In Douglas Northrup, ed., A Companion to World History (Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012)
This article discusses the possibilities and limitations of region as a subject and frame for the writing of global histories. It explores competing definitions of the term “region” and, embarking from constructivist premises that cast regions as socio-political projects embedded in modern state territoriality, reviews some of the ways sub-state regions and multistate regions (such as regional federations and alliance systems) have interacted with the global environment.