Abstract
Voluntary unification of states or broadly political integration is a unique phenomenon in international politics. Albeit being rare in occurrence, it has larger implication in regional and global politics considering the emergence of Unites States after its integration to the role of super power and the unified military alliance of Europe achieved after its integration into the European union. Although traditionally a stronghold of liberal school which focused on economic factors, political integration has increasingly become of interest to realist scholars. They focus on the external threat variable as necessary for integrations to occur. Existing theories, apart from their rigid parsimony, also lacks explanatory power due to its complete neglect of cases from the post WW2 period global south. Including cases from different regions like Americas, Africa, Middle East and Europe from a period of 1780 to 2024, this paper proposes a new theory of political integration that differs in important ways from the existing realist and liberal integration theories. I argue that integration among two or more independent states are more likely to occur when elites in a militarily weak state face the threat of regime change from external and internal actors simultaneously. This duality of threat from domestic and foreign actors coincides in a manner that exhausts the internal and external balancing capabilities of the state, forcing elites to integrate with their neighboring allies. The paper uses a qualitative case study method to validate the argument.
Presenters
Huda ShareefStudent, M.Phil. in International Studies, Georgia State University, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Political Integration, Internal threat, External Threat, Unification
