they have received increased political interest at eu level with the development of transnational programmes in macroregions as well as macroregional strategies thus far for two areas that share a common water basin two crossborder initiatives in the united states with canada and mexico resemble macroregions given their scale many such networks with various degrees of depth and stability exist first such configurations are more likely to focus on innovationdriven economic development opportunities than broader geostrategic or infrastructure considerations second with geographic proximity the economic exchanges and flows of people capital and knowledge may be more intense within such crossborder regions than in the other types