Regionalism, as this paper argues, has always been more a political than an economic concept, though there has always been a close and confusing interweaving of the two. But with the openness now associated with the global economy, demography suggests that over the next half century, much of the world economy will relocate to where the bulk of the world?s labour force is ? in developing countries, to the immense benefit of the bulk of the world?s poor. This is, provided the dominant powers do not use their political, financial and military power to block this process.