Europe's Old States and the New World Order

Book excerpt: In this final chapter we look again at the questions about the character of the new configuration of states and regions. We begin by asking if the very preconditions of centre-periphery conflict have changed in the new world order: have the changing powers of states or the changing character of peripheral identities undermined the conditions which led to conflict? We assess the degree to which the new elected regional institutions can provide a level of regional autonomy which defuses (or diffuses) older centre-periphery conflicts. We move on to the question of characterizing the new conjuncture. Does it represent a convergence towards a new European regionalism or is it no more than an adaptation of the historical traditions and institutions of the individual states and regions to contemporary pressures? Should it be seen as 'strong' globalization, where the states adopt common institutional innovations and are changed by common pressures, or 'weak' globalization in which new elements are indigenized in older systems? Does it represent an introduction of new institutional elements, a new conjunctural set of relations, or a change in the structures of the longue durée? In the concluding section of the chapter, we return to the issue of continuity and change in the new world order.