scholarly journals Regionalism and presidential ideology in the current wave of Latin American integration

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Baracaldo Orjuela ◽  
Jean-Marie Chenou
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
South American ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Material Interests

Latin American regionalism is currently undergoing a profound crisis. Although the recent wave of regionalism of the early 21st century raised high expectations just a few years ago, it has suffered some important drawbacks since, as illustrated by the suspension of Venezuela from Mercosur in 2017 or the debacle of the Union of South American Nations in April 2018. Regional integration theories extrapolated from the European case struggle to account for the short cycles of integration dynamics in Latin America. Against this background, this article emphasizes two important aspects of Latin American regionalism that differentiate Latin America from other regions and explain some of the swift changes experienced over the last decades. First, because of the presidential nature of diplomacy in the region, integration relies more on the success of summits and joint declarations than on longer-term institutional diplomacy. Second, ideology is an essential factor of integration, as opposed to a vision of regionalism based primarily on material interests. Hence, the success and failure of regional integration are partly explained by the convergence of presidential ideologies among member states in a given organization. Based on an expert survey on the evolution of presidential ideology in 15 Latin American countries since the beginning of the 21st century and complemented by a structured discourse analysis, the article explores the importance of ideological coherence in the success – and lack thereof – of four regional organizations (the Pacific Alliance, Mercosur, the Andean Community and the Union of South American Nations). It also illustrates the salience of ideological arguments in presidential discourses on regional integration. These elements shed new light on the ideological factor in the current crisis of Latin American regionalism.

scholarly journals Regional integration and Brazilian Foreign Policy: Strategies in the South American space

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (48) ◽  
pp. 51-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Soreanu Pecequilo ◽  
Corival Alves do Carmo
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
South American ◽  
Theoretical Studies ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Foreign Policy Strategies

The aim of the article is to present, based on theoretical studies of integration, the evolution of this process in Latin America and, most recently, in South America. Based on these studies, the goal is to analyze the role played by Brazil in the process, which defines as priorities of its foreign policy a regional and global framework for its international action that is based on both cooperation and power projection.The research has been conducted based on theories of integration, an historical background on Latin American integration and in Brazilian foreign policy, through its contemporary agenda. The answer was based on a comparative agenda and in a bibliographical critical analysis of the research material.The main findings of the paper point out that Latin American integration has specific features linked to the economic, political and stragetic realities of the continent that show the limitations of some theories applied to the European process, also that it depends on Brazilian foreign policy actions, that still sees the region as instrumental to its interests. So, Brazil sometimes fail to fulfill some requisites of integration that are essential to sustain its projects. Therefore, there is a cycle of enlargement and deepening of regional integration process in this political space that point out to the need of a more sustained compromise of Brazilian foreign policy towards these projects. If Brazil continues not to sustain these projects, they will lose momentum and significance once more, increasing power asymmetries in the region.

Brazil’s Role in Latin American Regionalism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier A. Vadell ◽  
Clarisa Giaccaglia
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
South American ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The South ◽  
Integration Model ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
The One ◽  
Latin American And Caribbean

