From Local Protests to the International Court of Justice: Forging Environmental Foreign Policy in Argentina

ALCAÑIZ, ISABELLA Y GUTIÉRREZ, RICARDO

Environmental Change and Foreign Policy

Routledge Press

Lugar: New York; Año: 2009; p. 109 - 120

In 2005 neighbors of a small Argentine city began protesting the planned construction of two pulp plants on the Uruguayan side of the shared Uruguay River. Protesters, claiming pollution from the plants would devastate the local fishing and tourist industry, blocked the international bridges that connect the two countries and demanded that Uruguay halt construction. As the demonstrations grew in size and intensity, the executives of Argentina and Uruguay became involved and ended up taking the dispute to the Mercosur, the World Bank, and the International Court of Justice ? where they still await a final ruling of the suit Argentina filed against its neighbor. How did a small-scale environmental protest quickly escalate into an international dispute between two historically allied states? We find, first, that the adoption of radical tactics by mostly middle class protesters coupled with the overlapping of jurisdictions in water policy quickly nationalized the conflict. Second, issue salience and the lack of an autonomous environmental state agency pushed the Argentine government to adopt the protesters? agenda,  resulting in a new foreign environmental policy for the country.