Latin America: experts’ perception of foreign policy dimensions

Authors

  • Federico Merke Universidad de San Andrés
  • Diego Reynoso Universidad de San Andrés

Abstract

Political Science literature on Latin American foreign policy abounds in case studies but has not dealt much on theory and papers containing extensions. This has severely limited comparisons between countries and reduced the ability to identify the region's foreign policy similarities, trends and patterns. Therefore, one can find detailed narratives that however provide few systematic data to construct sound explanations on Latin America´s foreign policy. In order to fill this gap, the paper aims at examining foreign policy trends in the period 1980-2014 in 19 Latin American countries. On the basis of experts' impressions on foreign policy positions of the latters' presidents we evaluate their stand in four foreign policy dimensions: foreign policy style, geopolitical direction, economic position and relationship with the United States. The text refers to the present situation, the methodology applied and the initial statistical aggregates.

Keywords:

Science Policy, Latin America, foreign policy, United States

Author Biographies

Federico Merke, Universidad de San Andrés

Profesor tiempo completo en el Departamento de Ciencias Sociales, y director de las carreras de Ciencia Política y Relaciones Internacionales en la Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires. También es investigador del CONICET.

Diego Reynoso, Universidad de San Andrés

Investigador del CONICET y Profesor de Cátedra e Investigador Afiliado en la Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires.