THE GEOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE OF CROSS-NATIONAL TRADE-FLOWS AND REGION STATES

Recent trends in the globalization of production and the formation of regional coalitions has brought into question the suitability of the n ation state as the relevant scale for regional analysis. Economic acti vities are increasingly occuring within supranational spaces or region states, which act as mediators between the national and the internati onal economy. The rise of the region state has provoked fears that the postwar world order is disintegrating into closed trading blocs. This paper examines the spatial structure of region states and the role th ey play in the international economy, based upon international trade f lows 1970-90. Six region states are identified, arranged around the co re market countries of the US, Japan, Germany, France, UK and the form er USSR. Trade linkages between region states are hierarchically arran ged, revealing a bipolar structure of Pan-Pacific and Pan-European tra de. We also found an increase in the trade between region states relat ive to the trade within region states, indicating that the emerging re gionalization is associated with stronger global interdependencies.