CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Arms purchases have greatly increased in South America in recent years, climbing 92 per cent from 1997-2005 period to 2005-13. The prior wave of arms purchases developed during the 1970s when the region was going through a time of military competition between Argentina, Chile and Brazil, Chile and Peru, Peru and Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. Up to the early 1990s the region was defined as a zone of negative peace, characterized by distrust, arms races, and military competition. Furthermore, these zones are characterized by the predominance of nondemocratic regimes and by a low level of economic relations (Martin 2006). The quality of peace is low, since war has not been ruled out. Since the 1990s; however, the region has increasingly moved towards positive peace. Some significant border differences have been resolved, military cooperation has deepened and an unprecedented process of building regional institutions is underway. Zones of positive peace are defined by the presence of confidence and trust. States do not prepare for armed conflict with neighboring countries, nor expect neighbors to do so. This context is mostly associated by the presence of democratic rule and strong economic relations between countries. In this process of developing a positive peace, how can one explain major arms purchases? Do they represent the return of interstate conflict in the region? Are they a manifestation of changes in threat perceptions of South American countries? Scholarly work on contemporary arms purchases in South America is scarce and limited to a few case studies. The analysis of the motivations and nature of arms purchases is critical to understanding the dynamics of regional peace and security in a region. This chapter lays out a research agenda for understanding and explaining major arms purchases in an evolving zone of peace.

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