Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/108995 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
GIGA Working Papers No. 269
Publisher: 
German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Hamburg
Abstract: 
Within the last 50 years, the Brazilian share of South American power has increased from one-third to one-half of the overall material capabilities in the region. Such a significant change in the regional power structure cannot have gone unnoticed by Brazil's neighbors. The article addresses the main question related to South American unipolarity (1985-2014): Why have most countries in the region not implemented any consistent balancing or bandwagoning strategies vis-à-vis Brazil? Drawing on neoclassical realism, the article proposes that certain domestic variables - government instability, limited party-system institutionalization, and powerful presidents - have diverted the attention of political elites and foreign policy executives from the challenges generated by a rising Brazil. Crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis is used to test this hypothesis and other alternative explanations for the regional imbalance.
Subjects: 
South America
regional powers
neoclassical realism
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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