The United States and Venezuela: The Social Construction of Interdependent Rivalry

Abstract

US—Venezuelan relations dramatically worsened under the Bush and Chávez administrations. Notwithstanding, evidence suggests that increasing polarization has not weakened mutually beneficial economic ties. How can we account for the co-existence of interdependence and antagonism? In addressing this question, this article examines both the economic/energy and the political/strategic sectors of bilateral interaction. It argues that the co-existence of interdependence and antagonism needs to be understood within the wider context of two simultaneous yet divergent constellations of socially constructed perceptions, identities, and practices. While the constellation driving political/strategic interaction has revealed the internalization of role identities reflecting rivalry, the one guiding energy interaction has been sustained by role identities reflecting partnership based on interest. Significantly, the former has not taken over the latter, as the lack of shared threat perceptions relative to energy interdependence is the result of deeply internalized identities and a highly institutionalized social process. As a corollary, neither of these constellations has come to govern overall US—Venezuelan relations, and thus co-existence will most likely endure unless energy interdependence becomes the object of processes of constructing threat perceptions.