This article examines the continuing process of establishment and formal and informal institutionalization of UNASUR's and its Security Defence Council through action and discourse. We claim that both are in an «ascent» phase, and that the aims of the group's leading countries are to create a «rigorous» regional grouping. Paradoxically, evidence points to crises as main elements that drive these countries to strengthen the institution.Moreover, the role placed by UNASUR during crises becomes a mechanism for achieving institucional balance and balance of power vis-à-vis the OAS and the United States.
Keywords:
security communities, regional integration, security, UNASUR, South American Defence Council
Author Biographies
Daniel Flemes, German Institutte of Global and Area Studies
Doctor en Ciencia Política por la Universidad de Hamburgo. Investigador del GiGA-German Institutte of Global and Area Studies. Especialista en temas de defensa y seguridad en América Latina.
Detlef Nolte, German Institutte of Global and Area Studies
Vicepresidente del GIGA- German Institute of Global and Area Studies; Director del GIGA-Institute of Latin American Studies. Especialista en temas de política comparada y relaciones internacionales de Sudamérica.
Leslie Wehner, German Institutte of Global and Area Studies
Doctor en Ciencia Política por la Universidad de Hamburgo. Cursa beca postdoctoral de la Fundación Fritz Thyssen. Investigador del GIGA-German Institute of Global and Area Studies. Especialaista en relaciones internacionales.
Flemes, D., Nolte, D., & Wehner, L. (2011). A regional security community in the making: UNASUR and its South American Defence Council. Estudios Internacionales, 44(170), 105–127. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-3769.2011.19428
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