The New Regionalism in Latin America and the Role of the US

In this article, the authors analyse the characteristics of the new regionalism in Latin America since the late eighties. It is shown that, on the one hand, it is related to theconsiderable multiplication of the number of regional agreements (the so-calledspaghetti bowl), and on the other hand, with the qualitative changes in theseagreements. The authors further emphasise the important role played by the US inthe region, the interaction between the economic and political integration schemes,the complexity of Latin American regionalism and its uncertain future trajectory.They conclude with some suggestions for the research agenda for the LatinAmerican research community...