Unasul’s process of decline: causes and consequences for South American regionalism

Abstract

Celebrated in its early years as a milestone in South-American regionalism, the Union of South American Nations (Usan) is nowadays characterized by functional emptiness and abandonment by the majority of the countries in the region. Given the organization’s magnitude and ambitious goals, its decline process and current ostracism raises the question on what is the meaning of such process for South America. In order to examine this question, this article makes use of primary and secondary bibliography review aiming to specify the decline process of the Unasul as well as its causes and implications, ascribing it as instrument of regional organization towards making South America a regional power into the twenty-first century multipolar international system. The article concludes that South America cannot abstain itself of a institutionalized instrument of regional cooperation and organization, but new regionalist endeavors must avoid mistakes made with Unasul. In particular, it is necessary to rethink the intergovernmentalist approach of South American regionalism as well as the lack of autonomy by regional organizations.