Explaining Defense Cooperation With Process-tracing: the Brazilian Proposal for the Creation of UNASUR South American Defense Council

Teixeira Júnior, Augusto W. M.; Silva, Antonio Henrique Lucena

doi:10.1590/0034-7329201700209

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Articles • Rev. Bras. Polít. Int. 60 (2) • 2017 • https://doi.org/10.1590/0034-7329201700209 copy

Explaining Defense Cooperation With Process-tracing: the Brazilian Proposal for the Creation of UNASUR South American Defense Council

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract

How can defense cooperation with process-tracing methodology be explained? To answer this question, this paper tests the ability of process-tracing explanations in the case of the Brazilian proposal for the creation of the Union of South American Nation’s (UNASUR) South American Defense Council (CDS). Combining process-tracing methodology with a case study research design, this paper analyzes which causal pathways, mechanisms, timing of events, and policies best explain Brazilian behavior.

Defense Cooperation; South American Defense Council; Brazilian Foreign Policy; UNASUR

Level of Analysis	Key players	“Trigger” for the Proposal	The CDS as
Domestic	Government; decision-makers.	Changes in foreign policy.	Instrument for defense and foreign policy.
Regional	Brazil; Colombia; Venezuela.	“Competitive pressure”; Colombia-Ecuador crisis.	Regional security management and balancing.
Hemispheric	United States; Brazil.	Institutional failure; leadership and competing agendas.	Balancing; consolidation as regional power (status quo).

Theory/Approach	Motivates for Cooperation	Mechanisms	Possible relation to the Brazilian initiative to propose the creation of the CDS
Cooperation as Self-Help	Reduce the probability of a Security Dilemma; decrease uncertainty; maximize security.	Security and defense cooperation (known as “Cooperation as self-help”); transparency.	Strategy to maximize the state security environment; does not imply shifts in preferences; does not involve the reduction of military capabilities.
Balance of Power	Answer to security risks or threats; competition or conflict; maximize security.	Soft or hard Balancing; institutional response (though alignments to alliances).	Strategy to contain states perceived as competitors in relation to capabilities and regional agendas.
Security Communities	Enhance bilateral or regional security through peaceful mechanisms; transcendence of security to positive peace.	Peaceful change; banish the use of force; institutional response.	Strategy to maximize state security; changes in preferences related to the use of force and the level of compromise of the state in relation to international norms; regional institution capable of producing enforcing norms.

	Theory

	Cooperation as Self-Help	Balance of Power	Security Communities
Conditions	Brazil should express concern about uncertainty related to intentions and capabilities.	Development of ententes.	Intention to create or actual creation of a security community.
	Measures to reduce uncertainty should be put in action.	Creation of limited security understandings.	Preference for conflict resolution by peaceful means.
	Motivations (insecurity versus ambition) would be explained in a cooperation proposal.	Limits on the increase of military capabilities.	Consensus about the rejection of large-scale physical violence.
	The belief in the ability to reduce the probability of conflict originating from insecurity.	Engaging in ad hoc cooperative exercises.	Creation of a organization that promotes cohesion.
		Collaboration in regional or international institutions.	Creation of a organization that promotes cohesion.

y	The foreign policy project in the second term of the Lula’s da Silva presidency initiates a moment of broad international activism, aimed specially at repositioning Brazil in international relations.
Part 01	The project seeks to articulate diplomacy and strategy as a means to accomplish national security interests and to foster its leadership as an emerging power.
Part 02	In the domestic arena, changes in the concept of National Defense led to the merging of regional cooperation with the state security and defense strategies.
Part 03	The new strategic thought provokes an institutional response about how regional cooperation in defense should be done and its purpose.
Part 04	Brazil’s change of strategy towards defense cooperation is faced with regional competition for leadership in several fields, including defense.
Part 05	The Colombian bombing of a FARC camp in Ecuador and the subsequent crisis works as a critical juncture that accelerates the process of polarization between the competing powers in South America.
Part 06	Brazil, Venezuela, and the United States present different ways of solving the conflict, each emphasizing different cooperative mechanisms at the regional or hemispheric levels.
Part 07	Motivated by the maintenance of the status quo and in search of security, Brazil engages in balancing to establish itself as the main power and leader in the region.
Part 08	To produce that effect, the country used an institutional response that could change defense cooperation in the region.
Part 09	The Brazilian proposal of regional defense cooperation has the objective of soft balancing against competing powers that struggled for primacy over Brazil in issues of defense.
Part 10	This change in the Brazilian regional strategy in the struggle to consolidate its place as a regional and emerging global power results in it taking responsibility for security management in South America.
x	Brazil proposes and leads the negotiations that result in the creation of the CDS.

Centro de Estudos Globais da Universidade de Brasília Centro de Estudos Globais, Instituto de Relações Internacionais, Universidade de Brasília, Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro, Brasília - DF - 70910-900 - Brazil, Tel.: + 55 61 31073651 - Brasília - DF - Brazil
E-mail: rbpi@unb.br

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