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Deploying a political economy approach of development (critical PE), this paper critically re-reads the historical stages, domestic and international processes, events and ideas that have been used to fulfil a specific interpretation of the South American ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper claims that the forging of a common identity among India, Brasil and South Africa based on their role as leaders in their respective regions is a relevant yet neglected aspect of their partnership that will ultimately determine the success of IBSA. The argument is that the foundational south identity of the IBSA initiative retains ideological elements drawn from the heyday of the confrontational politics of Non-Alignment which do not adequately (or at least do not fully) represent the contemporary political and economic context of its members. Linked to this is the fact that, while acknowledged as powers by dint of their preponderance of economic and material means, this has not translated into wide-spread recognition within their respective regions. For all these reasons, IBSA relies primarily on an elite defined form of south activism as a key source of legitimacy for its endeavors. The construction of a strong regional identity for IBSA based on its members' strategic positions in South Asia, South America and Southern Africa is, in our viewpoint, a more convincing common ground to legitimize a sustainable diplomatic partnership between the IBSA states. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American hegemony has passed its peak. The twenty-first century will see a more multi-polar international system. Yet Western European countries may not be the United States' main foils in decades to come. Four new poles of the international system are now widely known in the business and financial press as the "BRICs economies" (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). Does the concept of "the BRICs" have meaning within a rigorous political science framing? From the perspective of an economic liberal employing neoclassical assumptions to understand the world economy, the category's justification is surprisingly weak. In contrast, a political or economic realist's framing instructs us to focus on states that are increasing their relative material capabilities—as each of the four is. Finally, within a liberal institutionalist's mental model, the BRICs countries are a compelling set, yet one with a deep cleavage between two sub-groups: large emerging powers likely to remain authoritarian or revert to that state, and those that are securely democratic. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]