Post hegemonic policies in South America: the case of financial cooperation

Abstract

The leadership and supremacy of the United States was a decisive feature of the dynamics of Latin America's insertion during past century, but the rise of Asia in general and China in particular challenges our understanding of how we conceptualize regional cooperation. The value of regionalism in a multipolar world order operates through different logic than regionalism in the 20th century. In the last two decades the importance of regions and southern regionalism has increased in global politics as a consequence of such power changes but also changes in ambitions and initiatives anchored in different areas of policy where acting regionally made sense to actors, mostly states, that reclaimed the region as a sphere of policy opportunities and responsibilities. Conceptually, this was captured in what we called post-hegemonic regionalism which, to a great extent, grew at odds with US hemispheric ambitions of extending its reach. This article proposes an analysis of the development of financial post-hegemonic strategies in Latin America during the last two decades, one of the fields in which the region tried, with mixed success, to dispute the status quo.