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Power Dynamics and Regional Security in Latin America pp 199–221Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Interstate Conflict Management in South America: The Relevance of Overlapping Institutions

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Abstract

The objective of this chapter is to analyse existing institutions related to interstate security in South America and their respective roles and to highlight, if so, any overlapping purposes that might contribute to preventing interstate conflicts in the region. To achieve the proposed objective, the chapter is divided into three sections. The first section identifies current interstate conflict management institutions in South America and analyses their purposes and responsibilities. In the second section, some of the main potential conflicts among South American states and the roles of institutions to prevent the onset of armed conflict, or to cause them to be quickly resolved, are addressed. The third, concluding section briefly discusses these institutions’ performance in a regional scenario where interstate peace should prevail.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The term ‘interstate conflict’ is used as presented in the Glossary of Terms and Concepts in Peace and Conflict Studies (Miller 2005: 22): ‘Interstate conflicts are disputes between nation-states or violations of the state system of alliances’. The term ‘interstate military conflict’ refers to those conflicts where military force is used or there is the threat to use it by one of the states involved in the conflict.

  2. 2.

    See SIPRI Military Expenditure Database, available at http://www.sipri.org/research/armaments/milex/milex_database (23 February 2015).

  3. 3.

    This is the Spanish acronym: Unión de Naciones Suramericanas (UNASUR). The Portuguese acronym is UNASUL: União de Nações Sul-Americanas.

  4. 4.

    This acronym comes from Spanish: Consejo de Defensa Suramericano (CDS).

  5. 5.

    Dates for admission as member states were: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay – 24 Oct. 1945; Peru – 31 Oct. 1945; Colombia – 5 Nov. 1945; Venezuela – 15 Nov. 1945; Ecuador – 21 Nov. 1945; Bolivia – 24 Nov. 1945; Uruguay – 18 Dec. 1945; Guyana – 20 Sep. 1966 and Suriname – 4 Dec. 1975 (United Nations, ‘Member States of United Nations’, available at http://www.un.org/en/members/ (2 February 2015).

  6. 6.

    The Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) presents the list by year and by the member states participating in peacekeeping operations (see United Nations Peacekeeping, ‘Troop and police contributors’, available at http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/resources/statistics/contributors.shtml (10 November 2015)).

  7. 7.

    United Nations, ‘MINUSTAH Facts and Figures’, available at http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/minustah/facts.shtml (5 November 2015).

  8. 8.

    The numbers in parentheses indicate the number of times each South American state was elected by the General Assembly to make up the Security Council as non-permanent members: Argentina (9); Bolivia (2); Brazil (10); Chile (5); Colombia (7); Ecuador (3); Guiana (2); Paraguay (1); Peru (4); Uruguay (2); and Venezuela (5). (United Nations Security Council, ‘Countries Elected Members of the Security Council’, available at http://www.un.org/en/sc/members/elected.asp (11 November 2015)).

  9. 9.

    The Ninth International Conference of American States, meeting in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1948, with the participation of 21 states, adopted the Charter of the Organization of American States, the American Treaty on Pacific Settlement (Pact of Bogotá), and the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man. See OAS, ‘Our History’, available at http://www.oas.org/en/about/our_history.asp (25 February 2015).

  10. 10.

    Article 1 – The American States establish by this Charter the international organization that they have developed to achieve an order of peace and justice, to promote their solidarity, to strengthen their collaboration, and to defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their independence. Within the United Nations, the Organization of American States is a regional agency. […].Article 2 – The Organization of American States, in order to put into practice the principles on which it is founded and to fulfil its regional obligations under the Charter of the United Nations, proclaims the following essential purposes:a) To strengthen the peace and security of the continent;b) To promote and consolidate representative democracy, with due respect for the principle of non-intervention;c) To prevent possible causes of difficulties and to ensure the pacific settlement of disputes that may arise among the member states;d) To provide for common action on the part of those states in the event of aggression […] (see OAS 1948).

  11. 11.

    Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), ‘Confidence-Building Measures’ in Glossary, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies, available at http://www.nti.org/learn/glossary/ (16 April 2016).

  12. 12.

