Regionalism in Global Era: Overview of Foreign and Russian Approaches

This article is devoted to a review of the formation of the theoretical foundations of the modern generation of regionalism. In the article, the authors tried to provide an overview of the publications of foreign and Russian researchers on modern theories of regionalism, examined the evolution of theoretical approaches to the study of regionalism, and also tried to identify the main trends and niches in the development of regional studies abroad and in Russia. The current practice of regional development requires the development of new theoretical and methodological approaches to their study. There is a wide variety of different integration forms in modern world. There is an overlapping membership of a large number of states in various regional structures, and a supplement of formal interstate interactions at the regional level with expanding stable informal and “private” ties. Besides the formation of regional cooperation in various fields take place, and, finally, the intensification of direct relations between interstate unions of different regions and the creation of transcontinental blocks of cooperation. All of the above is a complex “multi-level structure” that is gradually developed in the evolution process of regionalism. The purpose of this article is to determine the theoretical foundations of the modern generation of regionalism, its problem field and the difficulties in its study. As a result, the authors came to the conclusion that modern regionalism is a multidimensional, eclectic approach to the study of various forms of regional ties, taking into account not only regional but also global contexts, the formation of the theoretical and conceptual foundations of which has not yet been completed.