Link to downloadable PDF: Working paper on Regional Organizations, Global Governance, and the EU
By Ole Jacob Sending (NUPI), Malte Brosig (WITS), Hans Jørgen Gåsemyr (NUPI), Piki Ish-Shalom (HUJI), John Karlsrud (NUPI), Cristiana Maglia (NUPI), Elisa Lopez Lucia (ULB)
The US is distancing itself from institutions it has been central in establishing, and recent crises like COVID-19, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the Gaza conflict have raised critical questions about the future direction of international cooperation and global governance. This report sheds light on the role of regional organizations as a key component of global governance. It offers detailed analyses of the historical evolution and contemporary functioning of key regional organizations and discuss their role in fostering multilateral decision-making.
Regional powers are seeking a larger voice in global institutions, yet institutional inertia persists and there is little progress on efforts to reform key international organizations like the UN, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. At the same time, we can observe a trend towards informal and club-like governance – via G7, G20 and BRICS formats. The role of regional organizations in this context is important to assess, not least in light of considerable criticism and push-back against European and other western powers from countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Therefore, understanding the unique characteristics of each regional organization is critical to assessing their potential contributions to global governance.
We find that there is significant variation between regions in the investment in regional organizations. In Europe, the EU is becoming more central. Outside of Europe, the African Union has seen significant institutional growth. ASEAN serves as a crucial diplomatic arena, while Latin America’s regional organizations primarily focus on trade and economic cooperation. These differences highlight the importance of empirically grounded analyses to understand the specific roles, capabilities, and contributions of regional organizations to global governance.
Geopolitical competition is likely to continue intensifying. Further, states in Africa, Asia, and Latin America will continue to call for reforms of multilateral institutions. These developments are likely to impede regional cooperation as well, as global-level political fault lines tend to structure the trajectory of regional cooperation.
While regional organizations cannot replace the role of global institutions, they fulfill essential governance functions, offering regionally specific diplomacy and cooperation on key issues. The trend toward “orchestration” and club governance present an opportunity for the EU to offset imbalances in global governance arrangements. By leveraging its role in formats like the G7 and G20 and partnering with the African Union as a G20 member, the EU can integrate regional organizations to better reflect a broader array of regional perspectives and potentially offsetting some of the concerns of lack of reform of global institutions.
