Diffusion and Networking in Regional Cooperation: Trade Institution in the Pacific Alliance

Abstract

Objective/Context: This article examines regional cooperation from the perspective of literature on networking and diffusion literature aiming to explain how the Pacific Alliance's trade institutions were formed in the period 2010 -2019. Additionally, it analyses why, within this process, the bloc has been losing dynamism. Methodology: The qualitative analysis of four case studies is interlinked with process tracking to emphasize the connections and interactions between the actors identified in the decision-making process. Conclusions: The analysis reveals that the identification of shared principles between transnational and trans-government networks and political actors has facilitated the decision-making process whenever there have been pre-negotiation agreements that articulate their interests and harmonize their differences. This process shows that the institutional design adopted by the Pacific Alliance is the result of disseminating multiple regional references, in which the networks facilitated the transfer of knowledge to a regional organization. Originality: The article shows that it is possible to overcome the state-centric vision of regional cooperation and explains that regionalism does not emerge in isolation from other regional references.