Perceived economic globalization and Europe's progressive supranationalism have inspired a regional politics growth industry, centred on Europe, which addresses how regions increasingly form and operate trans-border institutions. Defining regionalism as the creation of new partnerships or regions across jurisdictions, Memorial University's Stephen Tomblin describes this book's thirteen essays, divided almost evenly between Canadian and American scholars, as an effort to overcome the lack of substantial research on North America's cross-border regions (8). The book will satisfy most readers seeking an update on the slowly growing regional initiatives inside the Atlantic region (only sometimes including Newfoundland) and the states of New England. But as the book's contributors make clear, for all the ever-increasing trans-border truck crossings and energy sales, most recently for Sable Island gas, institutional cooperation between these provinces and states remains limited.

Tomblin's Introduction and the concluding chapter by co-editor Charles Colgan of the University of Southern Maine present the argument clearly. The familiar European-influenced finding of functional cooperation that inspires spillover, eventually leading to institutional change and the removal of barriers, must yield, at least for the foreseeable future in this corner of North America, to a state-centred institutionalism emphasizing the resilience of established federal, provincial, state, and local government institutions (293–4). We find scant support for Joel Garreau's 1981 prediction that the cross-border regional cultures in the “nine nations of North America” would soon pursue economic and political unity, or for Thomas Courchene's “glocalization” trend in which a global economy promotes restructuring and regionalization, not to mention Kenichi Ohmae's globalization-inspired “invisible continent” that can undermine national sovereignty and eventually make borders obsolete (98–9, 19, 246).

Nearly all of the contributors concentrate on their own side of the clearly still formidable border. Most describe often frustratingly slow progress in securing support across provincial or state boundaries for joint economic, educational, and environmental initiatives. To be sure, small victories have been won, as through the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission (MPHEC) and the New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE). These regional bodies have overcome embedded resistance sufficiently to instill some regional consciousness if not regional coordination of public university systems. Writing on Maritime universities, David M. Cameron observes that provincial governments' structures and politicians' jealous safeguarding of their own power do not easily accommodate regional interests (214). Cameron does not expect the further pooling of resources that could enhance the region's competitiveness (218). South of the border, things are much the same. Robert L. Woodbury and John O. Harney believe a history of competition and bickering, plus a pervasive localism, preclude a sense of New England solidarity and common purpose in operating the region's public universities and much else besides (222, 241).

Perhaps at one time Atlantic provincialism and New England localism were affordable indulgences. No more. Sounding like Stephen Harper, Donald Savoie warns that the writing is on the wall for federal largess in his region. With Ottawa progressively and inexorably cutting back its subsidization, regional leaders must undertake initiatives for closer inter-provincial cooperation. Savoie urges his fellow Maritimers to recognize that the emerging north-south North American economy requires their region to “untie its economic boat” from its dependency on Ottawa and join the global economy (124). Unlike Harper, Savoie avoids the word “dependency,” but his message is clear—or it should be. Similarly, Woodbury and Harney note New England's steady loss of policymaking influence in Washington to the Sun Belt. They propose that New Englanders set aside their particularisms and undertake more shared endeavours (243). Even if leaders on both sides of the border unexpectedly take this advice, however, they may perceive little incentive to coordinate policies across the international boundary.

The contributors offer diverse reasons for perpetuated particularisms and for the lack of cross-border coordination. Robert Finbow notes that globalization strengthens local identities to compensate for the growing role of distant unaccountable forces (167). Charles H.W. Foster calls New Englanders cautious about change and hard to convince that change is desirable. Moreover, Americans remain willfully ignorant of Canada (274, 286). Comparing cross-border environmental policies, Rod Bantjes maintains that nongovernmental organizations actively and successfully lobby New England's local governments. By contrast, in Atlantic Canada they fare so poorly at local and provincial levels, at least on this issue, that they direct most of their attention to Ottawa (262–9). Tomblin notes that finding common cause is difficult in the absence of a regional agenda inside these regions or across the border. Continuing cultural, institutional, and policy differences between states and provinces also complicate cooperation. Tomblin expects both sides of the border to maintain the status quo as long as they believe it is viable (99–100). Besides, Roger Gibbins notes that the two federal governments continue to guard their powers jealously. Initiatives for cross-border integration can succeed only when pursued incrementally, even by stealth, to keep from alarming the authorities in Ottawa and Washington (54). Perhaps so, but Ottawa and Washington may have little cause for concern for quite some time.

These points are valid, but there is more to consider. New England and Atlantic Canada may be too similar; too often they find themselves competing for the same tourism, potatoes, lumber and fishing markets. Besides, neither region is a coherent unit. For one thing, while the book generally focuses on the whole six-state region, Canadians must contend with two New Englands. The 85% of New Englanders and their governments located outside Maine and Vermont have fully integrated into the Boston-to-Washington Megalopolis. They look southward and have limited interest in Canada. Equally consequential are the still-developing effects of September 11, 2001 on the border and on attitudes about cross-border initiatives. The book all but ignores September 11, whose impact may help perpetuate a sense of separateness on both sides of the border. Anecdotal reports, letters to the editor, and newspaper columns on border crossing delays and annoyances have induced many residents of the area, as well as potential cross-border investors, to perceive a progressively tightening border. Atlantic Canadians and (especially northern) New Englanders already tend towards risk aversion, acceptance of things as they are, and a localistic “sense of place”; for generations, more dynamic regions to the west and south have lured away aggressive risk-takers and enthusiasts for change and experiment. Perceived momentum is key here: if uncertainty and unpredictability-averse residents believe the border is tightening, they will conduct a hardheaded cost-benefit analysis and minimize their need to cross it. In this way September 11's North American legacy may impose a momentum that takes a direction different from the European Union's Schengen-facilitated “Europe of the regions.”

Evidence from this book and elsewhere suggests that state-centred and institutional characteristics, distinct political cultures, persistent particularisms, and externally imposed circumstances can hold off economic and functional integration, perhaps indefinitely. New trans-border integrative initiatives will proceed, but only for compelling reasons. As Colgan notes in his concluding chapter on the future, well established mutually beneficial cooperation, as on energy and the environment, will endure not because of a cross-border regional identity, or in pursuit of greater regional integration, but purely for practical mutual advantage (301). Perhaps above all this book helps us appreciate the possibilities and limits of cross-border integration in a region whose experience the literatures on globalization and integration would do well to absorb and accommodate.