Strategic regionalism, South-South cooperation and development in Latin America in the 21st century

Abstract

The beginning of the 21st century is accompanied by changes in the global geopolitics of which the Latin-American continent is protagonist. The relationship, both political and economic, is more than ever going through big reconfigurations from the countries of our continent through the conformation of regional blocs. These groups of countries, on one hand, may follow the dynamics of subordination to the neoliberal model that have characterized the power relations of the international system in the last decades; but on the other hand, they may represent an obstacle for the reproduction of this scheme of subordination and alignment. Based upon this, this paper pretends in its first part, analyze from the Latin-American perspective the hallmarks of this change of geopolitical paradigms, based on the analysis of what has been called Strategic Regionalism. Subsequently it will be examined the relationship that, what was mentioned before, keeps with the evolution of the concepts of development and the consequent International Cooperation for Development strategies in the word, since the last century to the present. Finally, based on these two mains subjects, it will be analyzed the role the countries from the south, mainly from Latin-American, have in the System of International Cooperation for Development under the South-South format.