Impacts of the geopolitical dispute between the great powers in the Global South: South American destabilization and (dis)integration

Abstract

The rise of China and Russia as world power major poles has provoked an intensification of the geopolitical dispute between the two Eurasian powers with the United States. These countries have sought to expand their power projection in several areas of the globe, with emphasis on the Global South, making South America one of the disputed regions as a zone of influence. In this sense, the objective of the article is to analyze the scenario of South American regional destabilization and (dis)integration from the systemic perspective of geopolitical competition between the major world powers in the region. A qualitative, descriptive and analytical approach is applied, based on contributions from geopolitics and the concept of power balancing, using bibliographic review as a research technique. The existence of a “cascade effect” was observed, in which the disputes of the great powers have deepened the political polarization in South America, which, consequently, caused the stunting of the integration institutions. Thus, the current regional conjuncture was designed, in large part, due to the new pattern of relations between the new South American governments and Washington.