REGIONALISM AND SECURITY: THE CASE OF MERCOSUR AND THE ABSENCE OF DEFENSE ISSUES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22456/2238-6912.86996Keywords:
Mercosur, defense, armed forcesAbstract
Despite being established on a commercial basis, Mercosur gradually incorporated other areas of cooperation during its first years, such as health, labor and environment. However, issues like defense were never included in the institutional scheme. On this basis, this article analyses a specific set of factors that were crucial to undermine the possibilities of building a security mechanism in the Southern Cone. These factors are the bloc one-dimension, the divergent civilian control of the armed forces and the different visions of security among member countries.