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The present paper aims to examine the different approaches to regionalism, comparing those of the two largest Latin American countries - both economic and population-wise, Brazil and Mexico. The paper aims to identify the determining factors of the foreig ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the first time, Latin America's two giants, Brazil and Mexico, are both under democratic regimes. But the democratization of these two countries has led them into two very different international paths in the United Nations. Brazil seeks to be a world leader in the forum, while Mexico has pursued a passive role in the organization. The paper explains why Brazil and Mexico have pursued different strategies in the UN. It uses domestic politics variables to analyze Brazil's preference for activism and Mexico's choice for relative isolationism. In particular, the paper focuses on domestic processes and institutions to explain variation in behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will provide an explanation for the recent rise of business-related organizations in Latin America that seek to promote corporate social responsibility in a period of sluggish economic growth. With a focus on Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, and Peru, the paper will describe a changing political economy context, in which the private sector has gained power and space relative to the public sector, as a background for the analysis of relevant variables. These will include a comparative assessment of the role of: social pressure from civil society organizations; changing views from within business elites, and the dissemination of new management concepts (such as stakeholdership). The paper will also identify and explain a major difference within this set of countries: Brazil stands out for the depth and breadth of, and relative success in the promotion of corporate social responsibility. While in the other countries the rise of these organizations may be viewed as a response to crises, in Brazil it must be viewed as the result of the social relations established by business elites as they turned to opposition to the military regime in the late 1970s and early 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Established disciplines such as International Relations (IR) & International Political Economy (IPE), and even more explicitly interdisciplinary ones like Development Studies & Strategic Studies, are not always adroit in recognizing, let alone anticipating major trends. This deficiency is highlighted by the lamentable gaps in scholarship concerning the continuing reverberations from the end of bipolarity. Symptomatically, it was not scholars but a donor agency (DFID) which noticed in early 2005 that a quarter of the world's +/-200 states were 'fragile'. This paper explores whether a small group of 'emerging' economies might impact global politics, economics & societies through the first quarter of the new century as the NICs did towards the end of the last one. It is an early, experimental product of a novel collaborative project at CIGI on Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, ASEAN & Mexico (BRICSAM). The paper focuses on four interrelated aspects of the emergence of BRICSAM on the world stage:i)non-state as well as state impacts on - local to global - governance;ii)regionalisms, institutional as well as 'new' informal modalities;iii)orthodox as well as 'new' (human) security; &iv)implications for various forms of multilateralism as a possible antidotes to US inclinations towards unilateralism. The paper concludes by reflecting on such a possible shift in geopolitics for the analysis & practice of IR & IPE, Development & Security Studies. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which shows that by using Brazil and Mexico, the extent to which nation states geopolitical and geo-economic interests can form the national position in relation to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). According to the author, liberal intergovernmentalism involves the analysis of economic integration as part of the International Political Economy. It cites that liberal intergovernmentalism emphasizes the role of national entrepreneurs, who are seen as a vital non-state actor in the formation of national preferences.

The article examines the role of Brazil in the Doha round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations and the ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico. According to the authors, the country was able to step into the role because of the association of global neoliberalism. It notes that neoliberal globalization is distinguished by a noticeable de-emphasis of governmental regulatory functions in favor of financial structures. It cites that the structure of the WTO reflects the regime of neoliberalism and the deterioration in hegemony of the U.S.

This article discusses the options taken by Mexico and Brazil concerning ways to better integrate themselves into the global economy. Mexico took a free trade framework in order to join North America while Brazil opted for an institutional framework to form Mercosur with Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. This paper starts by showing how different options led two once closely studied Latin American countries into different directions. It compares the consequences of these options in terms of foreign trade and regional leadership; investment and dependence; and migration. It argues that despite positive changes both countries still face traditional economic problems. The advantages brought by their options for integration are coming to an end. Mexico has lost US investment to China and is facing difficult migration problems with the US. Brazil has being unable to lead Mercosur and South America into integration. Both countries are facing low economic growth and social problems remains. Maybe it is time to compare their experience and look at the EU model of integration and see in what way it can help Mexico and Brazil to move forward. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In last few years Corporate Social Responsability became a hot issue everywhere. As a defensive answer to globalization, I argue MNEs are triyng to harmonize social behavior in order to acomplish international labour standards, mainly in labour and gender. The paper will consider comparative analysis in multinationals social behavior in Brazil and Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1922, Lenin called for the Soviet Union to control "the commanding heights" of the economy -those critical industries which project tremendous political and economic power within and across borders. Lenin was talking about heavy industry, not high finance. But, in our generation, high finance has become the commanding heights. The importance of strong steel and chemical industries has declined and the power derived from moving capital nationally and across borders has grown in importance. Some suggest these commanding heights have come under attack in many countries. Banks have been targets since the mid-1990s, when the world witnessed a huge, seemingly coordinated worldwide wave of local bank acquisitions by foreigners. These acquisitions occurred after a series of financial crises in Mexico, Asia, Russia and Brazil culminated in the sales of many local banks in some countries, while other countries saw fewer sales. In all, over thirty countries were affected through this process of "financial liberalization." Latin America provided, perhaps, the most active gameboard on which this was played out in terms of both value and volume of acquisitions. Latin America had also provided the template for the sale of banks to foreigners in the 1990's, as Chile's experience in the late 1980's made it the poster child for both privatization and financial liberalization. But before their programs to sell banks to the highest bidder, though, Chile and Mexico had privatized banks in earlier, disastrous programs which had excluded foreign buying.Analyzing these waves of bank privatization and acquisition solely by using financial economics misses the most important aspect of this phenomenon: the processes were fundamentally political, and should be analyzed as such. Banks rely on governmental support and guidance. Banks are monitored and governed by national and international organizations established for that purpose and they lobby these organizations. Banks are also "privately monitored" by investors and other interested parties. In short, banks and financial systems operate in a complex web of politics. The power which banks derive from their informational asymmetry has long been recognized and appreciated by political leaders. The information derived from relationship banking is sought after by political leaders and other interested parties, who observe banks' actions. But this informational advantage comes to banks with a price--banks are subject to severe financial fragility. Barth, Caprio and Levine note, "banking crises are the train wrecks of finance," but these impacts are significantly deeper and wider than just in the world of finance. For these reasons, governmental actors are pulled and pushed toward banks and banks' power. They are pulled by banks' ability to deploy liquidity in productive ways, and pushed by the perceived need to regulate and monitor banking activity. These government officials experience an additional tug of war in that they face a conflict between acting for the public good and pursuing their private gain in their dealings with banks and banking regulation. The large variation in "cross-border" bank acquisitions is not adequately explained through regional expansion strategies of the acquiring banks, cultural affiliation between acquirer and target bank, size of country or type of government or international-level interactions. One can come much closer to an all-encompassing explanation of the pattern of cross-border bank acquisition by employing a different, more agnostic approach by considering the strategic interaction of the players in a cross-border acquisition game. Through examination of the actors' strategies, we find strategy, culture and, especially, politics all contribute to outcome... ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]