ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of the Organization of American States (OAS) in the context of regionalism in the Americas generally and South America in particular. Freed from constraints in the immediate post-Cold War period the OAS gained considerable traction in being recognized in status terms as the hub institution in the Americas. The deficiencies of the OAS were exacerbated by specific problems attached to its institutional culture. Normatively, the OAS animated a dramatic thickening of the agenda of democratic promotion. While the Plan of Action of the Miami Summit of the Americas established the OAS as the main organization for the defence and consolidation of democracy in the Americas, this status as a hub institution cannot be viewed in isolation. The organizational challenges to the hub role were accompanied by an erosion of the OAS agenda.
