Paper short abstract:

The paper analyzes the political economy of energy and physical integration in South America, identifying the domestic and international factors which are hindering the advance of the agenda.

Paper long abstract:

Energy and physical integration constitute the core of the economic agenda of the so called "post-liberal" regionalism in South America. Both areas of integration are encompassed in the program of ALBA and UNASUR, responding to a demand which is coming from the public as well as the private sectors of South American societies. On the one hand, the lack of infrastructure has been perceived as an obstacle for increasing economic (trade and productive) integration among South American countries. On the other hand, South America is well known not only to be a region well endowed with energy resources, but also to be extremely asymmetrical regarding the distribution of such resources. During the first decade of the 21th century, there have been both: integration initiatives and institution building processes, such as the Initiative for the Integration of South American Regional Infrastructure (IIRSA), the South America Energy Council (COSEAS) and more recently the UNASUR Councils of Planning (COSIPLAN ) and Energy. In spite of the socio-political demand for deeper integration and the supply of regional institutions, the agenda has had few advances. In this paper, I explore the political economy of both areas shedding light on the interaction between domestic and international factors which explain the limits of energy and physical integration in the region.

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Paper short abstract:

Pushed by a global demand, biofuel policies in S.A rest heavily on an intensive and extensive use of land leading to enormous socio-environmental impacts. From a regional perspective the article analysis the interaction between politics, science and private interest towards sustainable policies.

Paper long abstract:

The natural resource curse thesis coined by Auty (1993) remains up to date as the development strategies of most countries in the Global South continue to be directly tied to an intensive exploitation of natural resources. This is particularly evident within the biofuels sector where a growing external demand for this good, coming from industrialized economies, has led South American countries to become global biofuels providers (Fulquet, 2012) even when the socio-economic sustainability of this development model is still at stake (Pengue, 2009; Wilkinson & Herrera, 2011).

Ccooperative interactions between prominent biofuel producing countries such as Argentina, Brazil - and even Paraguay- are framed under relaunched (MERCOSUR) and new (UNASUR) regional organizations that reflect a concert of like-minded governments that composed the so called "new Latin American left" (Vilas, 2005; Laclau, 2006). While an array of uncertainties monopolize the global debates around the sustainability of biofuels, policymakers in the region are turning to expert knowledge - coming from the scientific-technical community and private actors in the sector- to overcome this limitation. Nonetheless, the contributions by experts for the development of sustainable biofuels in S.A appears to be functional to specific sectoral biased objectives (i.e safeguarding external markets) rather than to solving a collective socio-environmental problem.

This article explores the relationship between politics, science and private interests in the main biofuel producing countries in an effort to determine whether governments in the region are being able to advance the necessary mechanisms to guarantee a sustainable development strategy for the sector.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the intersection of domestic and international environmental policy in Brazil from the perspective of environmental social movements.

Paper long abstract:

With Brazil emerging as an economic and political power with global leadership ambitions, its commitment to environmental protection has also come under increasing scrutiny domestically and internationally. While the Brazilian government tends to stress national autonomy and sovereignty over natural resources, it has also made several notable contributions to climate change negotiations. More recently the Brazilian government has committed itself to a unilateral and voluntary reduction of carbon emissions and has shifted its policies away from the traditional emphasis on developing countries' differentiated responsibilities. However, there are significant discrepancies between Brazil's domestic and foreign environmental policy priorities, which can be explained by conflicting commitments to economic and green development strategies, as well as its global and regional leadership ambitions. At the same time civil society organisations have drawn attention to these very discrepancies and are playing an increasingly significant role in policy-making in Brazil through their use of protest and lobbying. This paper examines the role of Brazilian environmental social movements in recent debates on environmental issues, including the expansion of hydro-electric power generation and rainforest protection (Forest Code legislation). Although these policies are a key part of Brazil's efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change, they have also provoked vocal international and domestic opposition due to their high environmental and social costs.

Paper short abstract:

This paper seeks to examine the relationship between the Caribbean and Asia, and the extent to which it is beneficial to Caribbean states.

Paper long abstract:

The relationship between the Caribbean and Asia (for the purposes of this paper, China and Japan) may be considered as an important economic adjustment strategy of Caribbean states, following the recent changes in the orientation of the international economic system. Over the years, Caribbean states have received significant amounts of loans, grants and technical assistance from Asia, thus intensifying their relationship. However, Caribbean sceptics argue that there are underlying motives behind China's investments for example; positing that China has a growing demand for the Caribbean's raw materials such as bauxite in Jamaica and gas in Trinidad and Tobago.

This paper seeks to examine the Caribbean's increased engagement with Asia and the extent to which it is beneficial for Caribbean states. It will explore Asia's interest in the Caribbean so as to determine whether or not Asia's generosity is mainly driven by their interest in the region's resources. Moreover, projects and policies implemented will be highlighted to examine the social, environmental, economic and political impact that this relationship has on the Caribbean region.

Paper short abstract:

The paper seeks to delineate a fundamental aspect of resource politics in the Southern Cone: the consequences of resource politics to environmental governance at the regional level.

Paper long abstract:

Whilst most research on natural resource politics has focused on the extent to which Left governments have pushed for a post-neoliberal agenda or the degree upon which consultative mechanisms have deepened the quality of democracy in the region, our paper seeks to delineate a fundamental aspect of resource politics: the consequences of resource politics to environmental governance at the regional level. Despite the proliferation of regional cooperation and the successful re-election of 'post-neoliberal' governments, the underlying logic of 'neoextractivism' - the extensive and intensive exploitation of natural resources under a statist paradigm - has failed to reconcile apparent tensions between expansion of capitalist accumulation and environmental sustainability. At the national level, we find economic policies, which deploy a discourse of redistributive politics. Its principal concern is to ameliorate the poverty legacies of the past; development strategies were not coherently fashioned to resolve these contradictions in the growth model. At the regional level, we show how the timid results of regional environmental cooperation are principally derived from the formidable tasks of forging a counter discourse against the dominant neoextractivist logic in domestic politics. We draw examples from regional and national initiatives on resource exploitation and environmental cooperation arrangements in the Southern Cone to demonstrate our arguments.