    The IADB is the world’s oldest military and regional defense organization. It was officially established on 30 March 1942, by a resolution of the Third Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the American Republics. Initially the focus of his work was the development of themes and studies aimed at ‘preparing member states to defend the continent and to recommend measures to this end’. After the Cold War, both the OAS and the IADB began to seek new vocations and roles to be played in this new scenario. As part of this recovery process and according to the AG/RES. 1 (XXXII-E/06), the IADB officially become an entity of the OAS, established as provided in the last paragraph of Article 53 of the OAS Charter (‘Representação do Brasil na Junta Interamericana de Defesa’, available at http://www.rbjid.com/juntainteramericana.asp (13 February 2015)).

  13. 13.

    Brazil’s GDP (2013) was worth U$ 2,245,673,032,353.8. The added GDP (2013) of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela was worth U$ 2,124,216,594,274.4 (The World Bank, ‘GDP’, available at http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD (12 February 2015)).

  14. 14.

    Presidência da República do Brasil, ‘Decreto Nº 7.667, de 11 de janeiro de 2012’, available at http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_Ato2011-2014/2012/Decreto/D7667.htm (25 February 2015).

  15. 15.

    See the ICJ’s Press Release 2014/2, 27 January 2014, available at http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/137/17928.pdf (13 February 2015).

  16. 16.

    ‘The Security Council, […] Deeply disturbed at reports of an invasion on 2 April 1982 by armed forces of Argentina, Determining that there exist a breach of the peace in the region of the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), 1. Demands an immediate cessation of hostilities; 2. Demands an immediate withdrawal of all Argentine forces from the Falklands Islands (Islas Malvinas) […]’ United Nations Security Council, Resolution 502 (1982), available at http://unscr.com/en/resolutions/doc/502 (26 February 2015).

  17. 17.

    OAS XX Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Resolution I, 28 April 1982, available at http://www.oas.org/consejo/MEETINGS%20OF%20CONSULTATION/minutes.asp (22 December 2015).

  18. 18.

    OAS General Assembly, Declarations and Resolutions, available at http://www.oas.org/consejo/GENERAL%20ASSEMBLY/Resoluciones-Declaraciones.asp (8 November 2015).

  19. 19.

    Embajada de La República Argentina en La República Federal de Alemania, South American Nations community President’s Summit, Presidential Declaration on the Malvinas Islands, available at http://ealem.mrecic.gov.ar/de/node/4780 (26 February 2015).

  20. 20.

    Author’s translation from Spanish. For the original version, see Ministério das Relações Exteriores de Brasil, ‘VI Reunião Ordinária do Conselho de Chefes de Estado e de Governo da UNASUL – Lima, Peru, 30 de novembro de 2012 – Documentos Aprovados’, available at http://www.itamaraty.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3234:vi-reuniao-ordinaria-do-conselho-de-chefes-de-estado-e-de-governo-da-unasul-lima-peru-30-de-novembro-de-2012-documentos-aprovados&catid=42&lang=pt-BR&Itemid=280 (10 November 2015).

  21. 21.

    Author’s translation from Spanish. See Constitución Política del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia (2009), Artículo 267, available at http://www.presidencia.gob.bo/documentos/publicaciones/constitucion.pdf (27 February 2015).

  22. 22.

    OAS General Assembly, ‘AG/RES. 426 (IX-O/79), Access by Bolivia to the Pacific Ocean’, Declarations and Resolutions. Proceedings, Volume 1. Certified Texts of the Resolutions, 55, available at http://www.oas.org/consejo/GENERAL%20ASSEMBLY/Resoluciones-Declaraciones.asp (23 February 2015).

  23. 23.

    OAS General Assembly, Declarations and Resolutions, available at http://www.oas.org/consejo/GENERAL%20ASSEMBLY/Resoluciones-Declaraciones.asp (8 November 2015).

  24. 24.

    OAS Permanent Council, ‘CP/RES. 930 (1632/08)’, available at http://www.oas.org/consejo/resolutions/res930.asp (28 February 2015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Naval War College, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Marcos Valle Machado da Silva

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  1. Marcos Valle Machado da Silva
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Correspondence to Marcos Valle Machado da Silva .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fluminense Federal University, Niterói, Brazil

    Marcial A.G. Suarez

  2. University of São Paulo , São Paulo, Brazil

    Rafael Duarte Villa

  3. University of Sao Paulo , Sao Paulo, Brazil

    Brigitte Weiffen

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Machado da Silva, M.V. (2017). Interstate Conflict Management in South America: The Relevance of Overlapping Institutions. In: Suarez, M., Villa, R., Weiffen, B. (eds) Power Dynamics and Regional Security in Latin America. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57382-7_9

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