Brazil's cooperative leadership in Southern Latin America's security policies

The book focuses on Brazil’s role within the regional security- and defence policy cooperation, while ascribing great importance to the cooperation with the South American major players Argentina and Chile. The defence cooperation between the Amazon State and its neighbours against traditional threats goes back to the 1990ies. But the latest development shows great progress on the common containment of transnational threats (organized crime and international terrorism). The following question is posed: What contribution does Brazil as a self-appointed regional leader make to the development and consolidation of a security community in Southern Latin America and at what stage of development is this security political cooperation process at present? To answer these questions the author developed a three-layered research design, which is supposed to explain the genesis of the Brazilian security policy by means of influencing factors on the levels of analysis state and society, intraregional relations and international system. This conceptual contribution to the theoretical literature helps to establish which influencing factors promote or constrain the formulation of a cooperative or non-cooperative Brazilian security policy on the respective level of analysis and by this the development and consolidation of a security community. The book fills a major gap in the current literature on regional cooperation in Latin America by the empiric analysis of influencing factors to the regional security cooperation such as Brazilian civil-military relations, intraregional defence policy cooperation or the U. S. security interests in Southern Latin America. Principal findings: Brazil has played a decisive role in the development of a security community in Southern Latin America and is making a profound contribution to its consolidation and intensification at present. Brazil’s establishing as cooperative, regional leading power has particularly positive effects on the security political cooperation in the subregion. In this connection the cooperative nature of the Brazilian security- and defence policy is especially shown by the close partnership with the Argentine neighbour. The stable axis between Brasilia and Buenos Aires forms a “strategic centre of gravitation” of the security community, which other South American states feel increasingly attracted by. Chile holds an exceptional role in the bilaterally organised defence cooperation. In the context of the Mercosur even the smaller states of the integration alliance participate in the multilaterally organised security political containment of non-military threats, such as drug trafficking and arms trade, money laundering and international terrorism. On the other hand the principle of national sovereignty is so deeply rooted in Argentina, Brazil and Chile that supranational decision making processes - especially in the so called high politics, which security- and defence policies belong to in particular - do not even play a part in an intellectual finality of the security political process of integration in Southern Latin America.