Which Brazilian policy for regionalism? Discourse and institutional development in Mercosur (original) (raw)
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Brazil's Role in Latin American Regionalism
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics, 2019
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.
American Regionalism and Brazilian Diplomatic Discourse (1946-2019)
Contexto Internacional, 2021
In this article, we analyse the content of the speeches delivered by Brazilian Presidents, Foreign Ministers and Ambassadors at annual Ordinary Sessions of the United Nations General Assembly in the period between 1946 and 2019. Our primary objective is to find out how often and under what circumstances Brazilian diplomats mentioned the subject of American regionalism and whether the mention was made in reference to specific projects or to abstract concepts of regional integration and cooperation. Based on this analysis, we highlight the great deal of importance that was given to MERCOSUR-and, to a lesser extent, UNASUR-to the detriment of other regional integration projects, as well as the preference, by Brazilian diplomats, for a flexible, low-profile, abstract and low-cost discursive approach. In short, we found that cooperation and integration have frequently been discussed, although little attention has been devoted to the limits and possibilities of each project under construction.
Of all the countries identified as rising powers on the world stage, Brazil appears to have drawn considerable economic and political strength from its engagement with various forms of regionalism during the expansionist years when Lula was president. Whether by helping create a local, intra-regional entity (Mercosul) or, later, proposing a continental one (UNASUL), Brasilia appeared to have the capacity to further its own economic and political interests by generating cooperative interactions with its smaller neighbors. Subsequently it took a leading role in inter-regional negotiations between Mercosul and the European Union in the global North and between Mercosul and ASEAN in the global South. More recently still, it spread its wings by associating trans-regionally with powers that are similarly dominant within their own regions – IBSA (India, Brazil, and South Africa) and BRICS (Russia, India, China, and South Africa) which shared with it a desire to play greater roles in the major institutions of global governance. While these new associations have their inner raisons d’être, belonging to them also bolsters Brazil’s weight in such traditional multilateral organizations as the United Nations and the WTO which were previously dominated by the US-Europe-Japan triad. This working paper assesses the relative importance of these different regionalisms in Brazil’s emergence on the global stage by counterposing them with such standard explanations of a state’s global significance as its military might, economic strength, and its soft-power influence overseas. We identify how various regionalisms interact with traditional bilateral and multilateral relations in helping or hindering Brazil in its global ascent. We conclude to our surprise that regionalism has only played a minimally positive role economically. Even politically, it has on occasion become more hindrance than help in boosting Brazil into its current orbit – as its announced intention to negotiate separately with the EU suggests.
Regional integration and brazilian foreign policy: strategies in the South American space
ARTIGOS Rev. Sociol. Polít., Curitiba, v. 21, n. 48, p. 51-65, dez. 2013 Recebido em 27 de maio de 2012. Aprovado em 17 de outubro de 2012. Corival Alves do Carmo Desde a criação da Associação Latino-Americana de Livre Comércio em 1960, os projetos de integração regional na América Latina apresentaram diversos estágios políticos e econômicos. Assim, o objetivo do artigo é expor, a partir da base teórica dos estudos de integração, a evolução do processo integracionista na América Latina e, no período mais recente, na América do Sul. A partir desta análise, visa-se avaliar qual o papel desempenhado pelo Brasil no processo, que tem com propósitos da agenda de política externa do país o exercício de uma ação regional e global, que alterna tanto a cooperação quanto a projeção de poder. Para isto, o texto encontra-se dividido nas seguintes seções, além da introdução e
Brazilian Political Science Review (BPSR) , 2023
What challenges are posed for building analytical frameworks and empirical studies on regional integration processes in the South? The authors aim to contribute to this debate by producing a detailed empirical analysis of Brazil’s foreign policy regarding the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and South American regional integration. From a theoretical-methodological standpoint, the authors introduce an important innovation in this work, with a multilevel analysis of the Mercosur regional integration process, looking into the domestic, regional, and systemic levels.
Hegemony and Regionalism: Brazil’s Subordination of Argentina through the Formation of Mercosur
Jurnal Sentris, 2020
Rivalitas strategis antara Brazil dan Argentina di masa Perang Dingin membuat kawasan Amerika Latin relatif tidak kohesif dan tidak terintegrasi. Ketidakbersatuan ini dimanfaatkan oleh Amerika Serikat (AS) dalam rangka mengimplementasikan doktrin Monroe-nya di mana AS perlu fokus atas situasi di Amerika Latin. Sehingga AS pada masa itu dapat membangun hegemoninya di kawasan tersebut misalnya dengan adanya otoritas moral AS atas junta-junta militer di Brazil, Argentina, dan Bolivia. Namun demikian, pasca Perang Dingin AS disibukkan dengan situasi di Timur-Tengah dan Indo-Pasifik, oleh sebab itu prioritasnya terhadap Amerika Latin relatif berkurang. Peristiwa ini dimanfaatkan oleh Brazil dalam rangka mengaktualisasikan keinginannya menjadi kekuatan regional di kawasan tersebut melalui pendirian Mercosur dan memarginalkan kekuatan regional berpotensi lainnya seperti Meksiko dari sebuah kawasan baru yang bernama Amerika Selatan. Penelitian ini berpendapat bahwa tujuan Brazil dibalik pen...
Quarterly of Latin American Economy and Trade, v. 30, p. 27-43, 2017., 2017
BRAGATTI, Milton; LIMA, Marcos Costa; Borges, F. "Brazil in Three Periods of Foreign Policy: Between Regionalism, Multilateralism and The South-South Context". Published by Quarterly of Latin American Economy and Trade, v. 30, p. 27-43, 2017.
Conjuntura Austral, 2020
Brazilian projection towards South America has been an important issue since its re-democratization process in the 1980s. Still, Brazil’s regional behavior could not be considered as a hegemony, under the realist point of view, that is, exerted by its hard power. Nor liberal, considering the option for multiplicities initiatives and a low level of institutionalization. Therefore, we propose to apply the Gramscian concept of hegemony to analyze if Brazil could exert hegemony towards South America throughout its participation in regional integration processes. To do so, we have chosen to use a qualitative method of analysis along with a typical case-study to develop a prelaminar theory illustration, based upon a literature review of the Brazilian foreign policy (primary and secondary sources). This inquiry leads us to argue that there is a dubiety regarding Brazil’s regional action. Firstly, due to the lack of institutionalization of South American regional organizations and; secondly, because Brazilian foreign policy was not able to wield coercive power during regional crises. However, even considering that Brazil’s projection towards the region do not represent a typical case of hegemony (realist), bearing in mind the findings low rates of validity beyond this case-study, there are enough evidences that its actions in many arrangements as leader and constructor of consensus it is a way to employ hegemony (Gramscian) in regional terms.
Brazilian Regional Power in the Development of Mercosul
Latin American Perspectives, 2007
Argentine economic crisis in 2002. Its responses to these events were critical to the development of Mercosul because of Brazil's unique position as the largest country in the bloc. Many theories of free trade and regional integration hold that economic integration requires a regionally preponderant power that acts as a core provider of collective goods for member states. When such a power provides benefits, satisfaction among the member states increases and the likelihood of integration is increased. An examination of the Cardoso government's policies during the three critical junctures suggests that regional integration declined when Argentina incurred costs during the Brazilian currency crisis and increased when Cardoso's government provided aid during the Argentine economic crisis and helped defeat the attempted coup in Paraguay.