A narrativa acerca do desenvolvimento de uma comunidade de segurança no Cone Sul e a questão da autonomia: um estudo das políticas nucleares de Argentina e Brasil (1991 - 2011)

Abstract

This thesis aims at understanding how the narrative of belonging to a security community in the post-Cold War affected Argentina and Brazil's search for autonomy in their respective nuclear policies. To fulfill this purpose, I begin presenting the concept of security community from a constructivist lens of International Relations. After that, I analyze possible interpretations of the Southern Cone as a security community. Then, I bring the debate on the autonomy question and its promotion through regionalism. Finally, I investigate the objectives of the nuclear policies of Argentina and Brazil from 1991 to 2011 and how the belonging of these countries to a security community affected the achievement of these objectives. This qualitative research uses the paired comparison as a methodology for data analysis, and the data is obtained mainly through the bibliographic review. This work hypothesizes that, due to the contingencies existing in the post-Cold War period, which incorporate a greater degree of multilateralism to the international system and expand the importance of international regimes, the search for autonomy in the Southern Cone is more successful if carried out within a security community. This hypothesis has been partially confirmed. There were, in fact, important advances in the nuclear policies of Argentina and Brazil during the observed period. However, these advances could not be attributed to the formation of a security community in the Southern Cone due mainly to the lack of data from primary sources and a deeper understanding of the extent to which foreign authorities politicize the existence of a security community in the Southern Cone.