Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores how Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) contribution interacts with debates from the Global North. It examines the LAC responses to alternative world orders in analytical and normative terms. The book describes general attempts of theorizing in the region and from the region and shows approaches to world order(s) along three issue-areas: peace, security, international law and institutions; international political economy, development and globalization; and foreign policy formulations. It explores the strategies of state actors seeking to influence the “rules of the game”. The book elaborates the concept of agency. It looks at the practice of regional hegemony by introducing the concept of regional social compacts—hierarchical assemblages that establish networks to bind governing elites. The book reviews the concept of autonomy which has had wide currency in foreign policy analysis, especially in the southern tip of LAC.