides an empirical laboratory to test these theoretical assertions.