Regional integration in Latin America: critical perspectives in the time of populism

This paper analyzes whether south-south cooperation is legitimately a recent practice or merely an improved version of previous regional integration processes in Latin America and the Caribbean. The authors reviewed and systematized the historic development of subregional integration processes in Latin America and the Caribbean and focused on health cooperation in the following contexts: the Central American Integration System, the Andean Community of Nations, the Caribbean Community, the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, the Southern Common Market, and the Union of South American Nations. The study concludes that the conceptual and methodologic foundations of south-south cooperation in health were born from and nurtured by the processes of regional integration in Latin America and the Caribbean. This paper posits that regional political and economic integration initiatives bring potential benefits to the health sector and act as an important mechanism to develop south-south cooperation in this domain. The study recommends furthering this type of research to provide information that will allow national and multilateral agencies, or other stakeholders, to formulate and implement better policies for international health cooperation that target reducing inequities and promoting health and well-being for all people.

Latin America In A Changing Global Environment. Edited by Riordan Roett and Guadalupe Paz. (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2003. Pp. 243. $45.00 cloth.) The European Union, Mercosul And The New World Order. Edited by Helio Jaguaribe and Alvaro de Vasconcellos. (Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 2003. Pp. 247. $64.50 cloth, $26.50 paper.) East Asia And Latin America: The Unlikely Alliance. Edited by Peter H. Smith, Kotaro Horisaka, and Hoji Nishijima. (Lahman, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2003. Pp. 432. $80.00 cloth, $29.95 paper.) Trade Negotiations In Latin America: Problems And Prospects. Edited by Diana Tussie. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Pp.xiv+221. $70.00 cloth.) Greater America: A New Partnership For The Americas In The Twenty-First Century. By L. Ronald Scheman. (New York: New York University Press, 2003. Pp. 307. $35.00 cloth.) When at the beginning of the 1990s Latin America left debt crisis and dictatorships behind it, a new chapter started for many Latin Americanists as well. The transformation towards, or restoration of, democracy in various societies of the Western Hemisphere became the next phase in the careers of many scholars. At the same time a new type of expert entered the field of Latin American Studies: the trade specialist. The 1990s became the decade of the so-called "Washington Consensus" and of "Open Regionalism," setting off a whole process of financial [End Page 354] and economic transformation within and between Latin American countries. The new type of Latin American analyst focused on emerging, or re-emerging, trends in different parts of Latin America of trade liberalization and regional economic integration. Often presented as part of the same package of reforms identified as the Washington Consensus, trade liberalization and regional integration were actually stimulated in Latin America by both endogenous and exogenous factors. Within Latin America previous decades had seen a variety of pan-American or subregional initiatives aimed at creating free trade areas or common markets within sections of the hemisphere. Some succeeded, such as in the Caribbean; others, after eventful starts in the 1960's, like the Andean Pact or in Central America, faltered under the burden of the unruly economic and political decades that followed. However, until the ideologically-driven ISI (import substitution industrialization) outlook of many of the participating countries was abolished, no real opportunity existed for opening borders or widening regional trade relations. The end of international tensions created by the Cold War, the rise of new ideas in developed economies based on market deregulation and trade liberalization, as well as a new interest in so-called export-driven "emerging" economies or NICs (Newly Industrializing Countries), all allowed for renewed strategies in Latin America under the justification of the Washington Consensus, but all aimed at regional economic integration and trade liberalization. This was achieved either through bilateral approaches, as pursued by countries like Mexico and Chile, or through subregional initiatives, such as the Mercosur process or the revived Andean Community. Thus, the beginning of the 1990s saw a revival of regional integration strategies in Latin America, driven mostly by Latin American countries themselves. Outside of Latin America a number of important factors contributed to the opening up of Latin American markets, either by involving them in a wider type of extra-regional trade integration process, or by trying to strengthen their own indigenous processes of integration through political and technical assistance, and through development aid, often based in the contributing countries on a mix of idealism, political calculation and plain commercial interest. The main protagonists for these exogenous factors were the United States and the European Union (EU), with President George H.W. Bush's Enterprise of the Americas initiative and President Clinton's Free Trade Area of the Americas proposals being the most pronounced attempts in recent years to access Latin American markets and integrate them with the U.S. economy. On the other hand, the European Union, partially driven in its policies towards...

