Abstract: The present article explores the theoretical basis of modern regional studies and comparative integration. The article covers the formation of existing integration theories and their peculiar features; fixes the historical dominant of Western European experience in the process of integration theories creation. The author marks out the fundamental differences between the context of Western European integration and regional processes in most other regions of the world; gives a brief description of the liberal intergovernmental approach, its origins, history, and circumstances of its development, and the reasons for its wide applicability. As an example, the article appeals to the experience of regional initiatives of Latin America, their specificity and fundamental principles of functioning, their difference from Western European practice and compliance of Latin American experience with the hypotheses of the liberal intergovernmental approach, explicableness of modern phenomena of Latin American regionalism on its basis. The author draws a conclusion as for applicability of the Liberal Intergovernmental Approach in modern studies of regional organizations as a basic theoretical approach, makes assumptions about its perspective further adaptation, highlights relevance of this direction as well as the theoretical work necessary to understand and systematize the experience of practical research and regional specifics.

Abstract: The article examines the regional processes in the Western Hemisphere in the context of their development and competition throughout their history. The author pays special attention to their current state. The movements of "pan-Americanism" and "Latin Americanism" as well as their embodiment in the regional configuration of the Western Hemisphere in General and Latin America in particularare the central issuesof the study. The article outlines the factors of their development and interrelations in an attempt to identify their underlying patterns; to determine more precisely the nature of the current situation in this macro-region; to categorize the ongoing processes in the Western Hemisphere more clearly; and to facilitate their theoretical and practical study through optimization of the set of concepts. In particular, the author propose the concept of dynamic balance as definition of the form of interrelations between the pan-American and Latin American vectors of development of the Hemisphere's regional configuration which is different from the concepts of "cyclicity" and other forms of explanation of the occurring processes proposed in the past. The article concludes that the position of dynamic balance in the Western Hemisphere is objectively inevitable in the current conditions, it describes its key determinants and patterns, mechanisms of its stability and the possibilities of change.