Brazil, the United States, and the South American Subsystem

Regional Politics and the Absent Empire

By (author) Carlos Gustavo Poggio Teixeira

Not available to order

Publication date:

30 July 2012

Length of book:

172 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739173299

The United States has often acted as an empire in Latin America. Nevertheless, there has been an obvious dissimilarity between U.S. actions in South America and U.S. actions in the rest of Latin America, which is illustrated by the fact that the United States never sent troops to invade a South American country. While geographic distance and strategic considerations may have played a role, they provide at best incomplete explanations for the U.S.’s relative absence south of Panama. The fact that the United States has had a distinct pattern of interactions with South America is thus not captured by the typical concept of Latin America.

In Brazil, the United States, and the South American Subsystem: Regional Politics and the Absent Empire, Carlos Gustavo Poggio Teixeira recuperates the virtually neglected literature on regional subsystems. In so doing, Teixeira maintains that researchers of inter-American relations would greatly benefit from a characterization reflecting actual regional realities more than entrenched preconceptions. Such a characterization involves subdividing the Western Hemisphere in two regional subsystems: North and South America. This subdivision allows for uncovering regional dynamics that can help explain the U.S.’s limited interference in South American affairs compared to the rest of Latin America. This book argues that the role of Brazil as a status quo regional power in South America is the key to understanding this phenomenon. Through a historical analysis focusing on specific cases spanning three centuries, this research demonstrates that Brazil, regardless of particular domestic settings, has deliberately affected the calculations of costs and benefits of a more significant US involvement in South America. While in the past Brazil has taken actions that resulted in increasing the benefits of the U.S.’s limited involvement in South America, in more recent times it has sought to increase the costs of a more significant U.S. presence. Teixeira then considers some of the theoretical and political implications of the framework laid out by this research. Brazil, the United States, and the South American Subsystem is a groundbreaking investigation of U.S.-Latin American relations and the politics of imperialism.
Teixeira’s book is a most timely addition to the literature on Latin America the Inter-American System. He demonstrates that South America is a clearly separate sub-system and that Brazil’s geo-political interest in the stability of that system has served both Brazilian and US interests while limiting US involvement in South America. Case studies of the evolution of MERCOSUR and now UNASUR as alternatives to US regional policies, especially a hemisphere-wide free trade agreement, and the discussion of Brazil’s response to the instability and overthrow of the Allende Government in Chile provide tantalizing new insights. The book is a must-read to understand Brazil’s increasingly visible role on the world stage.