Building, bridging, blocking: the EU’s approach towards sub- regional integration in its broader neighbourhood

Impact of a National Multicentric Strategy to Support Kidney Transplant Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Latin America: FUTAC Team Creation and Activities.

Integration processes in Latin America and Caribbean basin have been traditionally provoking strong research interest. Over the past decades, Latin American integration has tested plethora of institutional designs, ranging from relatively uniform subregional trade blocs - CACM, LAFTA, etc. to multifunctional partnerships with an identity-forming component, like Unasur or CELAC. This paper is an attempt to show how the Latin American academic community itself analyzes the integration in the “domestic” region. Forming the literature review, the authors, firstly, show how Latin American integrationism has transformed with the successive change of the phases of the “old”, “open” and “post-liberal” regionalism. Despite the fact that the types of integration in each of the periods differ significantly, scientists approach them in quite a similar way. They have been engineering the region socially and have been using such basic concepts as globalización , soberanía and desarrollo . The theory and practice of Latin American integration has always been closely intertwined. Secondly, the authors distinguish three today’s Latin American “big discourses” about integration - political-economic, geopolitical and state-centered. Each of these discourses takes into account the internal and external conditions that led to the post-liberal phase of integration. Third, expert forecasts about the prospects of regional associations against the background of the crisis tendencies of recent years are presented in this paper. Latin American experts agree on the fact that regional integration has entered the new phase, the most important features of which are the globalization slowing down, the complication of inter-American relations due to the “Trump factor”, the decline of left-progressist forces in the region.

Trade and regional integration in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have been constant goals of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB, or Bank) since its inception. While the Bank has historically had a very active role in policy discussions with and technical assistance to countries on these issues, it has not had a substantial regional lending program in this area. Indeed, the trade and integration portfolio is divided between the nonlending part, mostly led by the Trade and Integration Sector, and the infrastructure integration part (where the bulk of the lending is concentrated), led by the infrastructure sector. However, this lending portfolio is composed almost exclusively of national projects with typically no proven regional benefits beyond the purely national ones. The main reason for the paucity of projects with regional benefits is that working regionally is associated with higher transaction costs for both the Bank and the countries, and the Bank still lacks a concessional lending instrument. Under the IDB-9 Agreement, the Bank reiterated regional integration as one of the priorities, attaching a specific lending target to it. Management was required to produce a new regional integration strategy and an action plan to guide the actions of the Bank. The new Integration Strategy has a thorough understanding of the nature of the challenges to regional integration and contains a complete and sound diagnosis of trade issues in LAC. Although the diagnosis of infrastructure integration and regional public goods is weaker, the Strategy remains relevant to identify the main challenges and the recent evolution of trade and integration in LAC. The Strategy and Action Plan provide little guidance, however, beyond outlining the main ideas. Although a first draft identified the need for concessional instruments, the final version proposed only a "smart mix" of existing instruments. The Strategy does not clearly define and build on the Bank¿s comparative advantage or record of past experience. The definition and classification of "regional integration projects" are confused; depending on the source chosen, regional integration projects represent between 0.6% and 25% of Bank lending in 2011. The baseline for lending in the IDB-9 Agreement (10%) is unrealistic given the Bank's historic performance, and projects without any connection with either regional integration or the Integration Strategy are being labeled as regional. The Strategy and the Action Plan mostly describe what the Bank currently does rather than provide strategic leadership or direction. The Bank is now at a crossroads. Different options are available depending on the risk appetite of Governors and the willingness of the LAC Region to advance toward regional integration. Instead of pursuing the current low-risk and low-payoff strategy, Governors may wish to tackle the problems that have precluded lending for regional integration, including providing preferential access to resources for regional integration projects with clear eligibility guidelines. In any case Management should revisit its classification system for regional lending and provide a more transparent and more accurate picture of actual Bank work in this area.

