Suchergebnisse

The idea of dialogue became the unspoken "core" of the EU – Latin America interregional relations, where the creation of the network of trade agreements played an important role, in which the EU was able to succeed noticeably. This article is devoted to political aspects of the chain of trade agreements with Latin America created by the European Union as one of the foundations of the whole complex of interregional relations that develop in accordance with the priority of economy over politics. The nature of development of each of these routes of interaction, the results, as well as the barriers that the EU–LAC dialogue faces, make it possible to identify the possibilities and limits of cooperation between the two regions in the face of increasing struggle for influence in the Western Hemisphere. The paper explores the main trade agreements: EU–Mexico, EU–Chile, EU – Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, EU–Caribbean, EU – Central America, and EU–MERCOSUR. The author concludes that the changes that have taken place at the international level, as well as in Europe and the LAC in recent years, with the increasing influence of new global players in Latin America, primarily China, yet again calls into question European leadership in this part of the world. It was the feeling of "closeness" that became an important factor in China's rapid expansion in Latin America, which Brussels has not paid due attention to in recent years. And this has led to the fact that the idea of confronting the growing struggle for influence in the Western Hemisphere has gradually become a red thread that belittles EU strategy in Latin America.

Autonomy has always been the focus of theoretical research in the field of international relations and foreign policy of Latin American countries. At the same time, deepening and strengthening cooperation with neighbors in the region has traditionally been an unshakable priority for all Latin American states, around which their entire foreign policy was built. The article considers the crucial stages of development that the concept of autonomy has gone through in the framework of international relations theories developed by Latin American scholars. Simultaneously, the changing role and essential characteristics of integration are studied as a process that modifies its direction under the pressure of various external and internal forces. The author analyzes the key theoretical approaches of Latin American countries to the study of international relations and foreign policy in the period from the middle of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century. The research also considers the determining factors influencing the evolution of the intra­regional and extra­regional directions as regards the foreign policy of the states in the region. Identifying the system of elements that form the core of modern Latin American foreign policy and combining global and national components allow us to determine the substantial changes in the paradigmatic nature of international relations, which is the key to understanding the modern activities of Latin American countries in the international arena, substantiating the relevance and novelty of this study. The author examines five main stages in the evolution of the concept of autonomy, which have become a reflection of real historical events. Each of them is interconnected with the concept of integration in its own way: the first stage was characterized by the prevalence of a realistic approach; the second stage was marked by the strategy of "development coming from within"; during the third stage, the concept of relative autonomy dominated; the fourth stage was characterized by the dominance of two approaches: separatist and relative; the fifth stage takes place under the slogan of the concept of «liquid autonomy».

Relations between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean have been rather unstable. Despite several significant successes achieved in the framework of the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean Summits (EU–LAC), in fact, in the late 1990s they entered a period of stagnation. The vision of the key tasks of multilateral cooperation between the European Union and LAC was different. For the EU interaction with Latin America was important, both from the point of view of greater consolidation of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), and from the point of view of its greater involvement in the world agenda already in the positions of a prominent actor, broadcasting its authority outside the traditional sphere of influence. For LAC, relations with Europe were considered as a mechanism capable of activating, first, intra-regional processes. This article discusses the development of cooperation between the European Union and Latin America, which is traditionally special for both regions, at the present stage. Despite the different vision of the main goals and objectives of interregional relations, the partnership between the EU and LAC are built around three main institutions of cooperation: political dialogue, assistance and trade. These three thematic vectors were identified at the I EU-LAC Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1999, as the basis for bilateral cooperation. The author examines in detail all three institutions of multilateral interaction, including their achievements and obstacles. The mechanisms of cooperation launched under the pressure of new global challenges are identified. A separate section of the article is devoted to the analysis of the results of public opinion polls, which sheds light on the attitude of Latin America towards the European Union and its regional policy. The author approaches the analysis of the EU-LAC cooperation model comprehensively and bilaterally: from the standpoint of common tasks in the international arena of both the EU and Latin American countries, considered in close connection with the ongoing global and regional latest processes.

Received 10.03.2020. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the information on current social protests, which was published in the leading Latin American news websites and actively discussed on the social media platforms to identify the main causes of public discontent and the main problems discussed by Latin Americans. The first part of the paper provides an overview of the materials on the social movements of the fall of 2019, which were published in the news websites, which are the most popular in Latin America, and have the greatest influence, and the biggest Internet traffic volume. The second part is devoted to an overview of hashtags on the topic of mass protests that have gained huge popularity among Latin American users on the biggest social media platforms. A review of informational articles on the autumn social movements, which were published in the leading Latin American newspapers, revealed the main points of view on the factors and causes of these events, and the main problems discussed by Latin Americans. An appeal to various sources, both the countries in which the protests took place and the states that have passed such a crisis, will help readers to see the current socio-political situation in a new way. Acknowledgements. Support from the Individual Research Program of the School of World economy and International Affairs at National Research University – Higher School of Economics is gratefully acknowledged.

Social outbreaks which have been characteristic of the political landscape of Latin America throughout the course of history of this region , reached their peak in the late 90s of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. It can be argued without exaggeration that a special culture of mass protests has already formed in this part of the world. It functions as an independent "pressure mechanism" aimed at expanding rights and reducing historical injustice. In the fall of 2019 Latin America became the epicenter of social protests. Residents of the highest income inequality region of the world ceased restraining their discontent. It turned out to be impossible for the state authorities to react to such indignation by the usual repressive methods, thus they were forced to listen to society demands. In just a few months, Haiti, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia were caught in a massive political crisis which was marked by massive street demonstrations. Gradually, a wave of public discontent swept over countries such as Colombia and Argentina. Although the root causes of these events in each country were different, several general trends stand out in all the chaos that is happening in Latin America. These trends can be traced in all foci of instability that broke out almost simultaneously in several countries of the region. This paper attempts to analyze the main factors that led to such widespread unrest. The goal of this analysis is to reveal the unresolved problems of the region. The author identifies the main reasons that together caused social explosions, and presents them in the form of a hierarchical pyramid: from the underlying economic instability, the crisis of the neoliberal development model, social inequality; the weakening of the political system and corruption, that are situated in the middle; until the very top of the pyramid – the "democracy deficit" and the influence of social networks. In this context, I divided the article into 4 thematic blocks, which will allow a systematic review of the most important causes that set a chain reaction in motion of protest activities, as well as an assessment of the further development of the socio-political situation in Latin America. A combination of regional and country approaches were applied in this paper to the phenomenon under study.