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Regional Organizations, Conflict Resolution and Mediation in South America

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Power Dynamics and Regional Security in Latin America

Abstract

This chapter approaches regional conflict resolution and mediation in South America, focusing on the role regional organizations and arrangements have played as social spaces where shared meanings and collective representations of peace and security are produced, contested and (re)negotiated. In the case of South America, the images that constitute the regional experience in conflict resolution are (a) a plural institutional architecture; (b) a legalist framework with strong preference for non-interventionism and peaceful conflict resolution; (c) a separation between domestic violence and international peace; and (d) ad hoc arrangements based on presidential involvement. These four images are part of public life, constituting a particular symbolic frame developed by the local elites and reproduced through decision-making practices on peace and conflict in the region.

We would like to thank CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development), FAPERJ (Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for support of Research of the State of Rio de Janeiro) and the Embassy of Norway for their support.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The term ‘conflict resolution’ is commonly used to refer both to the process (or the intention) of changing the violent behavior and hostile attitudes of parties in conflict and to the completion of a process of peaceful change, including addressing the deep-rooted sources of a conflict (Ramsbotham et al. 2011: 31). In this chapter, ‘conflict resolution’ refers to institutional mechanisms created to resolve disputes peacefully, such as via negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and so on.

  2. 2.

    For this concept and discussion, see Onuf (1989).

  3. 3.

    The South American Regional Integration Initiative, created in late 2000 with the participation of the 12 countries of South America, seeks the physical interconnection of the region, energy integration and changes to legislation, rules and national regulations that hinder commerce and investment.

  4. 4.

    In 1994, 34 countries in the Western hemisphere agreed to construct a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), but by 2005 it became clear the project would not come to fruition. Also in 1994 Canada, Mexico and the United States signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America.

  5. 5.

    The relation between Colombia and the United States is an exception since these countries have developed a strategic partnership based on a narrative of cooperation and assistance (see the chapter by Cepeda and Tickner in this volume).

  6. 6.

    Its initial name was Andean Pact; it was renamed Andean Community in 1996.

  7. 7.

    It was initially called ‘Alternative’ instead of ‘Alliance’, but the name was changed on 24 June 2009.

  8. 8.

    Since its founding in Cuba in 2004, ALBA has grown from two to eleven members: Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Grenada, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Venezuela.

  9. 9.

    ALBA members have expressed their desire to establish a military component as part of the counter-hegemonic agenda of the bloc. During the seventh ALBA Summit in Bolivia (2009) a mutual defense pact was discussed and, although this pact has not evolved, a Regional Defense School was established in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

  10. 10.

    Understood as a traditional foreign policy image conceived regionally and related to the respect for international normative frameworks. Jurisdicismo also refers to a political argument commonly used as a reference for the definition and evaluation of foreign policy discourses and practices in the region.

  11. 11.

    See the Organization of American States’ webpage on the Peace Fund, available at http://www.oas.org/sap/peacefund/peacefund/ (28 June 2015).

  12. 12.

    In the case of MERCOSUR the Ushuaia Protocol of 1998 established the connection between the integration process and the existence of democratic institutions (Ribeiro Hoffmann 2005), and also stipulated that any rupture in the member-states’ democratic system would be submitted to due procedures, from diplomatic consultations to sanctions. The Montevideo Protocol of 2011 includes additional possibilities of sanctions in the case of democratic rupture in a member states. On regional democracy clauses, also see the chapter by Weiffen in this volume.

  13. 13.

    See Uppsala Conflict Data Program, 2008, available at http://www.pcr.uu.se/research/UCDP/graphs/charts_and_graphs.htm (2 July 2015).

  14. 14.

    For an alternative view see Mares (2001) and the chapter by Mares in this book.

  15. 15.

    Political Declaration of MERCOSUR, Bolivia and Chile as a Zone of Peace, available at http://www.state.gov/p/wha/rls/70988.htm (28 June 2015).

  16. 16.

    OAS, ‘A History of Peace Initiatives in the Americas’, available at https://www.oas.org/sap/peacefund/publications/Peace_Initiatives_in_the_Americas.pdf (28 June 2015).

  17. 17.

    Refer to the record of the Foreign Ministers’ conference, available at http://www.comunidadandina.org/documentos/actas/compromiso_lima.htm (2 July 2015).

  18. 18.

    Colombia, Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Colombia, Peru, El Salvador, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Chile and Haiti.

  19. 19.

    Number of homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, according to Instituto Igarapé’s Homicide Monitor, available at http://homicide.igarape.org.br (5 November 2015).

  20. 20.

    UNODC Global Study on Homicide, available at https://www.unodc.org/gsh/ (2 July 2015).

  21. 21.

    Recent efforts to add non-traditional conflicts in accounts on conflict resolution include Fuentes and Fuentes (2004) in an attempt to look at conflict resolution efforts through the concept of Latin American ‘vulnerabilities’; a compilation organized by the School for Conflict Resolution and Analysis at George Mason University in partnership with the University for Peace (Pfund 2014); and the works of organizations such as Conciliation Resources, the Regional Coordination for Economic and Social Research (CRIES) and the Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre (NOREF).

  22. 22.

    Colombia shares a 1,367 mile border with Venezuela, approximately 1,000 miles each with Peru and Brazil, and smaller borders with Ecuador and Panama.

  23. 23.

    Another example for ad hoc initiatives is the group of friendly states to the peace talks in Colombia – Costa Rica, Mexico, Spain and Venezuela.

  24. 24.

    Heads of state have met to define the economic, political and security agendas for cooperation in the hemisphere. After the first Summit of the Americas, the event was also organized in 1998, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2012 and 2015. The Summit Implementation Review Group is the core management body of the Summit Process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Monica Herz, Maira Siman & Ana Clara Telles

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  1. Monica Herz
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  2. Maira Siman
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  3. Ana Clara Telles
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Correspondence to Monica Herz .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fluminense Federal University, Niterói, Brazil

    Marcial A.G. Suarez

  2. University of São Paulo , São Paulo, Brazil

    Rafael Duarte Villa

  3. University of Sao Paulo , Sao Paulo, Brazil

    Brigitte Weiffen

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Herz, M., Siman, M., Telles, A.C. (2017). Regional Organizations, Conflict Resolution and Mediation in South America. In: Suarez, M., Villa, R., Weiffen, B. (eds) Power Dynamics and Regional Security in Latin America. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57382-7_6

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