In Latin America the repercussions of the proliferation and overlapping of regional organizations are discussed widely. This article examines the opposing views on this process. Some authors postulate that an exhaustion of integration in Latin America will end up in segmented regionalism and hemispheric disintegration. Others endorse a variable geometry of integration that facilitates intraregional cooperation and minimizes the risk of veto players and zero-sum politics. The article takes Latin America as a vantage point to analyse the topic of interacting and overlapping regional organizations from a more general perspective. It asks about the conditions under which the proliferation and overlapping of regional organizations might have positive or negative effects (on regional integration and cooperation). Additionally, it advocates broadening the analytical focus and replacing the analytical concepts of regional integration and cooperation with the analytical concept of regional governance. Regional governance more adequately captures and integrates different patterns of regional cooperation and different regional projects that result in overlapping regional organizations. Instead of looking at the proliferation of regional organizations from a perspective of fragmentation, this article contends that the focus should be redirected to analysing how different regional organizations interact. Regional interaction patterns can vary between synergistic, cooperative, conflictive, or segmented regional governance (complexes). In an initial application of this analytical scheme, the article summarizes the changing regional cooperation patterns in South America since 1990. In the conclusions it outlines some preliminary ideas for a future research agenda on regional governance (complexes).

As part of a Regional Public Good (BPR), 20,200 Latin Americans from 18 countries were interviewed on issues of integration, democracy, equity, environment, technology, and innovation. In a world where globalization is being strongly questioned, particularly among developed countries, it is concluded that Latin Americans are very committed to regional integration. The integration process is challenged by the complexity implied by a heterogeneous regional structure with important differences between countries and within them. The differences are many, ranging from income distribution, productive specialization, the weight of their economies in the regional GDP, belonging to different trade blocs, the preference for certain partners at the time of closer ties, exposure and vulnerability to climate change, to the degree of penetration of ICTs. However, this study shows that there is a common agenda that must be addressed and that can set the pace of regional integration. Social convergence is observed not only in the high support for regional integration and in the existence of an unsatisfied demand for integration, but also in the desire of people to live in a more equitable society, responsible in the use of their natural resources, committed to the fight against climate change and the free movement of people, connected through ICTs and universal access to the Internet, with better quality of democratic institutions, and with greater citizen participation in the decision making process of government and justice. Since this is the agenda for development and regional integration, the opportunity offered by ICTs cannot be overlooked, both in the construction of a subject with a critical conscience, capable of visualizing the problems that afflict it, as well as in its powerful potential to strengthen trade links between countries, strengthen democracy and enhance the development of the region.

As part of a Regional Public Good (BPR), 20,200 Latin Americans from 18 countries were interviewed on issues of integration, democracy, equity, environment, technology, and innovation. In a world where globalization is being strongly questioned, particularly among developed countries, it is concluded that Latin Americans are very committed to regional integration. The integration process is challenged by the complexity implied by a heterogeneous regional structure with important differences between countries and within them. The differences are many, ranging from income distribution, productive specialization, the weight of their economies in the regional GDP, belonging to different trade blocs, the preference for certain partners at the time of closer ties, exposure and vulnerability to climate change, to the degree of penetration of ICTs. However, this study shows that there is a common agenda that must be addressed and that can set the pace of regional integration. Social convergence is observed not only in the high support for regional integration and in the existence of an unsatisfied demand for integration, but also in the desire of people to live in a more equitable society, responsible in the use of their natural resources, committed to the fight against climate change and the free movement of people, connected through ICTs and universal access to the Internet, with better quality of democratic institutions, and with greater citizen participation in the decision making process of government and justice. Since this is the agenda for development and regional integration, the opportunity offered by ICTs cannot be overlooked, both in the construction of a subject with a critical conscience, capable of visualizing the problems that afflict it, as well as in its powerful potential to strengthen trade links between countries, strengthen democracy and enhance the development of the region.

This paper is based on the research related to regional integration attempts in Latin America and their effect on the economic development of Latin American countries. Recent analyses clarify that the US’ intervention in the politics of Latin America has been the main obstacle of the regional integration process. Most importantly, political fragmentation of the countries in the region affects the success of the organizations that are formed for the regional integration. This is especially visible in the political processes of the countries such as economic crises in Argentina, political instability in Venezuela and increasing migration to the US from Latin American countries. Notable studies reveal that despite the regional integration efforts, the economic benefits to the region has been limited compared to the benefit of the global economic powers. Different from the current literature, this paper focuses on the internal dynamics of Latin American countries. In this respect, this paper investigates the effect of the regional integration attempts for the economic development of the countries in Latin America. In this regard, the rational state behaviour was found as an important element to explain in relation to the Latin American integration attempts. With a liberal intergovernmentalist perspective, this paper aims to reveal the success of regional integration attempts in Latin America with the cases of Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA), Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) and Andean Community (CAN). The main argument of this paper is that increasing economic cooperation and creating a reconstruction model with a financial assistance to the less developed countries in the region have led to a regional economic development in cohesion with the policies of the regional powers of Latin America.

