Regional integration is a process whereby several states sharing certain commonalities begin to coordinate their basic economic and social programs, creating a federation of one type or another. The practice has the purpose of opening markets, forcing economic reforms and increasing competitiveness among domestic firms. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) promotes regional integration as a means of achieving domestic financial and macroeconomic stability.
Sovereignty
The main drawback to regional integration lies in the loss of sovereignty. Especially in the postcolonial world, including many European states such as Ireland, Greece or Ukraine, the loss of sovereignty is an extremely sensitive issue. Regional integration schemes often place executive and legislative power in the hands of supernational bodies, some even overseen by globalized agencies such as the World Bank, which can weaken domestic and local policy making.
Competition
An argument consistently put forth in favor of these integration schemes holds that the larger market will force domestic firms to become leaner and more competitive. Unfortunately, this newfound competition also translates into the elimination of many jobs, the killing off of weaker firms and, quite possibly, the development of oligarchy. In general, regional integration permits larger and more stable firms to kill off smaller and less stable firms. Oligarchy can can especially result from the integration of an advanced economy, like that of South Africa, with nearby weaker economies, like that of Angola. In these cases, South African firms will have no difficulty outperforming Angolan ones, leading to South African colonization of the poorer countries in the region.
Resources
If one country in a region has resources the other states lack, these resources --- rightly or wrongly --- are often seen by others as a political weapon. Battles have raged in Eastern Europe over the relations between Ukraine and Russia. Russia has offered a regional integration scheme many times wherein regional states such as Armenia and Kazakhstan can share resources and open markets. Ukrainians have responded by accusing Russia of using its superior oil and gas wealth to hold the Ukrainian economy hostage. This use of resources as a weapon, real or perceived, can be another result of imbalances in regional power arrangements.
Yugoslavia
The kingdom of Yugoslavia, established in 1918, was meant to exemplify successful regional integration, bringing a group of small, formerly colonized countries in southeast Europe into a federation. Distrust and violence quickly followed, however. Croats distrusted the numerically superior Serbs. Serbs were the only population that had independent military and political experience, so they quickly became overrepresented in the new state. Slovenia became economically advanced and wealthy and viewed Yugoslavia as a welfare agency using Slovenian money to subsidize the poorer regions of the new country. Religious animosity erupted among Islamic, Catholic and Orthodox Yugoslavs. Few identified with the "Yugoslav" ethnicity, which all ethnic groups tended to see as artificial. Civil war and violence followed in 1941, and again in 1993.
