Latin America and the Caribbean and a New Global Order: Facing Global and Regional Challenges

Abstract

Latin America and the Caribbean as a region faces an intricate process of transition. This process is conditioned by the changes currently ongoing in the international environment, by a reconfiguration of the regional political map and by an exhaustion of the attempts to build regionalization and political consensus of the preceding decade, associated at the time to the boom of commodities and the rise of populist and leftist governments. To the difficulties faced by CELAC — where the construction of consensuses by an atomized region vis a vis external actors becomes extremely difficult, it should be added the evident weakening of the ALBA with the exhaustion of the Venezuelan capacity to nourish with oil resources the cooperation that sustains the Bolivarian scheme and a crisis underway in UNASUR where — particularly as a result of the Venezuelan crisis and the paralysis of the institution — six of its member countries (half of its total membership) have questioned the functioning of the agency and threaten to withdraw their membership. Although the Venezuelan crisis may be the epicenter of this regional situation and its impact — possibly polarizing — on the crossroads that are confronting regionalism and regional integration, introspection is not enough. The potential convergence of MERCOSUR with the Pacific Alliance, the redefinition of the external policies of its members as a result of electoral changes or the re-shaping of its domestic dynamics do not fully explain the current shift and it is necessary to combine it with the understanding of the pressures imposed by a changing global environment, where the crisis of globalization, the difficulties to build global governance, the weakening of multilateralism and the decline of the international liberal order are associated with the reconfiguration and diffusion of power worldwide, within a framework of a series of developments plagued by uncertainties and risks for the region. In this perspective, this article addresses the different dimensions of global transformations and its impact on the region and the challenges that the region faces in order to adapt to the changes in the current international environment.