UNASUL: the political dimension of the new South American regionalism

During the first decade of the 21st century, the rise of progressive strengths enabled the adoption of more autonomous external policies by South American countries. The neoliberal hegemony and the homogenous models of integration of the 1990s were replaced by heterogeneous types of regionalism. Among the new organizations, the Unasul is a forum for political coordination that involves cooperation in different areas. It is the political front of the new South American regionalism. Inside it there are governments with different ideological signs that participate in different integrative mechanisms. The Unasul represents the crowning of the process of statement of a possible South American identity, against the historical pulverization of the region. The new organism can become a regional minimum common denominator. Besides that, the Unasul projects South America geopolitically and contributes for the construction of a new pole in the international system.

Unasul; Brazilian external politics; Regionalism; International relations; South America