Regional Organizations, Conflict Resolution and Mediation in South America

Abstract

This chapter approaches regional conflict resolution and mediation in South America, focusing on the role regional organizations and arrangements have played as social spaces where shared meanings and collective representations of peace and security are produced, contested and (re)negotiated. In the case of South America, the images that constitute the regional experience in conflict resolution are (a) a plural institutional architecture; (b) a legalist framework with strong preference for non-interventionism and peaceful conflict resolution; (c) a separation between domestic violence and international peace; and (d) ad hoc arrangements based on presidential involvement. These four images are part of public life, constituting a particular symbolic frame developed by the local elites and reproduced through decision-making practices on peace and conflict in the region.