Regions and Cities Governance Lab (Re-LAB)

Over the past decades, regional organisations have gained an essential role in the global governance structure. By now, these organisations cover almost every part of the globe and their number continues to increase every year. The proliferation of regional organisations provokes their overlap, adding a further level of complexity when it comes to governance. It is also a dynamic and volatile process: regional configurations expand and retract, as they constantly redefine the delineations of inclusion and exclusion. Even established regional organisations remain vulnerable to nationalist sentiments calling for disintegration.

Moreover, regional governance is becoming increasingly complex due to the number of actors involved. Beyond the autonomous nation-state, various actors at the supra- and sub-national levels shape a multitude of domains, from value chains to humanitarian action. In many cases, the administrations of regional organisations have attained a notable level of agency. They conduct their own external relations with non-members, international institutions of the United Nations system, and with other regional organisations, including non-state actors such as transnational corporate groups and civil society organisations. Substate regions and cities are following suit and have gained stature on the international stage.

The Regions and Cities Governance Lab is about understanding the institutional dynamics surrounding regional organisations. In addition to internal developments, Re-LAB studies interregionalism within a multi-level governance ecosystem, exploring how regions and cities engage in an international system that is under stress and in need of reform. Re-LAB considers transnational governance as a laboratory of continuous institutional adaptation and thereby provides a transversal linkage for all other research programmes and clusters at UNU-CRIS.

Projects

The Shared Neighbourhood Between the EU and Russia: From Conflictual towards Cooperative Regional Orders

• PhD Fellow: Louise Amoris
• Promotor: Fabienne Bossuyt
• Funding: BOF Ghent University (UNU-CRIS label)
  • 2021 - 2024

EU Conflict Mediation in its Wider Neighbourhood: Mapping and Explaining the EU’s Incoherent Involvement in Peace-Making

• PhD Fellow: Katsiaryna Lozka
• Promotors: Fabienne Bossuyt and Tim Haesebrouck (Ghent University)
• Funding: BOF Ghent University
  • 2020 - 2024

Applying Multi-Level Governance i n ASEAN Higher Education: The Case of ASEAN-Philippines Regional Cooperation 

• PhD Fellow: Maria Pilar Lorenzo
• Promotor: Philippe de Lombaerde
• Funding: BOF Ghent University (UNU-CRIS label)
  • 2022 - 2025

From Unequalto Equal Partners: Understanding Africa-EU Relations Through a Historical-Strctural Approach to Injustic

• PhD Fellow: Martina Chiara Tallarita
• Promotor: Jan Orbie
• Funding: BOF Ghent University (UNU-CRIS label)
  • 2022 - 2025

Handbook on Regional Cooperation and Integration

• Editor: Philippe De Lombaerde, Edward Elgar Publishers, 2020-2023

Special Issue on Disintegrations

• Editors: Philippe De Lombaerde and Andrew Dunn, Comentario Internacional, 2021-2023

The African Political Integration Process and Its Impact on EU-AU Relations in the Field of Foreign and Security Policy 

• Frank Mattheis, Dimpho Deleglise, Ueli Staeger
• Partners: European Parliament and TEPSA
  • 2022 - 2023

Regional Prevention Networks in Europe and Asia 

• Frank Mattheis, Jamie Pring, Guy Banim
• Partner: UNU-CPR
  • 2022 - 2023

Globalisation Projects of Regional Organisations 

• Partner: Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics
  • 2021-2023

A Reassessment of Relations Between the EU and African Regionalisms (ARREAR) 

• Frank Mattheis, Amandine Gnanguênon, Elisa Lopez Lucia (ULB)
• Partner: Jean Monnet Project
  • 2020 - 2023

Regional Governance in Organisations with Limited Capacity: An Analysis of Regional Policymaking and Implementation Across the Global South 

• Frank Mattheis, Leiza Brumat, Ine Lietaert, Giovanni Agostinis (University of Bologna)
  • 2023 - 2024