Stemming from an international and multidisciplinary network of leading specialists, this best-selling text is fully updated with new chapter additions. With the first edition being prepared at the end of the last century, this new edition anticipates the world of regionalism as we prepare for the second decade of the new millennium. Taking into account the expanded European Union (EU), this volume highlights external relations in the framework of the development of different forms of regional arrangements, within the globalized world of the 21st century. This volume offers: a vigorous response to conventional wisdom on EU international identity; an exploration of key issues of regionalism versus globalization and the potential for world economic and political governance through regionalism; and a key resource for postgraduate or undergraduate study and research of international relations, European studies, comparative politics and international political economy. This distinctive collection is contributed to by the following established scholars: Catherine Borve Arnesen, Kjell A. Eliassen, Andrew Gamble, Bjorn Hettne, Richard Higgott, George Howard Joffe, Thomas Meyer, Pier Carlo Padoan, Sebastian Santander, Alberta M. Sbragia, Reimund Seidelmann, Fred Soderbaum, Mario Telo, Goran Therborn and Alvaro Vasconcelos providing the reader with a comparative analysis of regional arrangements.