Political Turns and Perceptions in the Foreign Policies of Argentina and Brazil (2003-2019)

Abstract

In the evolution of contemporary international politics, ideological turns are important factorsthat affect the resetting of governments' external agendas and of intra-regional and extraregional ties. All of them are affected by the worldviews of political leaders who occupy aprominent place in governments and by the types of leadership that presidents choose tohave in the exercise of their functions. This prompts us to analyse and reflect on the forms ofinternational insertion South American countries in the regional, continental and global scenebased on the perceptions of these leaders. The challenge is to analyse the pre-existing andemerging perceptions between Argentina and Brazil in the period 2003-2019 and how theyshaped the regional integration processes. At the same time, this paper examines their trendsbased on the operational milieu, that is, according to the international and regional contextand the evaluation of integrationist alternatives. The hypothesis is that the changes that tookplace in the operational milieu were a determining factor in the setting of the psychologicalmilieu; and that the resetting of the agenda regarding regional integration shows both achange in perceptions and an effort to adapt to external and internal political turns. Thus,among the various existing perceptions, we highlight as the most relevant three idealmodels/types that move towards two extremes to achieve a third that synthesizes them: thestrategic alliance; nationalist-military thought (or traditional suspicion); and Mutually AssuredTrust (MAT). The creation of concepts such as the MAT implies advancing in a relational modelthat removes uncertainty from the bilateral relationship.