Dynamics of Globalization and Regional Integration: South America and Peace Operations

Abstract

Since the late 1990s, research on peace operations has increasingly taken up strands of globalization theory to explain changes in the nature of international peacekeeping. This article examines the question of how the dynamics of globalization and regional integration have affected South America's role and involvement in peace operations. It argues that a transformational globalization theory helps to explain developments and structural changes in South America's global peace engagement. This theoretical framework allows identification of global trends that link international developments to the changing involvement, experience and role of South America in peace operations: a growing number and diversity of actors in the operational theatre; structural changes in South America's military organizations; an increased willingness to engage in bi- and multilateral cooperation, including training for peace operations; and processes of both fragmentation and integration.

Notes

‘Peacekeeping Fact Sheet’, UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, DPI/2429/Rev.7, Mar. 2010, at: www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/documents/factsheet.pdf

Ibid. El Salvador and Guatemala, which once hosted UN missions, are now contributing troops to such operations.

Alex J. Bellamy, Paul Williams and Stuart Griffin, Understanding Peacekeeping, 2nd edn, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2010, p.13.

Ibid.

The definition of ‘peace operations’ is not stipulated in the UN Charter or in any other official UN document.

In this context, see David Chandler, ‘The Responsibility to Protect? Imposing the “Liberal Peace”’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.11, No.1, 2004, pp.59–81; Roger Mac Ginty and Oliver Richmond (eds), The Liberal Peace and Post-war Reconstruction, London: Routledge, 2009; Michael Pugh, Neil Cooper and Mandy Turner (eds), Whose Peace? Critical Perspectives on the Political Economy of Peacebuilding, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2008; Alex J. Bellamy and Paul Williams (eds), Peace Operations and Global Order, London: Taylor & Francis, 2005.

On this debate see Peter Viggo Jakobsen, ‘The Transformation of United Nations Peace Operations in the 1990s: Adding Globalization to the Conventional “End of the Cold War” Explanation’, Cooperation and Conflict, Vol.37, No.3, 2002, pp.267–82; Narcís Serra i Serra, ‘Globalización, fuerzas armadas y democracia en América Latina’ [Globalization, Armed Forces and Democracy in Latin America], Fasoc, Vol.17, No.4, 2002, at: www.fasoc.cl/files/articulo/ART40ed6abda857e.pdf

Berit Bliesemann de Guevara and Florian P. Kühn, ‘The “International Community” – Rhetoric or Reality? Tracing a Seemingly Well-Known Apparition’, Sicherheit und Frieden, Vol. 27, No.2, 2009, pp.73–9, at: www.security-and-peace.de/archiv/2009-2.htm

‘Operaciones globales para la Paz 2008’ [Global Peace Operations 2008], Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior, Madrid, at: www.fride.org/download/OTR_GlobalPeace_Ops_ESP_mar08.pdf. Since 1992, more than 14,000 United Nations Volunteers (UNV) have served in more than 40 peace operations; see: www.unv.org/en/news-resources/resources/annual-report-2009.html

Darya Pushkina, ‘A Recipe for Success? Ingredients for a Successful Peacekeeping Mission’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.13, No.2, 2006, pp.133–49.

Lorraine Elliot and Graeme Cheeseman, Forces for Good: Cosmopolitan Militaries in the Twenty-First Century, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004, p.70.

Jakobsen (n.7 above), p.273.

Donald Charles Daniel, Patricia Taft and Sharon Wiharta, Peace Operations: Trends, Progress, and Prospects, Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2008, p.154.

Ibid.

Ibid., p.161.

Monica Hirst, ‘Brazil in Haiti: The Challenges Ahead’, report, Norwegian Peacebuilding Centre, Oslo, 2010.

For Venezuela, see Julia Buxton's article in this issue. On Mexico see Elma del Carmen Trejo Garcia and Margarita Alvarez Romero, México y las Operaciones para el Mantenimiento de la Paz de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) [Mexico and United Nations Operations for Maintaining Peace], México: Servicio de investigación y análisis, Subdirección de Política Exterior, 2007, pp.33–9; María Cristina Rosas (ed.), Las operaciones de mantenimiento de la paz de las Naciones Unidas: Lecciones desde el mundo [United Nations Operations for Maintaining Peace: Lessons from the World], México: Universidad Autónoma de México/Folke Bernadotte Academy, 2008.

‘Operaciones globales para la Paz 2008’ (see n.9 above).

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Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, Jr, ‘Globalization: What's New? What's Not? (And so What?)’, Foreign Policy, No.118, 2000, pp.104–19; Jakobsen (see n.7 above), p.268.

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Roland Paris, ‘Peacekeeping and the Constraints of Global Culture’, European Journal of International Relations, Vol.9, No.3, 2003, pp.441–73; Paris, ‘Broadening the Study of Peace Operations’, International Studies Review, Vol.2, No.3, 2000, pp.27–44.

Jakobsen (see n.7 above), p.277, also 267.

Hans Günther Brauch (ed.), Globalization and Environmental Challenges: Reconceptualizing Security in the 21st Century, Berlin: Springer, 2008.

Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1990.

Alfred E. Eckes, Jr and Thomas W. Zeiler, Globalization and the American Century, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, p.1.

Anthony Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991, p.21. See also Jonathan Xavier Inda and Renato Rosaldo (eds), The Anthropology of Globalization: A Reader, Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2002.

Held et al. (see n.20 above), pp.7–10; cf. Giddens et al. (see n.20 above), p.667.

Michael Zürn, Globalizing Interests: Pressure Groups and Denationalization, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2005.

Barry Buzan, People, States and Fear. An Agenda for International Security Studies in the Post-Cold War Era, 2nd edn, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1991; Fredy Rivera Vélez (ed.), Seguridad multidimensional en América Latina [Multidimensional Security in Latin America], Quito: FLACSO Ecuador, 2008; Javier Perotti, ‘La globalización y la regionalización de la seguriad internacional: América Latina frente a los debates y dinámicas de los nuevos desafíos y complejidades de la realidad mundial’ [The Globalization and Regionalization of International Security: Latin American and the Debates on and Dynamics of New Threats and Complexities in the Real World], working paper, Centro Argentino de Estudios Internacionales (Programa Defensa y Seguridad), Buenos Aires, at: www.caei.com.ar/es/programas/dys/globalizacion.pdf

Ulrich Beck, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity, London: Sage, 1992; Martin Shaw, ‘The Development of “Common Risk” Society: A Theoretical Overview’, in Juergen Kuhlmann and Jean Callaghan (eds), Military and Society in 21st Century Europe: A Comparative Analysis, Muenster: LIT, 2000, pp.13–26.

Francisco Rojas Aravena (ed.), La seguridad de América Latina pos 11 de Septiembre [Latin American Security Post-11 September], Caracas: Nueva Sociedad, 2003; Olga Pellicer (ed.), Regional Mechanism and International Security in Latin America, Tokyo: UN University Press, 1998.

NGO Voice, ‘NGO Seminar on Civil–Military Relations’, Brussels, 3–4 Dec. 2007, at: www.ngovoice.org/documents/CivMil_SEMINAR_REPORT_WEB_Dec07.pdf

Marina Malamud Feinsilber, ‘Latin America in Peacekeeping Operations: A Sociopolitical Overview’, in Giuseppe Caforio (ed.), Advances in Military Sociology: Essays in Honor of Charles C. Moskos, Part A, Bingley: Emerald, 2009, p.141.

Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay made the most significant contributions to international UN peace operations during the 1990s.

Feinsilber (see n.35 above), p.144.

UNASUR, Consejo de Defensa Suramericano, South American Union of Nations: Constitutive Treaty, 2008, preamble, at: www.cdsunasur.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=119%3Asouth-american-union-of-nations-constitutive-treaty&catid=58%3Aingles&Itemid=189&lang=en

Members are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.

UNASUR (see n.38 above), preamble.

‘The objective of the South American Union of Nations is to build … an integration and union among its peoples in the cultural, social, economic and political fields, prioritizing political dialogue, social policies, education, energy, infrastructure, financing and the environment’: UNASUR (see n.38 above), article 2.

UNASUR (see n.38 above).

Mónica Hirst, ‘La fragmentada agenda de la (in)seguridad regional’ [The Fragmented Agenda of Regional (in) Security], in Seguridad y Democracia, Seguridad Regional 1 [Regional Security], La Paz: Fundación Friedrich Ebert-Instituto Latinoamericano de Investigaciones Sociales (FES-ILDIS), 2006, pp.11–68.

Wolf Grabendorff, ‘Relaciones triangulares en un mundo unipolar: América del Norte, la Unión Europea y América del Sur’ [Triangular Relations in a Unipolar World: North America, South America and the EU], in Franz Kernic and Tomás Chuaqui Henderson (eds), Seguridad y Cooperación: Aspectos de la seguridad y las relaciones entre la Unión Europea y América Latina [Security and Cooperation: Security Aspects and the Relationship between the European Union and Latin America], Vienna: Landesverteidigungsakademie, 2006, pp.7–43.

Council on Foreign Relations, US–Latin America Relations: A New Direction for a New Reality, New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 2008, at: www.cfr.org/content/publications/.../LatinAmerica_TF.pdf

This EU operation was authorized in 2004 under Chapter VII of the UN Charter as the legal successor to the NATO-led Stabilization Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SFOR). Operation EUFOR–ALTHEA is carried out with the support of NATO assets and capabilities, as stipulated in the ‘Berlin Plus’ arrangements. European Council Secretariat, ‘EU military Operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Operation EUFOR – Althea)’, at: www.europa-eu-un.org/articles/en/article_4089_en.htm

For a more extensive review on previous attempts to theorize the field of peace operations, see, e.g., Bellamy et al. (n.3 above); Paris, ‘Broadening the Study’ (n.23 above); Jakobsen (n.7 above).

Paris, ‘Broadening the Study’ (see n.23 above), p.27.

G. Honor Fagan and Ronaldo Munck (eds), Globalization and Security: An Encyclopedia, Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2009.