Global Production, Local Protest, and Environmental Foreign Policy: Argentina and the Uruguay River Pulp Mill Projects

GUTIÉRREZ, RICARDO A. Y ALMEIRA, GUSTAVO

The Dark Side of Globalization

United Nations University Press

Lugar: Tokio; Año: 2011; p. 229 - 248

This chapter addresses the local response to global production projects and its impact on foreign policy and diplomatic relationships by analyzing the Uruguay River pulp mill projects. Between 2003 and 2005 the Uruguayan government authorized the construction of two mega pulp mills on the shore of the bordering. In contrast to the initial acquiescence of neighboring Argentina?s government, early in 2003 environmentalists from the small Argentine city of Gualeguaychú (located across the river from the construction sites) started a protest movement that ended up provoking the termination of one of the pulp mill projects and a major diplomatic conflict between. How was it possible that a local environmental protest escalated into an international dispute between two historically allied countries? Why did the Argentine government take up the protestors? agenda and decide to challenge Uruguay before the International Court of Justice? To answer these questions this chapter focuses on 1) the nature of global production projects and its impact on the domestic economy of the recipient country, 2) the peculiarities of the protest at hand and its public salience, and 3) the nature of state institutions in charge of environmental and water policies in Argentina. Social protest-triggered issue salience and weak environmental institutions on the Argentine side combined with the Uruguayan reluctance to any compromise to explain Argentina?s foreign policy choice and the still open diplomatic controversy between the two countries.