This volume features up-to-date studies of regional integration efforts in all major parts of the world, especially North America, South America, and East Asia. Comparisons are drawn between these efforts and those made in the EU, where integration has progressed much further. The book asks: what explains the variation in achievements? What kind of agreements and institutions are needed to produce regional integration? Is 'pooling and delegation' of sovereignty necessary to overcome 'collective action problems'? How important is regional leadership? This work is a major new contribution to the literature on regional integration, and will appeal to theorists, policymakers, students and other readers concerned about world developments. It will also be of value to courses covering international political economy, international relations and regional integration, at both undergraduate and graduate level.

Cuban intellectual Roberto Regalado provides a critical analysis of the issues facing Latin America today and the significance of the recent election of leftist governments in several countries. He examines the political crises and the emerging social movements on the continent that are spearheading international resistance to neo-liberalism - from the water struggles in Bolivia to the landless movement in Brazil - and considers alternative options for development.

Raíces históricas de la integración latinoamericana / Sergio Guerra Vilaboy y Alejo Maldonado Gallardo -- Europa y los procesos de integración de América Latina y el Caribe / B. Carolina Crisorio, Norberto R. Aguirre y Ofelia B. Scher -- Los países del Cono Sur y un largo camino hacia la integración. Las relaciones con Europa / B. Carolina Crisorio y Norberto R. Aguirre -- Una aproximación a las experiencias del Pacto Andino, el Grupo de los Tres y la Asociación de Estados del Caribe / Roberto González Arana -- Estados Unidos-América Latina y el Caribe : entre el panamericanismo hegemónico y la integración independiente / Carlos Oliva Campos.

This interdisciplinary edited volume explores the political economy of regionalism in Latin America. It identifies convergent forces which have existed in the region since its very conception and analyses these dynamics in their different historical, geographic and structural contexts. Particular attention is paid to key countries such as Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, as well as subregions like the Southern Cone and Central America. To understand the resilience of regionalism in Latin America, this book proposes to highlight four main issues. Firstly, that resilience is linked to mechanisms of self-enforcement that are part of the accumulation of experiences, institution building and common cultural features described in this book as regionalist acquis. Secondly, the elements and driving forces behind the promotion and expression of the regionalist acquis are influenced and shaped by nested systems in which social processes are inserted. Thirdly, when looking at systems, there is a particular influence by national and global ones, which condition the form and endurance of regional projects. Finally, beyond systems, the book highlights the relevance of agents as crucial players in the shaping of the resilience of regionalism in Latin America. This insightful collection will appeal to advanced students and researchers in international economics, international relations, international political economy, economic history and Latin American studies.

As regionalisation becomes an increasingly hot topic, the authors explain why regionalism has been most successful in Latin America and analyse current processes and opinions of possible future developments in the region, including the Caribbean, Central America, Brazil, and Mexico.

Drawing on diverse theoretical perspectives on conviviality, this book considers the ways in which Latin America, a continent marked by deep inequalities, has managed to afford, create, sustain, and contest forms of living together with difference across time and space. Interdisciplinary in approach and presenting studies from various nations across the continent – from the medieval period to the present day – it considers the ways in which Latin America might contribute to our understanding of the relationship between inequality, difference, diversity, and sociability. As such, it will appeal to scholars of history, sociology, geography, anthropology, development studies, postcolonial and social theory with interests in Latin American studies, and in the contingencies and contradictions of living together in profoundly unequal societies.