El Role o Small States in the Constructions of the South American Union of Nations (UNASUR): the Cases of Ecuador and Ururguay.
- Authors
- Salgado Espinoza, Ra?l
- Format
- DoctoralThesis
- Status
- publishedVersion
- Description
The last decades have been of significant importance for small state studies as new small states have been created and many of them have become members of an existing or a newly created regional organisation. This investigation introduces an innovative model for studying the role of small states in regional organisations. It conceptualises small states into region-engaging, region-constraining and region-adapting actors, according to their particular type of engagement in regional politics. This thesis defines Ecuador and Uruguay as region-engaging small states, and argues that elements of a shared collective identity were a major factor of influence on the region-engaging character of Ecuador and Uruguay in the recent process of constructing the South American Union of Nations (UNASUR). Theoretically, the study employs a constructivist approach to exploring the reasons why Ecuador and Uruguay have supported the creation and consolidation of UNASUR. It takes a cross case-oriented approach based on the analysis of documents, political speeches and semi-structured interviews of members of the political elite, whilst also considering various historical events during the period from 2000 to 2012. Each case study delves into various historical events to provide specific foci on elements of a shared collective identity, left-oriented ideology, the failure of economic integration projects, the overpowering influence of exterior agents, the need for national and regional peace, as well as the prospect of leading roles and a new type of political cooperation within UNASUR. A significant component of the research concerns the shared factors of a South American identity, whereby the use of illustrations facilitates the comparison and the understanding of the aspects of identity influencing the behaviour of Ecuador and Uruguay in the consolidation of UNASUR.
- Publication Year
- 2015
- Language
- eng
- Topic
- UNASUR
REGIONALISMO
COOPERACI?N
POL?TICA EXTERIOR
- Repository
- Repositorio SENESCYT
- Rights
- openAccess
- License