[From the Introduction]. Regional Integration offers great opportunities for the countries involved in the process. This has been one of the consensus findings of the first Summer Academy in Comparative Regional Integration at the Center for European Integration Studies (ZEI), sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds of the German Federal Foreign Office. The Summer Academy gathered young academics from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean to analyze a wide range of issues dealing with regional integration. This unique program was initiated by ZEIDirector Prof. Dr. Ludger Kühnhardt with the objective of strengthening the knowledge of young academics in matters of regional integration with regard to regional groupings around the world. Through lectures, workshops, discussions and a simulation the Summer Academy enabled 30 participants from 25 countries outside of Europe to develop problem-oriented approaches for deeper integration in their own region and to estimate the European Union’s capacity to serve as a role model
