Defence in a post-hegemonic regional Agenda: The case of the South American defence council

Abstract

The chapter looks at the creation of the South American Defence Council (SADC) as a regional security community stretching from power competition to a forum for conflict resolution and peace. It argues that the establishment of the SADC is a regional response to a new defence context characterized by an increased global asymmetry in the distribution of military power and militarization of the US security agenda towards the region, but at the same time as a consequence of a revival of long political and intellectual regional traditions that has never abandoned the goal of Latin American integration. The new defence scenario, it is argued, has been shaped by material changes related to the militarization of the security policy of the United States towards the region, the revival of territorial and ideological disputes and the emergence of Brazil as a regional power. Ideational changes are also linked to the development of a regional consensus regarding how to deal with defence challenges. The recent convergence of those two dimensions is essential to explain the emergence of regionalism in defence in South America. This chapter thus explores these dimensions to make sense of the SADC in a new regional scenario.