The positive peace in the Southern Cone: origins and heyday of regional security cooperation (1991—2008)

Abstract

The basis of the positive zone of peace in the Southern Cone lies both on the expectation of the non-existence of interstate violence, and the construction of a loose regional institutionalization based on a democratic identity, the development of economic integration and regional security cooperation that projects stability beyond the Southern Cone. Despite economic tensions, political differences and international agendas with different orientations, the peaceful regional environment of the southern tip of the American continent and security and defense cooperation flourished during the first two decades of the post-Cold War era. This article presents the trajectory from the end of the Cold War to the establishment of UNASUR of regional security cooperation in the Southern Cone focusing on two dyads, the bilateral relations of the Argentine Republic with both the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Republic of Chile.