Autor/es
Descripción
ver mas
Colaborador
Fernández, Arturo
Busso, Anabella
Materias
Spatial Coverage
Temporal Coverage
1989-2001
Idioma
spa
Extent
377 p.
Derechos
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 2.0 Genérica (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Formato
application/pdf
Identificador
Cobertura
ARG
1989-2001
Abstract
According to multiple studies’ main approach, it could be argued that during the 1990s, Argentina conceived Mercosur from a fundamentally commercialist perspective; and as a starting point for achieving continental integration and insertion into the global economy. Consequently, it could also be said that during the neoliberal economic boom, there was a lack of interest in the different Argentine governments in developing with Brazil, and with the rest of the countries of the region, other agendas than the economic ones, since the position that the United States occupied in Argentina's foreign policy agenda led to the prioritization of political and economic reforms.
Even if these claims could be sustained, this thesis seeks to show that, in reality, there was no such linearity. In this connection, while it is true that Argentina envisaged Mercosur as an economic space and as a way of inserting itself into an international system considered beneficial to those who were open to it, this does not mean that it had not promoted the inclusion of other agendas in the organization. In fact, this thesis aims to explain the place of regional security in Argentina’s foreign policy between 1989 and 2001, trying to demonstrate that the successive governments of that period promoted the creation of an institutionalized regional defense mechanism and that most of the proposals designed towards its creation found in Mercosur the ideal area to develop it.
Moreover, when it came to enunciating a proposal of this type, the positions held by the different administrations were not necessarily homogeneous either. It can be said that the efforts have not always been intense: in some cases, the emphasis was placed on the goal of articulating a sub-regional defense system, while in others the proposals did not make it beyond the walls of the national state.
Faced with this state of affairs, the main question posed by this thesis arises as follows: what were the motivations and objectives that made Argentina’s foreign policy maintain in a favorable position towards the creation of a regional defense body during the neoliberal period? From this macro question a series of micro questions arise, which act as the guiding thread of this thesis, namely: how were the foreign policy and the security policy articulated in each Argentine government? What were the main factors - external and internal - that influenced the country's regional security policy from 1989 to 2001? How Menem and De la Rúa governments did conceived regional integration and what was the place of defense issues within Mercosur? What were the initiatives that Argentina took regarding the institutionalization of cooperation within these organizations? And, finally, what positions did the other countries in the region take and what were the limits and possibilities of implementing such a security mechanism?
Having said this, and in order to try to provide a less simplified version, we can say that Mercosur had a fundamentally economic meaning for Argentina, but this did not imply that the issues to be discussed necessarily had to be reduced to economic-commercial issues. In fact, this thesis is based on the premise that the Argentinean initiatives aimed at materializing a regional defense body were grounded on their intention to contribute, from a regional security policy, to an economy-centered foreign policy. It was therefore a policy designed to generate external confidence and trust with the intention to contribute to an economic model deeply dependent on external investments and financial flows.
Even if these claims could be sustained, this thesis seeks to show that, in reality, there was no such linearity. In this connection, while it is true that Argentina envisaged Mercosur as an economic space and as a way of inserting itself into an international system considered beneficial to those who were open to it, this does not mean that it had not promoted the inclusion of other agendas in the organization. In fact, this thesis aims to explain the place of regional security in Argentina’s foreign policy between 1989 and 2001, trying to demonstrate that the successive governments of that period promoted the creation of an institutionalized regional defense mechanism and that most of the proposals designed towards its creation found in Mercosur the ideal area to develop it.
Moreover, when it came to enunciating a proposal of this type, the positions held by the different administrations were not necessarily homogeneous either. It can be said that the efforts have not always been intense: in some cases, the emphasis was placed on the goal of articulating a sub-regional defense system, while in others the proposals did not make it beyond the walls of the national state.
Faced with this state of affairs, the main question posed by this thesis arises as follows: what were the motivations and objectives that made Argentina’s foreign policy maintain in a favorable position towards the creation of a regional defense body during the neoliberal period? From this macro question a series of micro questions arise, which act as the guiding thread of this thesis, namely: how were the foreign policy and the security policy articulated in each Argentine government? What were the main factors - external and internal - that influenced the country's regional security policy from 1989 to 2001? How Menem and De la Rúa governments did conceived regional integration and what was the place of defense issues within Mercosur? What were the initiatives that Argentina took regarding the institutionalization of cooperation within these organizations? And, finally, what positions did the other countries in the region take and what were the limits and possibilities of implementing such a security mechanism?
Having said this, and in order to try to provide a less simplified version, we can say that Mercosur had a fundamentally economic meaning for Argentina, but this did not imply that the issues to be discussed necessarily had to be reduced to economic-commercial issues. In fact, this thesis is based on the premise that the Argentinean initiatives aimed at materializing a regional defense body were grounded on their intention to contribute, from a regional security policy, to an economy-centered foreign policy. It was therefore a policy designed to generate external confidence and trust with the intention to contribute to an economic model deeply dependent on external investments and financial flows.
Título obtenido
Doctor de la Universidad de Buenos Aires en Ciencias Sociales
Institución otorgante
Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales