ABSTRACT
There are a number of case studies of subregional integration in South America, such as Mercosur (Common Market of the Southern Cone) and the Andean Community (AC) and of Western Hemisphere economic integration. Yet there is a dearth of critical analyses of the Latin American "new regionalism." Most of the literature focuses on the economic, rather than political and ideological dimensions of subregional integration. There is also a dearth of critical analyses of the neoliberal model underpinning the new regional integration efforts in South America, which are often depicted as part of the "inevitable" process of globalization of production, finance and markets. The purpose of this book is to challenge the dominant approach to the new regionalism, i.e., the idea that globalization has an inexorable logic to which "there is no alternative," and that the new regionalism is merely an aspect of globalization.
