ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the origin of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) defined as a multidimensional, post-neoliberal, institutionalized regionalism on the scale of the South American subcontinent. The origins of UNASUR in concerns about security and political instability undermine any economist reading of UNASUR's emergence that privileges market convergence as the core causal variable. Hispanic America was the collective identity underlying early manifestations of regionalism among Latin American states, beginning in the first half of the nineteenth century. In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, regionalism took the form of Pan-Americanism, which was continental in scale and included the USA and Brazil. In the context of Pan-Americanism, Brazilian elites reversed their earlier policy of not joining regionalist efforts and cautiously espoused regionalism. During the era of military developmentalism, in the late 1960's and 1970's, Brazilian military strategists saw South America as Brazil's first 'concentric circle' of influence.
