Challenging theoretical notions of regional integration: The Arab Maghreb Union, the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and Arab regionalism

Alliances between states have traditionally been governed by the assumption that such measures were made for security purposes. In the post-Cold War era, however, the rise of non-state actors and small states as powerful forces in international politics, economics and humanitarian matters have called such suppositions into question. In particular, the commonly asserted international relations theories of realism, liberalism and their tepid offshoots fail to account for these dynamic changes to the global system of order. The Arab Maghreb Union provides an example of the important role that small states can play when they choose to ally together and, in cooperation with the European Union and its constituent regional associations such as the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, demonstrates the need for a more holistic theoretical apparatus with which to explain the motivations and actions of sub-hegemonic states and non-state entities in the contemporary period.