Recent political changes in South American governments and their impact on regional foreign policy
Teoria & Pesquisa: Revista de Ciência Política, São Carlos, v. 32, n. esp. 3, e023025, 2023. e-ISSN: 2236-0107
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14244/tp.v32iesp.3.1098 2
Over the last three decades, South America has seen different political and ideological
tendencies in its governments. In a pendulum fashion, the countries have tended between right
and left and their international actions have been influenced by this ideological fluctuation.
With the end of the Cold War, neoliberalism was the predominant trend in Latin America,
especially in the South American subcontinent. Right-wing and centre-right governments
predominated during the 1990s in the region's countries and their foreign policies were
predominantly geared towards globalization and its liberal promises. In the 2000s, the so-called
"pink wave" (or post-neoliberalism) brought a resurgence of the Latin American left, especially
in South America. With few exceptions, the decade was marked by a convergence of mentalities
among left-wing and center-left governments in the region, which reverberated directly in the
construction of their foreign policies: intensification of diplomatic relations, greater intra-
regional trade and integration initiatives such as IRRSA, UNASUR and CELAC were sewn up.
However, a decade after the pink wave, right-wing and extreme right-wing political
forces have re-established themselves in power precisely because of the strengthening of
conservatism in other centers of world power such as the US and the UK. Bolsonaro in Brazil,
Macri in Argentina, Piñera in Chile, Vizcarra in Peru and Iván Duque in Colombia are examples
of the rise of the new right in the region. This dossier brings together a set of papers that look
at these recent political-ideological changes in South America and some of their repercussions
on regional foreign policy.
The dossier begins with an interview with historian Clodoaldo Bueno, one of the leading
researchers on Brazilian foreign policy. The professor at São Paulo State University (UNESP)
was the author of the book "História da Política Exterior do Brasil" (History of Brazilian
Foreign Policy), published in 1992 with Amado Luis Cervo. His academic career is intertwined
with the establishment of International Relations as a field of research in Brazil. In the interview,
Bueno comments on his history of international relations, the process of regional integration in
South America and the course of Brazilian foreign policy in recent decades.
The first article, by Paulo Gustavo Pellegrino Correa and Ivan Henrique de Mattos e
Silva, discusses the changes in the Brazilian Foreign Policy (BFP) guidelines for South America
during Jair Bolsonaro's administration (2019-2022). The authors point out the precepts that
underpinned Bolsonarism in Brazil's diplomatic shift, especially towards its geographical
surroundings.
In "Considerations on politics and economy in present-day Argentina (1983-2020)", Iuri
Cavlak presents a historical reconstruction of the main political and economic moments in