Vol. 35, Nº 2, 2013

Building “Nuestra América:” National Sovereignty and Regional Integration in the Americas

Abstract

This article explores the history of regional integration in the Americas, drawing lessons from the diverse ways that people have sought to unite the hemisphere. It begins at the point when most of the modern nation-states of Latin America came into being: the nineteenth-century wars for independence. From there, it traces various attempts at regional integration, keeping in mind three fundamental questions: How does regional integration compromise sovereignty? Does it have to? Is it worth sacrificing sovereignty to increase integration? The article concludes that while every attempt at regional integration in the Americas has required the participants to voluntarily sacrifice some measure of their sovereignty, the most successful efforts have been those that either kept the sacrifice to a minimum or offered significant enough rewards to offset the loss of sovereignty.

Keywords: Regional Integration – Sovereignty – Latin American History – U.S.-Latin American Relations – OAS/OEA – NAFTA/TLCAN – Mercosur/Mercosul

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