Brazil's Role in Latin America's Regionalism: Unilateral and Lonely International Engagement

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Brazil became a crucial player as the principal advocate of South American integration. To Mercado Comun del Sur (Mercosur) was added the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), reaffirming regional policies around the idea of 'South America.' Today, however, the withdrawal of Brazilian leadership along with the reversals and loss of focus in UNASUR and Mercosur have damaged the credibility of the region's initiatives, as well as finding South America's common voice. Despite this, this article argues that Brazil has not entirely disengaged from the region or abandoned the principle of regionalism. Recognition of Latin America's distinctive history the authors to construct a model that incorporates complexity and disorder in which Brazil's institutional political development will have significant repercussions for the future of the region. Keywords Latin America--South America--regionalism--Brazil--foreign policy
1 Introduction Regionalism has been one of the central axes of Latin American international relations. Regional scholars have considered the desire for integration over the years and have been joined [...]