Whither the Push and Pull for Integration: Taking Stock of Latin America's Declaratory Regionalism

Abstract

The Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS), created in 1992 and directed by Brigid Laffan since September 2013, aims to develop inter-disciplinary and comparative research and to promote work on the major issues facing the process of integration and European society. The Centre is home to a large post-doctoral programme and hosts major research programmes and projects, and a range of working groups and ad hoc initiatives. The research agenda is organised around a set of core themes and is continuously evolving, reflecting the changing agenda of European integration and the expanding membership of the European Union.

American Regionalism and Brazilian Diplomatic Discourse (1946-2019)

“…In this respect, although enthusiasm for regional integration in the American continent existed in an embryonic way since at least the independence period, only in the 1960s it started to be institutionalised. At this time, both an autonomist vision, influenced by Simón Bolívar, and a hemispheric one, based on the Monroe doctrine and on pan-Americanism, gradually emerged (Dabène 2009;Tussie 2009;Riggirozzi 2012;Jenne 2013). However, these pioneering conceptions of regionalism were more associated with the idea of political cooperation/integration rather than the with idea of institutional bodies to promote competitive economic advantages.…”

“…The vast evidence on American regionalism points to a contradictory pattern, in which minimalist institutional efforts co-exist with a kind of maximalist rhetorical ceremonialism. This, in turn, seems to produce a somewhat chimerical phenomenon, whereby political leaders end up delaying (if not abandoning) efforts to strengthen regional institutions, thus producing a huge gap between what they say can be done to support the region and what they actually choose to do (Montecinos 1996;Dabène 2009;Medeiros and Dri 2013;Jenne 2013;Jenne et al 2017).…”