ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the ideas that allowed member states to include the construction of the Pacific Alliance (PA) in their foreign policy. It discusses an understanding of Latin American regionalism and particularly that of the PA. The chapter analyzes what its creation means and its implications for regional governance and for a new economic regime, which may compete with the battered multilateral system of the World Trade Organization and the stalled Doha Round. It argues that its creation expresses a return to open regionalism, a choice made by decision-makers in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru to strengthen a type of regional governance that is aligned with the rules for the world. The chapter describes the PA as a regional cooperation initiative that is capable of having an agenda-setting influence and entering into dialogue with the concept of international regimes. Through the Pacific Alliance, member states favor their connections to the most dynamic region in the world, the Pacific.
