The regional dimensions in the foreign policies of the European Union and the United States.

Since the decay of the Cold War we observe a global trend of regionalization which brings about a new level of global governance which can no longer be neglected in foreign policy-making. It is common sense in the literature that the European Union applies the promotion of regional integration as one foreign political tool in order to “reproduce itself” and to shape the global governance system according to its interests. The United States in contrast have always been described as a countermodel to regional integration, rejecting to pool sovereignty in regional organizations. However, despite – or even due to - its economic and political power the US must not neglect the emergence of this new level of governance in its external relations. The state of the art literature has so far turned a blind eye on the American way of dealing with the rising trend of regionalism. The paper seeks to shed light on the regional dimensions in the foreign policies of the EU and the US towards Africa, Asia and Latin America. On the basis of an elaborate map of the two actors’ regional approaches I will be able to compare the approaches and detect whether their strategies follow two distinct global scripts.