A critical insight into the politics and economics of relations between the EU and Latin America, particularly Mercosul, highlighting the significance of such relations for multilateralism and the international order.

The book draws comparison between MERCOSUR and the European Union to explain variation of regionalism and to expose its limits. The project is based on the idea that contemporary examples of regionalism should be evaluated against several propositions of multiple integration theories rather than against a single theory. In order to systematically explain why and how integration outcomes in MERCOSUR differ from those in the EU, the author develops an analytical framework for the comparison of the two blocs. MERCOSUR is compared with the EU by the use of the various criteria of economic interdependence, economic convergence, intra-bloc size and interest asymmetries, cultural diversity and geostrategic motivations, which are identified as the salient parameters of integration theories.

A critical insight into the politics and economics of relations between the EU and Latin America, particularly Mercosul, highlighting the significance of such relations for multilateralism and the international order.

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. This book provides a distinctive and empirically rich account of the European Union’s relationship with the Common Market of the South (Mercosur). It seeks to examine the motivations that determine the EU’s policy towards Mercosur; the most important relationship the EU has with another regional economic integration organization. In order to investigate these motivations (or lack thereof), this study examines the contribution of the main policy- and decision-makers, the European Commission and the Council of Ministers, as well as the different contributions of the two institutions. It analyses the development of EU policy towards Mercosur in relation to three key stages. Arana argues that the dominant explanations in the literature fail to adequately explain the EU’s policy, in particular, these accounts tend to infer the EU’s motives from its activity. Rather than the EU pursuing a strategy, as implied by most of the existing literature, the EU was largely responsive, which explains why the relationship is much less developed than the EU’s relations with other parts of the world.

Stemming from an international and multidisciplinary network of leading specialists, this best-selling text is fully updated with new chapter additions. With the first edition prepared at the end of the last century, this new edition anticipates the world of regionalism as we move further into this millennium. This new edition offers: " A vigorous response to conventional wisdom on EU international identity. " An exploration of key issues of regionalism versus globalization and the potential for world economic and political governance through regionalism. " A key resource for postgraduate or undergraduate study and research of international relations, European studies, comparative politics and international political economy. Taking into account the expanded European Union, the volume comprises contributions from established scholars in the field to highlight external relations in the framework of the development of regional arrangements within the globalized world of the 21st century.

Providing an in-depth study of the construction of foreign policy in developing countries, Martin Mullins takes an original line of both a post-positivist methodology and an acceptance of the importance of the realism in foreign policy formation in the Southern Cone countries from the early 1980s to the present day. This carefully constructed work highlights the case of Chilean foreign policy in the 1990s in order to examine the adoption of realism in its policy formation, in contrast to the strong historical narratives of Argentina and Brazil. The volume focuses on the nuances of foreign policy making through a comprehensive study of political culture that underlines the links between domestic and foreign policy sets in the region.

Stemming from an international and multidisciplinary network of leading specialists, this best-selling text is fully updated with new chapter additions. With the first edition prepared at the end of the last century and the second edition adding inter-regional relations, this new edition focuses on competing models of regional cooperation within a multipolar world and the role of the European Union.