This is the first of five volumes reporting on the UNU/WIDER project on new regionalism. It deals with the conceptions and meanings of two processes which will have a crucial influence on the shape of the 'new world order' - globalization and regionalization. These relate to each other as challenge to response, globalization being the challenge of economic and cultural homogenization of the world and regionalization being a social and political reaction. The leading writers in the field contribute thought-provoking and fascinating articles to this volume.