The Conceptual Roots of Latin American Integration

Abstract

In this article, I explore the conceptual foundations of integration in Latin America over time. My argument centers on the idea that the region’s integration efforts are deeply rooted in indigenous concepts (solidarity, autonomy, and international insertion) which have evolved and intermingled with conceptual pieces from Western theories of integration, highlighting the region’s unique blend of local and global integration perspectives. These foundational concepts emerged from Latin American intellectual influences and blended with the Western canon, serving as guiding principles for the various phases of integration across the region. I employ a combination of conceptual history and conceptual analysis frameworks to constitutive treaties of integration arrangements across the region as evidence of how the concepts of solidarity, autonomy, and international insertion rooted Latin American integration efforts, as well as how policy- and decision-makers viewed, understood, and changed the original conceptual sources of mainstream integration theories. The article advances our knowledge on the much-neglected areas of conceptual analysis and history in integration studies and provides a broader perspective on the intricacies and subtleties of integration processes. More broadly, my contribution to the discipline sheds light onto the conceptual structures upon the thinking about world politics and integration has developed in non-Western regions.