Governing security in South America

JORGE BATTAGLINO

Handbook of South American Governance

Routledge

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2017; p. 99 - 110

One of the central features of the post-Second World War system of security governance wasthe creation of security institutions with hemispheric scope, whose main objective was to convertthe US security concerns into regional problems. The South American response to thisstrategy was uneven; while some countries adopted Washington recommendations othersresisted it, which is remarkable given the significant asymmetry of power with the hegemon(Bianculli 2016; Friedman and Long 2015). What determines the degree of resistance of thecountries to the hegemon?s policies in the security realm? The main argument of this chapter isthat the level of regional opposition/accord was mainly determined by the model of developmentpursued by the different governments. In this way, the system of the security governancebecame a political scenario functional for the reproduction not only of security, political andeconomic interests of the USA but also where those interests could be contested by SouthAmerican countries.