This research project's main objectives are to understand and explain:

• (i) how the global institutional level relates to regional visions of international security order and                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

• (ii) why some regional security organizations (RSOs) are more compatible with the UN while others challenge the UN in security matters and suggest alternative orders.

To achieve these goals, the project is built on an innovative theoretical agenda: from International Relations (IR), it brings together the fields of comparative regionalism, rising powers, and international organizations. It expands the IR research frontier by incorporating insights from International Law and Sociology of Law.

By adopting a comparative research design that will test different propositions across the Americas, Europe, Eurasia, Africa and the Middle East using process tracing, this project distinguishes itself through its systematic analysis across RSOs and their relations to the UN. It makes key contributions to our understanding of global governance mechanisms, the role of RSOs as agents of structuring order, and the complex linkages between the global and regional level by studying the UN’s relationship to RSOs.