A "virada à esquerda" e as políticas de defesa e políticas externas relacionadas à segurança na América Latina: um estudo comparativo de 16 mandatos presidenciais

Abstract

With the advent of the Left Turn in Latin America, much was explored about convergences in several policy areas, mainly economic and social policies. However, little was explored about foreign policy related to security and national defense policies. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to analyze and compare what the 16 presidents in the region have done about the policies cited above to understand if the Left Turn has led to a convergence in these areas among the Latin American countries. This convergence may have been caused by the political orientation of these mandates or by UNASUR, one of the consequences of this phenomenon. In order to do that, two presidential mandates out of eight different countries were chosen to be analyzed, one previous to the Left Turn and other after the phenomenon. Among the countries, there are members and non-members of UNASUR, right and left wing. The method adopted is the QCA, aiming to identify whether there was this convergence or not. This study represents a contribution to the policy convergence studies and related processes, such as policy diffusion/transfer, and international cooperation, too. It also demonstrates that the studied areas are likely to be affected by changes in domestic and regional politics, despite the insulation of their bureaucracies in some of the countries in the region.