13. The South American Regionalisms: A Shift or the Return of Economic Integration?

This chapter argues that a variety of regionalisms have proliferated in LA, whereby the regional agenda increased its issue areas from traditional trade issues to new collective concerns such as security, infrastructure, energy, and democratic governance, amongst others. The reorientation towards a neo-extractivist model of development has made the LA economies much more dependent on the export of commodities and has had a direct impact on intraregional trade flows and, in turn, has hindered the influence that regional trade integration has back in the 90s allowing cooperation in political topics rather than economic ones. This phenomenon has been called regionalism à la carte, in which international actors of regionalism behave selectively and, according to their preferences, choose the type of regionalism and forum required for their action in order to advance their interests. In order to explore the nature of this new type of regionalism, the chapter focuses on the factors that best explain the existence of a regionalism à la carte in South America. Then explores the economic challenges for regionalism in South America in the age of post-boom commodities, and discusses the impact the new globalization backlash in the present international political spectrum might entail for the South American region and its regional initiatives.