Hemispheric Integration and Subregionalism in the Americas

The project to construct a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is unique in its attempt to integrate and build on existing subregional blocs. The impact of the hemispheric integration process on subregionalism can best be understood not through a simplistic strengthening/weakening dichotomy, but rather as involving a substantial reconfiguration of subregional projects. This article focuses on the manifestations of this relationship in the case of the Mercosur, with comparative glances at other subregions. It pays particular attention on the one hand to strategic 'bloc bargaining' issues, and on the other to the policy challenges generated by the FTAA project, which form the twin pillars of the reconfigured form of subregionalism that is currently emerging.