Autonomy in Latin America’s Foreign Policy: Evolution and Current Debates

Abstract

In this paper we focus on the evolution of the strategies of autonomy, which have characterizedforeign policies implemented in Latin America since the decade of the seventies. Taking the international relations theory debate, that ranges from rationalist positions to reflectivism, as a starting point, we adopt some contributions of the realistic and transnational approaches, the dependency theories that characterize the Latin American debate, and the contributions of the constructivist approach. We consider that this evolution has three distinct stages: a traditional autonomy, from the decade of the seventies, a relationalautonomy —worked further by Tokatlian and Russell (2000)—, and, currently, a process of rethinking the strategies of autonomy due to the transformations in the development models and the political regimes of some countries and the consequent changes in foreign policy interests. These changes are caused by a post-neoliberal agenda that favors regional armonization, based on the constructivist approach, over the relations with the United States, with a meaning that is different from prior periods but that preserves the contents of the sociopolitical agenda on the economic and commercial agreements.