One of the factors that contribute to the limited strengthening of Mercosur is the perceptions inside of each of the member countries about the regional integration process. Despite de existence of perceptions who identify the relevance of joined actions in this area, basic elements have been many times dissonant and have brought uncertainties among partners. What are the views that exist inside Argentina about its neighbour countries, mainly Brazil? What its domestic actors (mainly publics actors) expect of the integration process or how they intend to contribute to its evolution? Among the Argentinean foreign-policy-making coexist different approaches about the role of country in the world, and the Argentine diplomacy behaviour in the regional integration process and par rapport the partners have been conditioned by the different views about the role that United States and Brazil have to play in its foreign policy. The article analyses the ideas and strategies of Argentine policy to regional integration, taking into account its different perceptions of regionalism and of the divisions of the integration process' costs, during the process of negotiation of the Asuncion Treaty and afterwards. With this purpose, it is based on the importance of cognitive elements in foreign policy analysis and adopts the institutional variable.
Mercosur; Argentinean Foreign Policy; Policy-making in Foreign Policy; South-american Integration