The specification names five regional organisations: the EU, USMCA, the African Union, the Arab League and ASEAN. We add two wider examples, Mercosur and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, because they sharpen every comparison.
The chart scores all seven across five measures of integration: economic, political, rights, free movement and security. Green means deep, supranational integration. Amber means partial. Grey means minimal or none. Scroll, and read the chart one row and one column at a time.
Each step lights up the row or column it describes.
Already the chart is not one colour. Only one row is green nearly all the way across, and several rows are almost entirely grey. Integration is uneven: every organisation goes exactly as deep as its members want, and no deeper.
Five organisations are named in the specification: the EU, USMCA, the African Union, the Arab League and ASEAN. Learn these securely - they are lit now. The other two rows are wider examples for comparison marks.
The deepest and broadest of all. A single market, the euro, a directly elected Parliament, a court whose rulings bind members, free movement of people, and a growing security role. The only body strongly supranational on almost every measure.
One amber cell, four grey. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced NAFTA in 2020, is purely economic - a trade agreement with no parliament, no court of its own and no political project.
Put the EU and USMCA side by side and you have the spine of every regionalism essay. The same label, "regional organisation", covers a body that pools sovereignty across five measures and a body that touches one measure, partially. Depth is the question; these two rows are the extremes.
Modelled roughly on the EU. It has an Assembly, a Commission, a Pan-African Parliament, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and a peacekeeping role. Broad but shallow: it reaches into every measure, but lightly - a full row of amber.
The loosest of the named five. Limited free trade, minimal shared institutions beyond its Council, and only occasional joint action. A political forum more than an integrated bloc - the greyest row on the chart.
Strong on trade through the ASEAN Free Trade Area, but deliberately light on political institutions. The "ASEAN Way" of consensus and non-interference keeps it firmly intergovernmental - the opposite of the EU's approach, by choice rather than by failure.
Not named in the spec, but a sharp comparison. An economic bloc with real institutions - a customs union with a common external tariff, plus a Council, an executive Group and a consultative Parliament. Deeper than USMCA, narrower than the EU.
The mirror image of USMCA: security-led, not economic. Built to manage shared borders and resist what its members call outside interference in sovereign states. One green cell - in the column where almost everyone else is grey.
Not a single grey-free column, but the busiest one on the chart. Trade is where regionalism starts: even loose organisations manage some economic cooperation, because the gains are immediate and sovereignty costs are low. One column gives you one argument supported by seven organisations.
Now the reverse. Security is where regionalism stops: only the SCO is deep, the EU manages partial, and everyone else is grey - because defence sits at the core of state sovereignty, and states do not hand it over. Two columns, two halves of the sovereignty argument.
When a question says "regional organisations", a strong answer immediately asks which ones, and how deep? Read across a row, down a column, and you are already comparing - which is exactly what the comparative spine of a Paper 3 essay needs.
| Econ | Politics | Rights | Move | Security | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EUEuropean Union | Deep | Deep |
Deep | Deep |
Part |
| USMCAUS-Mexico-Canada | Part | None |
None | None |
None |
| AUAfrican Union | Part | Part |
Part | Part |
Part |
| ALArab League | Min | Min |
Min | Min |
Min |
| ASEANSE Asian Nations | Part | Min |
Min | Min |
Min |
| MercosurS. Common Market | Deep | Part |
Min | Part |
Min |
| SCOShanghai Coop. | Min | Part |
Min | Min |
Deep |
Tap an organisation for the dates, members and features you can quote in an essay.
Grew out of the European Coal and Steel Community (1951) and the European Economic Community, created by the Treaty of Rome (1957). The Maastricht Treaty (1992) created the EU itself; the Lisbon Treaty (2007) reformed it. 27 members after the UK left in 2020.
The only deeply supranational bloc: a single market with the four freedoms (goods, services, capital, people), the euro used by most members, a directly elected Parliament and a court whose rulings bind member states.
The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced NAFTA in 2020. The spec names it as NAFTA, now USMCA. Mainly an economic organisation: a free trade agreement, not a political project.
Its notable feature is the sunset clause: the agreement must be reviewed periodically by all three nations, which keeps it under constant renegotiation rather than building permanent institutions.
Launched in 2002, replacing the Organisation of African Unity, and modelled in part on the EU. Its motto is "A united and strong Africa".
Shared institutions (the Assembly, the Commission, a Pan-African Parliament), the African Continental Free Trade Area, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, and a peacekeeping role through the African Standby Force and missions such as AMISOM in Somalia. Broad ambitions, but most areas are still developing.
Founded in 1945 to draw closer the relations between Arab states and safeguard their independence and sovereignty. Members span North Africa and the Middle East.
The loosest of the named five: limited free trade (efforts towards the Greater Arab Free Trade Area), minimal shared institutions beyond its Council, and mainly political and diplomatic, rather than integrative, action.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Economically integrated through the ASEAN Free Trade Area, but politically deliberately loose.
The ASEAN Way is the key term: consensus rather than majority voting, non-interference in members' internal affairs, informality, gradualism and mutual respect. This keeps ASEAN firmly intergovernmental.
The Southern Common Market, founded by the Treaty of Asuncion (1991). Founding members: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Venezuela joined in 2012 but has been suspended since 2016.
A customs union with a common external tariff and real institutions: the Common Market Council, the Common Market Group and the consultative Parliament, Parlasur. It has negotiated trade agreements, including with the EU.
Began as the Shanghai Five in 1996 (China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan), cooperating on shared borders and security. Uzbekistan joined in 2001, creating the SCO. India and Pakistan later became members.
A security and political body. Its members agreed that outside interference in sovereign territory, on the pretext of "humanitarian intervention", was unacceptable - a deliberate counterpoint to the Western idea of a Responsibility to Protect.
Real recent questions. Tap one for how the chart feeds it.
Trap: "eroded" - measure how much sovereignty is actually lost, and define pooled sovereignty first. Conclude that erosion depends entirely on which bloc you mean.
Trap: the sovereignty-against-pooling debate again. Use small EU states, which gain a global voice through the deepest row on the chart, against the argument that membership constrains national choice.
Both organisations are named in the spec, and their two rows sit side by side on the chart. Pair them on shared features: both bring many states into a union with common aims, both began with an economic focus and moved into political and security roles, both built parliaments, courts and rights charters. The difference is depth - green against amber, all the way across.
You have read the chart. Check your recall, then practise writing with it.