Foreign Policy and Regional Integration in Argentina: A Long and Winding Road

Abstract

Argentinean economic and (particularly) foreign policies are often described as erratic. Indeed, the appointment of more than 50 ministers of foreign affairs between the mid-1940s and the late 1980s surely contributes to that view.¹ Pundits explain this ‘erratic’ positioning as a fluctuation between contradictory poles, such as ‘Western alignment’ or the formulation of populist nationalist and non-alignment policies (Vacs, 2003, p. 289). What is erratic is, of course, a relative matter, both concerning variables of reference and in the (inevitable) comparison with other countries. However, with regard to regional integration there seems to be an established opinion that the ‘erratic pattern’ is less prominent. In fact, in this area, many pundits seem to agree that pro-integration polices have been an anomaly, even during periods when the lines of action were distanced from Western powers. Argentinean foreign policy had a more autonomous positions vis-à-vis big powers.