This paper focuses on regional organisations, looking at how they are studied in international relations and especially in international political economy. Regions are considered to occupy a place midway between the state and the global order. This paper mainly assesses how regions are affected by systemic factors. One key issue is how global-level changes are shaping regional organisations. A second issue is the regions' capacity to meet the challenges and difficulties resulting from global

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... nts. In terms of regionalism, the two systemic factors studied here are globalisation and multipolarity.