ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the social purpose of regionalism, regional responsibilities, and rights defining current regional governance. It explores the relationship between regional governance, social policy, and the political space that this relationship generates. Regulatory aspects and practices of Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) Health reconnect national motivations, models of political economy, and regional integration, breaking with deterministic assumptions of external determinants of region building and the regionalism-globalization relationship. The UNASUR Health Council was one of the first Councils to be approved in UNASUR with the aim of reducing social and health inequities in the region. The chapter analyses the place of social policy as a driver of current dynamics defining region-building in South America. It evaluates the factors that allowed for a reconnection between regionalism and social policy in Latin America, and how new institutions, resources, and practices in UNASUR Health manifest as new modes of regionalism and regional diplomacy.
