The invention of international insertion: Intellectual foundations and conceptual historical evolution

Abstract

This article investigates the intellectual foundations and conceptual evolution to the concept of international insertion within Latin American international thought throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. International insertion is born from the Latin American interpretations of Foreign Policy Analysis and International Political Economy -in particular, the various nuances of Dependency Theory- to the quest for the agency in international politics. The mainstream IR literature has considered by default that only the great powers -or sometimes a select group of traditional middle powers- possess agency as an intrinsic capacity. For those who are considered the ‘rest’ of the world, seeking status is something distant, so they have to seek insertion first. This concern has largely occupied Latin American international (academic and political) thought and produced an original contribution to the Theory of International Relations. The historical reconstruction of how this critical piece from the Southern international thought has been forged is essential to the advancement of the discipline’s socio-historical understanding..