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The concept of regional integration has gotten a very positive connotation in international politics in the last decades and for this reason is used a lot by South American policy makers with a strong normative bias that frequently is distant from the effective reality of the integration process. South America is a region of the world with good potential for economic integration for the following reasons: continental geography, commonality or proximity among cultures and languages, very low inter-state rivalry (minimum amount of wars during the last century, when compared with other regions) and abundance of energy resources (particularly natural gas, oil, hydropower and bio-fuels). For that reason Brazilian foreign policy has build up, in the last two decades, a foreign policy oriented to an incremental effort for the integration of the region, starting with Argentina, the traditional geopolitical rival since Independence. The outcome of these efforts have been mixed, with many ups and downs but with a general trend of success in the creation and development of Mercosur from 1991 to 1999, an stagnation of the Union from 1999 to 2002 and a renewed and more extended Brazilian diplomatic effort - the leading of an integration of the whole South America - since the beginning of the Lula administration in 2003. The process is still in course and open ending but the initial years shows that obstacles are very strong and success is far away. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]