Security Governance in a Comparative Regional Perspective

This article aims to explore the relationship between domestic economic and political conditions and the performance of 14 regional organisations over a range of security provisions. It argues that the willingness of member states to increase the range of security provisions of a regional organisation is influenced by the combination of high levels of economic and political development and low levels of dispersion among the members of a regional organisation. In order to evaluate this assumption, two aspects of regional organisations will be explored. The first is to examine the existing scope of security provisions of 14 regional organisations together with the associated autonomy of empowerment arrangements (coordination, management enforcement instruments) of those organisations. The second is to analyse how six economic and political variables influence the range of security provisions and the degree of empowerment of regional organisations.