Haas and Regional Integration

Haas’ believes that the study of regional integration is concerned with the explanation of how and why sovereign states voluntarily merge and mix with their neighbors so they loose aspects of sovereignty, in terms of economics, politics and defense, while acquiring new techniques for conflict resolution. He also states that regional integration is concerned with the outcomes of regional cooperation. I found it very interesting that the common market was the best means for rapid regional integration. This leads to maximizing spillover across countries. “Spillover in the scope of collective action,” was a phrase use to depict the nature of integration; it was a process where actors made decisions incrementally.

Another aspect of Haas’ argument that was not something I previously considered was the common threads between the Communication and Neo-Functional approaches. They both focus on gains and losses of actors, symbolic communications between elites, expectations of elites, and adequacy of institutions to handle dialog regarding integration. These common threads helped me to remember that theories are merely a tool for understanding the larger picture. Theories are bound to overlap, as no theory will always have a unique perspective on a certain issue.