War and Rapprochement in the Argentine-Brazilian Rivalry.

A common theme in the literature on international rivalries concerns the role of war. War can exacerbate rivalries, but by acting as a shock, war can also catalyze changes that help to deescalate or terminate rivalries. Using William Thompson?s integrative framework as a guide, this paper examines the impact of wars on the Argentine-Brazilian rivalry, from independence in the early nineteenth century through the deescalation and apparent termination of the rivalry during the 1980s and 1990s. War between Argentina and Brazil did not catalyze the deescalation process, but examining Argentina?s entire rivalry profile reveals that the threat of war does play an important indirect role, in conjunction with the realization of a widening capability gap between the two states. Other factors include Brazil?s program of domestic liberalizing reform (abertura) and Brazil?s attempts to distance itself from the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]