Quotes on Regionalism and World Order, From Their Own Words

The following is a summary. To read the full original article on Carl’s substack click here.

Regionalism and World Order: North America’s Ongoing Integration

In this follow-up to his series on regionalism, Carl Teichrib revisits the idea of North American integration, noting that continental union is no longer a fringe proposal. He points to a recent article from the Winnipeg-based Frontier Centre for Public Policy advocating a Can-Am union—complete with shared rules, harmonized supply chains, and even a common currency—as a solution to Canada’s economic stagnation. While the economic appeal may resonate with frustrated Canadians, Teichrib argues that regional consolidation carries deeper implications.

His central concern is that regionalism rarely exists in isolation. Historically and ideologically, it functions as a stepping stone toward broader structures of global governance. To demonstrate this, Teichrib highlights a range of statements from policymakers, federalist thinkers, and international institutions showing how regional integration is consistently framed as a building block for world order.

One of the most revealing quotes comes from former UN Under-Secretary-General Robert Muller, who openly advocated creating continental unions—such as a European Union and an American Union—as precursors to a unified “World Union.” Muller’s comments illustrate how regional blocs are envisioned not as endpoints but as intermediate phases in a larger project of global federalism.

Similarly, political theorist Björn Hettne described “the new regionalism” as a world-order concept extending far beyond trade agreements. He emphasized that regional integration now encompasses political, social, and cultural coherence, contributing to a redefined global power structure shaped by world regions. This framing moves regionalism into the realm of identity formation and governance transformation.

Finally, the Montreux Declaration of 1947 makes the trajectory explicit: regional federations, if properly aligned, should contribute to the effective functioning of world federal government. Far from opposing globalism, regional blocs are positioned as necessary scaffolding for it.

Throughout the collection of quotes, a pattern emerges. Prominent voices—from UN officials to federalist scholars—consistently describe regional organizations as “building blocks” or “intermediate levels” between nation-states and global institutions. The European Union is repeatedly cited as proof-of-concept: a supranational model that demonstrates sovereignty-sharing can work, potentially at a global level.

Teichrib’s broader argument is not that regional integration automatically equals global government, but that the intellectual architecture linking the two is well established. Continentalism in North America cannot be evaluated purely in economic terms; it exists within a larger discourse that envisions layered governance structures, subsidiarity frameworks, and the gradual evolution of supranational authority.

In short, the debate over a North American union is inseparable from the wider conversation about global federalism. Regionalism, in much of the literature and policy discussion, is not merely pragmatic cooperation—it is a strategic component in the reconfiguration of world order.

Here are 3 representative quotes from the 15 listed in the original article that most represent these ideas. The numbers on the quotes indicate their position in the original article on Carl’s substack.

1. “…let us create regional continental units…the European Union, an American Union, which I’ve been pushing too – and this how you got the trade agreement between the US and Canada. And then we’ll take the five continents, and the five continents, if they’re united, will create a World Union.”

– Robert Muller [former UN Under-Secretary-General], speaking to the Global Citizenship 2000 Youth Congress, April 5, 1997, Vancouver BC, Canada.

9. “…the new regionalism includes economic, political, social and cultural aspects, and goes far beyond free trade. Rather, the political ambition of establishing regional coherence and regional identity seems to be of primary importance. The new regionalism is linked to globalization and can therefore not be understood merely from the point of view of the single region. Rather it should be defined as a world order concept… The new global power structure will thus be defined by the world regions, but regions of different types.”

– Björn Hettne, “Globalization, the New Regionalism and East Asia,” Globalism and Regionalism (United Nations University Global Seminar, 2-6 Sept 1996), p.6.

10. “…regionalism need not be opposed to globalism. The world should not have to choose between one or the other. It needs to live with both. The challenge… is how to channel the forces of regionalism in directions compatible with and supportive of globalism.”

– Regionalism in a Converging World (Trilateral Commission/Trilateral Papers #42, 1992).