Padrão de Resposta

Frustrated after failing to conclude the Doha Round in the 2003 World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting, the American representative blamed Brazil for its defensive stance leading the G-20 trade coalition, which, according to him, broke the supposedly consolidated concept of unity among Latin American countries.
While Latin America is conceived by the American diplomat as a homogeneous region, there are dozens of different economic and political backgrounds that have shaped unique national foreign policy approaches. The idea of regional unity was conceived in the 19th century by France, which sought to build a Romance-language alliance against the Anglo-Saxon and the Slavic nations. Feeling threatened, the United States used its force to keep the Europeans out of the American continent.
Even though the United States does not deal with its Latin American neighbors the same way, its regional foreign policy is oftentimes driven by opportunism, instead of genuine crisis management. Washington considers the region a matter of hegemony.
The idea of a homogeneous Latin America is strengthened by geographic proximity, by relatively close languages and by a history with no serious national wars. Yet the region has always dealt with internal tensions among its countries, such as the struggle for regional leadership between Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, in addition to territorial and trade disputes. Latin American diplomats, when under pressure of Western powers that look to sustain their influence, put these questions aside, exploiting the exogenous concept of regional unity to avoid collapsing.
The Latin American penchant to resort to talking has contributed to avoid armed conflicts between its states. When there is a dispute, the parties seek to solve it through political and jurisdictional methods, instead of using the force. Argentine researcher Federico Merke theorized the regional reality, developing the concept of “concertación”, a diplomatic approach in which Latin American diplomats convert regional differences into assets, instead of liabilities. This process is made through an informal set of political instances, such as presidential summits and ministerial conferences. That allows the regional countries to solve their issues without needing to deploy their armies and increasing the chances of an armed conflict.
While there are some groupings with presidential summits, such as MERCOSUR, the “concertación” approach does not rely on an institutionalized framework. It is driven by the principles of sovereignty and non-aggression, always respecting international law. This explains why, despite the recent rise of Latin American military budgets, there have not been any arms races in the region.