For more than 60 years the comparative study of regionalism has been dominated by a fierce divide over the role of European integration and, specifically, of the European Community (EC)/European Union (EU). On the one side, the EC/EU has served as the foundation, model and even as the 'gold standard' for conceptualising, theorising, and designing regionalism worldwide, giving rise to numerous hub-and-spoke comparisons. On the other side, critics have adopted an anti-Eurocentric stance or reverted into parochialism that exaggerates the 'uniqueness' of their favourite region. This article shows that old 'postures' have been replaced by systematic comparisons across regions that eschews EU-centrism. We describe three transformative developments in the research field: (i) scholars increasingly use general social science concepts to compare across regions, (ii) theoretically, scholars develop frameworks that build on general social science theories and actively question and seek to move beyond EU-centrism, and (iii) new methodological trends and a data revolution. These game-changing developments mark not only the end of the divide between the EU and regionalism in the rest of the world, but also the 'normalisation' of Comparative Regionalism as a field of study.
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