Experiences from the South: Social Constructivism and the Construction of the Argentine-Brazilian Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime.

This paper applies a constructivist analytical framework to investigate the role of ideas in the evolution of Argentine-Brazilian relations, focusing on the nuclear rapprochement from 1979-1991. While the policy implications of the Argentine-Brazilian model for confidence-building and regional stability have attracted much international interest, the case study has not received satisfactory attention in the literature, both in theoretical and empirical terms. The bulk of explanations, deriving predominantly from mainstream theories, have recurrently ignored or underestimated ideational dimensions. In fact, while for mainstream theories it is relevant to point at structural constraints, strategic interests, and power-based decisions to account for the transformations in Argentine-Brazilian relations, important questions are left unanswered and the puzzle remains as to why nuclear cooperation was pursued over other possible forms of interaction. The paper aims to fill these gaps by investigating the role of ideas as well as the impact of processes of interaction, socialization, and learning. The Argentine-Brazilian rivalry was most manifest during the Corpus-Itaipú dispute (1966-1979) over the use of the hydroelectric resources of the Paraná River and during the escalating nuclear technology race, which had been fuelled by mutual mistrust as early as the 1950s. Argentina and Brazil gradually moved from rivalry, competition, and struggle for influence in the region to the emergence of institutionalized cooperation. Bilateral relations witnessed a turnaround with the resolution of the Corpus-Itaipú dispute in 1979. In 1980, Argentina and Brazil signed the first embryonic nuclear agreements which opened the way for further nuclear cooperation, leading to the creation of a comprehensive nonproliferation regime in July 1991. This bilateral inspection system is known as the Argentine-Brazilian Agency for the Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials (ABACC). The paper reaches the conclusion that a constructivist approach is needed to deepen understanding of the evolution in bilateral relations and to capture the ways in which ideas have underpinned such changes. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]