Complex interdependence and its contribution to a new approach of the work of the Amazon cooperation treaty organization

Gisela Da Silva Guevara

doi:10.26619/1647-7251.9.2.5

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the work that the Amazon Cooperation Treaty (TCA), later converted at the beginning of the 21st century into the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) with permanent secretariat in Brasilia, has conducted in favour of the debate on the sustainability of the Amazon. Although the work of this organization has usually been studied under a realist approach, focusing mainly on the action of its Member States, it is argued that the Complex Interdependence, a theory developed by Nye and Keohane, can expand the knowledge of the work of the Treaty in favour of the debate on the sustainability of the Amazon region

Highlights

The Amazon Cooperation Treaty (TCA) and its re-launch in the 1990s with the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), was a historic opportunity for South American countries to reflect on the meaning of sustained and sustainable development for their Amazonian territories
We suggest that several premises of the Complex Interdependence (CI) theory can be applied to the analysis of the TCA/ACTO, reviewing the realist/neo-realist analytical approach
These dimensions include: 1) The funding of the TCA driven by transnational networks of contacts, which were largely ignored by realist or neorealist analyses; 2) The overvaluation of the role of the hegemon (Brazil) in explaining the progress of the TCA/ACTO; 3) The undervaluation of the work of transnational actors such as the MAP, which encompasses the work of NGOs, think tanks, transnational organizations and university academics, among others, which deserves more precise study when analysing the work of environmental organizations, like the ACTO; 4) The undervaluation of the work of environmental organizations articulated with non-state actors, in the sense of promoting the "bottom up" protection of environmental aspects of tropical forests

Summary

Introduction

The Amazon Cooperation Treaty (TCA) and its re-launch in the 1990s with the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), was a historic opportunity for South American countries to reflect on the meaning of sustained and sustainable development for their Amazonian territories. Several dimensions were defined from which we aimed to review the limitations and biases of the realist or neorealist theoretical approach, in order to open a new field of analysis under the Complex Interdependence theory applied to the TCA/ACTO These dimensions include: 1) The funding of the TCA driven by transnational networks of contacts, which were largely ignored by realist or neorealist analyses; 2) The overvaluation of the role of the hegemon (Brazil) in explaining the progress of the TCA/ACTO; 3) The undervaluation of the work of transnational actors such as the MAP, which encompasses the work of NGOs, think tanks, transnational organizations and university academics, among others, which deserves more precise study when analysing the work of environmental organizations, like the ACTO; 4) The undervaluation of the work of environmental organizations articulated with non-state actors, in the sense of promoting the "bottom up" protection of environmental aspects of tropical forests

Theoretical framework

Conclusions

Findings

Tratado de Cooperación