The roots of Latin American regionalism blend together with the birth of the region’s states, and despite its vicissitudes, the integrationist ideal represents the most ambitious form of regional feeling. It is an ancient process that has undergone continuous ups and downs as a result of domestic and foreign restrictions. In the early 21st century, the deterioration of the “open regionalism” strategy, along with the rise to power of diverse left governments, led to the development of a “physical-structural,” “post-liberal,” “post-neoliberal,” or “post-hegemonic” integration model. In this context, Brazil—governed by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva—constituted itself as a crucial protagonist and main articulator of the South American integrationist project. From this perspective, in addition to the existing MERCOSUR, UNASUR was created, and it encompassed the whole subcontinent, thus reaffirming the formulation of regional policies regarding the concept of “South America.” At present, however, a new stage of these regionalisms has started. Today, the Latin American and Caribbean dynamics seem to bifurcate, on the one hand, into a reissue of open regionalism—through the Pacific Alliance—and, on the other hand, into a fragmentation process of South America as a geopolitical bloc and regional actor in the global system. Regarding this last point, it is unavoidable to link the regional integration crisis to the critical political and economic situation undergone by Brazil, considered as the leader of the South American process. In short, the withdrawal of the Brazilian leadership in South America, along with the shifts and disorientations that took place in UNASUR and MERCOSUR, have damaged the credibility of the region’s initiatives, as well as the possibility to identify a concerted voice in South America as a distinguishable whole. That regional reality poses an interesting challenge that implies, to a great extent, making a heuristic effort to avoid being enclosed by the concepts and assumptions of the processes of regionalism and integration that were born to explain the origin, evolution, and development of the European Union. From this perspective, the authors claim that the new phase experienced by Latin American regionalisms cannot be understood as a lack of institutionality—as it is held by those perspectives that support the explanations that they “mirror” the European process—but rather it answers chiefly to a self-redefinition process influenced by significant alterations that occurred both in global and national conjunctures and that therefore, have had an impact on the regional logic. Given the regional historical tradition marked by vicissitudes, the authors believe that they can hardly talk about a “Sudamexit” (SouthAmexit in English) process, namely, an effective abandonment of regionalisms. Recognizing the distinctive features of Latin American and Caribbean countries, rather, leads us to think of dynamics that generate a complex and disorganized netting in which the political-institutional course of development of Brazil will have relevant repercussions in the future Latin American and Caribbean process as a whole.

Latin America: contrasting motivations for regional projects

2009 ◽  
Vol 35 (S1) ◽  
pp. 169-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
DIANA TUSSIE
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
The North ◽  
External Pressures ◽  
Market Liberalisation ◽  
Market Relations ◽  
Regional Projects

AbstractThe breakdown of the North-South, East-West governing principles, and the removal of superpower overlay have led to an increasingly decentralised system setting the stage for the so called new geography of trade and the reconfiguration of political – diplomatic strategies. Such strategies now include contestation, articulation, competitive liberalisation, ample inter-state coalition building such as the G-20, G-33, G-90 in the Doha Round and the proliferation of regional and wider ranging preferential arrangements. Regionalism is both policy and project. Agreements vary widely in motivation, form, coverage and content. It is very often the case that, as in multilateral institutions, one major actor sets the agenda at the regional level with the view not only of constructing and retaining power at that level but also of setting global precedents. New balancing or bandwagoning efforts vis-à-vis the local strong power are set in motion with fresh implications for the emerging global architecture. Regional alignments are thus constantly shaping and reshaping market relations. Intra-Latin American agreements (those not including the majors, the US and the EU) were motivated by the search for wider markets building up economies of scale amongst similar countries. Such agreements mostly focused on market liberalisation through diverse schedules of tariff reduction. The result has been the emergence of shallow regional agreements. Nonetheless, most have not been fully implemented, but they show a long term trend towards potential convergence, especially if the Community of South American Nations moves on. External pressures have also spurred agreements as defensive mechanisms. So we witness impulses to regionalism complementing and at times competing with older patterns and trends. This contribution focuses on the different avenues that Latin America is undertaking in terms of regional projects. It will assess the dynamics of intra- regional integration and the inter-action effects with varieties of North-South integration.

The Arabs and Gabriel García Márquez

2021 ◽  
pp. 231-245
Author(s):  
Heba El Attar
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Gabriel Garcia Marquez ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
South American ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
The Third ◽  
American Author