This chapter reviews and classifies a set of measures to describe, compare and assess different processes of regional integration – e.g. among a group of neighbouring states, or states that have historical or cultural ties, or other links of any other nature – in their various dimensions. We do not refer to groupings of geographic entities within countries (e.g. German Lander or United States (US)). As an example, the term ‘region’ can be applied to the European Union (EU) or Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) or Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to name just a few among those discussed in this chapter. Thus, regional integration is opposed to autarchy and isolation. On the other hand, there are diverse types and scopes of regional integration – as well as stages of implementation – that we encounter in this chapter. Moreover, the motivation for undertaking regional integration – i.e. the overarching aim(s) and specific objectives – is fundamental for judging both its status of implementation and perspective. Groups of states can launch a process of regional integration to improve their political links, to reap the gains from trade in goods and services, to strengthen financial links and benefit from risk sharing and better investment opportunities, or a mix of these objectives and more. The motivation of regional integration is beyond the scope of this chapter, i.e. the measures and indices of regional integration discussed here will in any case provide only some selected snapshots. Another aspect that is difficult to capture by means of the measures and indices below is the net benefits from regional integration. Presumably lasting integration schemes are those that fulfil the original aim(s) and objective(s) and whose diverse benefits exceed the various costs.

The integration process can be intensified and accelerated not only by specialization resulting from broadening of markets through liberalization of trade but also through use of such instruments as agreements for complementary production within economic sectors … Title III, Declaration of Punta del Este, Montevideo, 1961.The European pattern of economic integration has found expression in the Western Hemisphere in three politically divergent, widelyseparated regional groupings. One such group is the now-defunct West Indies Federation, a rearrangement of the remaining bits and pieces of British colonialism in the Caribbean region. Another is the Latin American Free Trade Association, straddling gaps from Mexico to Argentina, which appears to be a superficial bid for economic affinity among the more developed Latin American nations. But the most vigorous approach to regional economic integration is being pursued by the Organization for the Economic Development of Central America, which boldly proposes to weld at least five individually inefficient, insufferably nationalistic entities into one productive effort capable of initiating and sustaining economic take-off. Thus, in Central America, regional integration is being enforced even before national identity has fully emerged.

Uzbekistan holds a central position in the political, economic, security and demographic structure of the Central Asian region. Without the cooperation of Tashkent, efforts for regional integration have failed during the past. The first president Islam Karimov, who ruled the country for 25 years 1991-2016, was reluctant to integrate Uzbek economy to regional and global markets. Uzbekistan had one or the other issue with all its neighboring states, thus hindering prospects for the regional cooperation and integration. However, the new president Shavkat Mirziyoyev is proactive towards regional integration. He is following a policy of ‘Central Asia First’ which has warmly been welcomed by all the regional states. The process of regional integration has also been facilitated by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of China as well as Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) in the form of development of physical infrastructural and transportation network. 
 Objectives of this research are; to look into the dynamics of Central Asian region; to understand the central position of Uzbekistan in the region; to explore the areas of convergence for the regional states; and to analyze the prospects for regional economic integration after change in Uzbekistan’s leadership. This research aims to address the questions such as: What is the future economic potential of Central Asia? How the foreign policy of Uzbekistan has influenced the regional dynamics under Islam Karimov? 
 What are the impacts of Belt and Road Initiative and CAREC in Central Asian region? And with the recent change in Uzbekistan, what are the evolving prospects for regional economic integration in Central Asia? This research is primarily descriptive, exploratory, and analytical in nature. It relies on both primary (including interviews with Uzbek embassy officials and official data) and secondary sources.

