The era of globalization is creating profound changes in global relationships, changes that are manifest at international, regional, national, and sub-national levels, making traditional regional development policy obsolete and irrelevant. Traditional policy needs to be redefined and reconstructed so it can capture and articulate emerging regional trends and issues. The first of four volumes based mainly on Global Forum on Regional Development Policy organized by the United Nations Centre for Regional Development in Nagoya, Japan, this book presents a broad theoretical and trend analysis of globalization and its effects on the theory and practice of regional development. The book lays out the major components that merit consideration if there is to be new regional planning in this millennium. While contributors to the volume do not agree on the effects of globalization on economic growth, there is a consensus in the volume that globalization presents a challenge to conventional development theories. The challenge for regional planners is to examine the impact and implications of recent structural changes on regional development planning and come up with viable and pragmatic regional development strategies. This volume begins to meet that challenge by laying out the major components that merit consideration. The following volumes will present detailed case studies of current regional planning practices, focusing largely on developing countries.