In 2014, newspapers across the Spanish-speaking world covered how the international press paid tribute to García Márquez. Particular attention was given to the extensive eulogies in the Arab press. A special homage was paid to the author’s memory in Saudi Arabia, where the Third South American-Arab Countries Summit was being held at the time. This was not Naguib Mahfuz; this was García Márquez. How was it possible for a Latin American author to become that popular across the Arab world? How was it possible for his novels to be referenced naturally in popular Arab films such as The Embassy in the Building (2005)? Was all this simply due to the fact that in postindependence Latin America, particularly since the 1940s, there has been a growing de-orientalist discourse? Or did García Márquez craft a particular dialogue with the internal and external Arabs? With all this in mind, and by drawing on Latin American (de)orientalism in the works of Kushigian, Nagy-Zekmi, and Tyutina, among others, this article analyzes the dimensions and implications of García Márquez’s depiction of the internal Arab (immigrant in Latin America) in some of his novels as well as his dialogue with the external Arab (the Arab world) in some of his press articles.

The Latin American Publishing Circuit in the 21st Century: Following the Trajectory of César Aira

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 056-064
Author(s):  
María Belén Riveiro ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
American Literature ◽  
Latin American ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Latin American Literature ◽  
Publishing Houses ◽  
César Aira ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
Cesar Aira ◽  
The 1960S

This essay poses a question about the identity of Latin American literature in the 21st century. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Latin America Boom received recognition both locally and internationally, becoming the dominant means of defining Latin American literature up to the present. This essay explores new ways to understand this notion of Latin America in the literary scene. The case of the Argentine writer César Aira is relevant for analyzing alternative publishing circuits that connect various points of the region. These publishing houses foster a defiant way of establishing the value of literature.

Regional and Preferential Agreements: The ‘Pacific’ and ‘Atlantic’ Styles in Latin America

2019 ◽  
pp. 623-649
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Polanco Lazo
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
Economic Liberalization ◽  
Important Group ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Institutional Responses ◽  
Investment Agreements ◽  
Latin American Countries ◽  
Trade And Investment

Nowadays, two fundamentally different institutional responses to global economic liberalization coexist in Latin America: the ‘Atlantic style’ (closer to closed regionalism) and the ‘Pacific style’ (closer to open regionalism). In the context of never-ending efforts of an elusive Latin-American integration, this chapter advances the idea that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is at least successful in consolidating a model of economic integration based on preferential trade and investment agreements for an important group of Latin American countries that follow the ‘Pacific’ style. Whereas the Pacific Alliance countries have embraced neoliberal trade and investment agreements actively and expanded their scope of influence, other countries, such as the Bolivarian Alliance, have responded with active counter-organizing but with fading influence in the region. But as often happens in Latin America, these styles are not absolute and being tempered by countries like Argentina that have blends or pragmatist (pick-and-choose) strategies, taking elements from both styles.

Cuba and Integration Processes in Latin America and the Caribbean

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Oliva Campos ◽  
Gary Prevost
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Jose Marti ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Simon Bolivar ◽  
Cuban Government ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Negative Impacts

The uniting core of all the Cuban revolutionary government’s unfolding politics toward Latin American and Caribbean countries has been based on three foundational tenets: the staunch defense of a unified perspective that spans national to regional; the recovery of the historic principles of regional integration defended by Simón Bolívar and José Martí, and the unalterable anti-imperialist position of its international relations. Unlike the enormous negative impacts that the demise of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and Eastern-European socialism caused Cuba, the new political and geo-economic scene of the post–Cold War turned out to be very favorable for a Cuban government that shifted to redefine its relationships with Latin America and the Caribbean. This was strengthened by the victory of progressive and leftist governments in influential countries such as Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela. The new regional circumstances have been the most propitious for the development of the integrationist vision historically supported by the Cuban Revolution.

Paradiplomacy in Latin America: Between the Policy and the Research Agenda

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Carolina Mauad
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Global Dynamics ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Subnational Governments

Paradiplomacy refers to the international politics of subnational governments, such as cities and states. Latin American subnational actors have been actively performing paradiplomacy actions since the 1990s, fostering a research agenda that is closely connected with the policy practice. In a context of democratization and regional integration, paradiplomacy tends to grow and expose challenges regarding legal and institutional settings within federalist countries while dialoguing with global dynamics.

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