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Tradition, Geopolitical Constraints, and Leadership Styles in Latin American Populist Foreign Policy

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Populist Foreign Policy

Part of the book series: Global Foreign Policy Studies ((GFPS))

Abstract

This chapter explores what is original and distinctive of populist foreign policy in Latin America and what are the factors that enable and constrain it. The chapter proceeds as follows: first, we introduce the conceptual dimensions of populism and its more common use in terms of foreign policy analysis. This section also provides an eclectic analytical framework that captures the tradition of populism and its ability to shape the present (temporal dimension), how populists make sense of the international within their regions and in the global arena (spatial dimension), and the creative dimension of the populist leader (agential dimension). Second, we provide a historical contextualization of early populist experiences in Latin America and their key foreign policy principles and tradition. Third, we analyse the different waves of populism especially from the 1990s onwards along the lines of tradition, geopolitics, and leadership. Finally, we conclude with a comparison of the Latin American populist foreign policies in terms of commonalities and differences as well as we outline further research avenues.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In the Latin American case, the president’s leadership also leans on what is known as hyper-presidentialism (see Ackerman et al., 2011; Malamud, 2014).

  2. 2.

    Financial crises occurred not only in Latin America but also in other parts of the world: Mexico 1994, Southeast Asia 1997, Russia 1998, Brazil 1999, and Argentina 200l.

  3. 3.

    As Souroujon states, certain elements of classical populism would be present in the left turn populists: “(…) the redistributive vocation, the polyclassist mobilization, the nationalization of strategic companies related to energy resources, which was combined with a radicalized rhetoric of the constitution of the people in the face of external and internal enemies” (2021, p. 4).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CONICET – Department of International Relations, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Rosario, Argentina

    Gisela Pereyra Doval

  2. Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies University of Bath, Bath, UK

    Leslie Wehner

  3. Department of International Relations and The European Forum, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Daniel F. Wajner

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  1. Gisela Pereyra Doval
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  1. Department of International Studies, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China

    Philip Giurlando

  2. Department of International Relations and The European Forum, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Daniel F. Wajner

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Doval, G.P., Wehner, L., Wajner, D.F. (2023). Tradition, Geopolitical Constraints, and Leadership Styles in Latin American Populist Foreign Policy. In: Giurlando, P., Wajner, D.F. (eds) Populist Foreign Policy. Global Foreign Policy Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22773-8_6

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