Several environmental, political, social and institutional factors have resulted in the heterogeneous and adaptive integration of knowledge, actors and methodologies in Latin America. Despite poor recognition and even a lack of research conditions, experiences involving different societal actors and types of collaboration have developed across the region. These experiences form a collection of integration and implementation processes not yet fully systematised in a way that serves other cases. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion of how expertise is defined in integration and implementation processes in Latin America. To re-signify collaborative practices in the region, a critical perspective is applied, and a heuristic framework is built that comprehends the ‘situated’ and relational dimensions of expertise. This framework is tested to study five cases from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay related to territorial planning, gender and knowledge, coastal management and the provision of climate services. These concepts are compared on the basis of the three dimensions comprising the framework—context, actors and methods —and the intersections among them. Applying a qualitative methodology and auto-ethnography, we identified the main features of situated expertise in Latin America, that is, engaging marginalised societal actors, fostering greater participation, acknowledging power imbalances, managing conflicts and contradicting perspectives, and directing an ethical-political engagement in the research process. As a result, situated expertise encompasses not only the situatedness of practices and processes, but also their political (and potentially transformative) dimensions in tracing power imbalances. This paper then argues that this situated aspect of expertise is relevant for conducting more context-sensitive integration and implementation processes in Latin America, thus contributing to the ethical-political dimension on how expertise is defined, embodied and enacted in vulnerable contexts.

People to People Solidarity:civil society and deep integration in southern Africa Chris Landsberg (bio) Introduction This paper is about regional integration and civil society in southern Africa. It does not deal with the size and scope of civil society, nor does it present an inventory or audit of the number, shape and size of Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), Community-based Organisations (CBOs) or other civil society actors in individual southern African countries. It is concerned with regional integration and the role of civil society in this process in southern Africa. It considers why civil society actors must seek to be involved in regional integration? The paper argues that the foundation of a strong Africa vis-à-vis the global economy will come from viable policies and strategies which favour regional integration, strong regional institutions, strong regional co-operation and integration that can move the continent towards greater degrees of regional integration and unification. This type of deep integration provides opportunities for civil society to do advocacy, monitoring, campaigning for regional integration, regional identity and regional free movement of people, trade integration and the like. But this presupposes that civil society is explicitly interested in regional integration and cohesion, and explicitly advances this. I specifically make the case for a model that involves information, sharing; consultation; collaboration; joint decision making; and empowerment. Information sharing serves to keep actors informed, provides transparency and builds legitimacy. Governments, and regional-integration organisations, have a responsibility to share information and decisions with the citizens of the region. Consultation refers to two-way flows of information, exchanges of views and perspectives, making inputs, garnering feedback and reactions, with governments and regional-integration entities retaining [End Page 40] the ultimate decision-making powers. Collaboration refers to joint activities where governments and regional-integration bodies invite public and civil society, stakeholders and actors to be involved in decision-making, but attempt to ensure that the views of those consulted are taken seriously. Joint decision making in turn refers to collaboration between governments and civil society actors where there is joint control over decisions made. But this presupposes that the knowledge and capacity of civil society are well developed so as to make inputs and help determine the agenda. Empowerment refers to the transfer of control of decision making, resources and skills to non-state actors to help determine policy agendas and processes. It also requires that governments and regional bodies become less skeptical and less cynical of civil society, and appreciate that they cannot govern alone, and need civil society as partners. Having conceptualised the potential framework for civil-society participation models, we conceptualise both regional integration and unification, and regional civil society. Asante defines 'integration' as 'combining parts in a whole' (Asante 1996). This presupposes a n important point, that those which should be integrated, and in need of integration, belong together.. Bourenane (1997) offers a more precise definition of 'regional integration': it is '…a voluntary pooling of resources for a common purpose by two or more sets of partners belonging to different states. The process aims to reinforce structural interdependencies of a technical and economic sort, with positive effects on economic welfare.' But this definition does not capture the essence of integration. Integration is transformatory, and calls for a radical approach to make one of what is split apart. Regional integration depends heavily on regional cohesion. It seeks societal integration within a region; it builds regional awareness and identity. It depends on regional inter-state co-operation and co-ordination, as well as inter-state civil society co-operation and co-ordination. But it should be understood that co-operation and co-ordination are not the same as integration and unification. It could be part of the process that will lead to regional integration and unification. So, proper regional integration should lead to 'the emergence of a cohesive and consolidated regional unit'(Hurrell 1995); one unit, one nation such as the idea of a regional southern African nation. Regional integration and cooperation is about states agreeing to live by common norms and values, deepening co-operation amongst themselves. Regional integration is deeper and more serious than this. It is about integrating [End Page 41] markets and...