The South American Defense Council: the Building of a Community of Practice for Regional Defense

Marina Gisela Vitelli

doi:10.1590/0034-7329201700202

Abstract

Abstract While the South American Defense Council has been analyzed as a security community, we argue that it is best described as an early stage community of practice, since it has successfully set in motion a regular interaction dynamic between numerous defense actors, as we demonstrate with concrete examples. We further discuss political support as a prerequisite for regional defense identity.Keywords: Security communities, community of practice, seminar diplomacy, South America, Defense. Received: September 5, 2016 Accepted: April 12, 2017 Introduction I n December 2008, member states of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) created the South American Defense Council (SADC), a specific forum for dealing with defense cooperation. Even though Argentina had been an active proponent of a Southern Cone defense cooperation dialogue mechanism during the 1990s and early 2000s, it only became a reality when Brazil supported the initiative and devised an active diplomatic strategy that could convince all South American neighbors of the initiative’s relevance. During these early months of political and diplomatic negotiations to create the organization, in the heat of the dispute over the bombing of a FARC camping in Ecuador by Colombian troops, the proposal remained ambiguous on what kind of defense organism should be created, allowing each country to entertain a number expectations. Among the various topics of the SADC being discussed were dialogue, cooperation, disputes prevention, confidence building, the establishment of a regional defense industry, and, most controversially, the construction of a regional defense identity. The only point on which most of the

Highlights

In December 2008, member states of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) created the South American Defense Council (SADC), a specific forum for dealing with defense cooperation
The section of this article summarizes the conceptual discussion; we draw on empirical data – namely official meeting acts, press information and informal conversations with defense practitioners – in order to show the multiplicity of ministerial and sub-ministerial areas involved in the organization and SADC activities, which we identify as constituting the beginning of a practice community for South American defense
Even though our research results are insufficient to evaluate the actual impact of those learning experiences on the internalization of new and more collective understandings of regional security, we are able to argue that seminar diplomacy in the SADC has, in fac,t worked as a multiplier of the actors that have become involved in defense dialogue in South America, as we illustrate here with some examples

Summary

Introduction

In December 2008, member states of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) created the South American Defense Council (SADC), a specific forum for dealing with defense cooperation. The section of this article summarizes the conceptual discussion; we draw on empirical data – namely official meeting acts, press information and informal conversations with defense practitioners – in order to show the multiplicity of ministerial and sub-ministerial areas involved in the organization and SADC activities, which we identify as constituting the beginning of a practice community for South American defense.

Results

Conclusion