The events and processes that have taken place in the last decade in South America have given way to one of the most interesting regional phenomena under a global crisis and within a changing world order. From the traditional status of Washington ́s backyard and reign of economic and political stability, South America has increasingly turned into a region marked by a heterodox development in the light of other dominant regional tendencies of development-the European Union, NAFTA and the Asia Pacific. The political economic nature of the new South American regionalism (NSAR) is far from echoing the dominant interpretations about it, which reflects the major regional projects today. Given the reach and scope of the existing literature on the topic of the NSAR, there is an important gap concerning its academic exploration in relation to its nature of development, political economic complexity, challenges and orientations. In this sense, this book explores, from a wider and pluralist political economic perspective, the developmental dimensions of the NSAR within a changing hemispheric and world order in transformation. It analyses a set of specific debates: regionalism in the Americas then and now; social and economic development and regional integration; and organized crime, intelligence and defence. An in depth and critical reflection on the complex and heterogeneous path of regionalization taking place in South America from different perspectives and in key issues of regional development.

The events and processes that have taken place in the last decade in South America have given way to one of the most interesting regional phenomena under a global crisis and within a changing world order. From the traditional status of Washington ́s backyard and reign of economic and political stability, South America has increasingly turned into a region marked by a heterodox development in the light of other dominant regional tendencies of development-the European Union, NAFTA and the Asia Pacific. The political economic nature of the new South American regionalism (NSAR) is far from echoing the dominant interpretations about it, which reflects the major regional projects today. Given the reach and scope of the existing literature on the topic of the NSAR, there is an important gap concerning its academic exploration in relation to its nature of development, political economic complexity, challenges and orientations. In this sense, this book explores, from a wider and pluralist political economic perspective, the developmental dimensions of the NSAR within a changing hemispheric and world order in transformation. It analyses a set of specific debates: regionalism in the Americas then and now; social and economic development and regional integration; and organized crime, intelligence and defence. An in depth and critical reflection on the complex and heterogeneous path of regionalization taking place in South America from different perspectives and in key issues of regional development.

This book is a critical and multidisciplinary IPE of the unequal structures of South American development and uneven insertions in the global order following the decline of the commodities boom. The work explores the extent to which regional development issues are related to merely a decline of commodities ́ prices and/or to the resilience of the historical structures within an unequal world order. Thus, the authors seek first to analytically explore the regional issues beyond the formal limitations of North American and Eurocentric approaches. Secondly, they empirically scrutinize the complex dimensions of regional inequality and global insertions. Aspects analysed include economic reprimarization, the impact of China, development finance, trade and regional value chains, knowledge and technology, regional and transnational organised crime, cities, economic integration and the Global South.

This book offers a timely analysis, and a novel and nuanced argument about post-neoliberal models of regional governance in non-European contexts. It provides the first in-depth, empirically-driven analysis of current models of regional governance in Latin America that emerged out of the crisis of liberalism in the region. It contributes to comparative studies of the contemporary global political economy as it advances current literature on the topic by analysing distinctive, overlapping and conflicting trajectories of regionalism in Latin America. The book critically explores models of transformative regionalism and specific dimensions articulating those models beyond neoliberal consensus-building. As such it contests the overstated case of integration as converging towards global capitalism. It provides an analytical framework that not only examines the 'what, how, who and why' in the emergence of a specific form of regionalism but sets the ground for addressing two relevant questions that will push the study of regionalism further: What factors enable or constrain how transformative a given regionalism is (or can be) with respect to the powers and policies of states encompassed by it? and: What factors govern how resilient a given regionalism is likely to be under changing political and economic conditions?

Despite the large number of regional and global summits there is very little known about the functioning and impact of this particular type of diplomatic practice. While recognizing that the growing importance of summits is a universal phenomenon, this volume takes advantage of the richness of the Americas experiment to offer a theoretically grounded comparative analysis of contemporary summitry. The book addresses questions such as: How effective have summits been ? How have civil society and other non-state actors been involved in summits? How have summits impacted on the management of regional affairs? Filling a significant void in the literature, this volume offers an original contribution helping to understand how summitry has become a central feature of world politics. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of diplomacy, international organizations, and global/regional governance.

This cutting-edge volume brings together a diverse roster of scholars to shed light on the reconfiguration of twenty-first century Latin American regionalism. Reflecting on both the multiplicity of regional integration across Latin America (LA) and the theoretically pluralist turn in contemporary scholarship on LA politics and International Relations, this edited volume proposes an ‘integrative pluralist’ methodology to deciphering the complexity of regionalisation projects, from both above and below. The book charts the contemporary evolution of older regionalisation schemes, such as the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), as well as more recent twenty-first century regional innovations, including the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-Peoples Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), Pacific Alliance (AP), and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). Complementing this more traditional institutional perspective, the book also charts the underexplored dynamics of regionalism from below, in the context of region-wide networks of political organisation among indigenous and peasant movements. Set against the backdrop of a more critical reading of the historical origins of regionalism, this volume aims to contribute to the ever-growing conversation among scholars within and beyond Latin America on the actors, processes, contradictions, and prospects for regional cooperation. In offering a more holistic perspective on Latin American regionalism from above and below, this volume will be of interest to both newcomers to the field and more seasoned scholars working within/across disciplinary boundaries, from International Relations and International Political Economy to Historical Sociology and Institutionalism. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Globalizations.