The South American Defence Council: Demands and Agendas

This is a discussion of discusses the main requirements for creating a regional architecture for defence and security in South America—collective security, combating organised crime, maintaining peace and democratic regimes, etc. The author seeks to answer two questions—this arrangement would be “for what” purpose and “for whom”? Several initiatives taken for constructing a regional mechanism are explored, since the end of the Cold War until the consolidation of the South American Defence Council in December 2008. He also discusses different ideological and political perspectives and describes three types— Bolivariano, Mercosulino and Brasileiro. The article is divided into three parts. The first gives a brief history on the proposals for defence architecture for the region. The second presents a set of demands for defence and security among South American countries and the third discusses reasons for a regional architecture.