CONCEPTUALISING THE ALBA-TCP: THIRD GENERATION REGIONALISM AND POLITICAL ECONOMY

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/41945939
• Published date: 01 July 2011
• Date: 01 July 2011
• Pages: 98-115
• Author: Thomas Muhr

ACADEMIC ARTICLES

CONCEPTUALISING THE ALBA-TCP:

THIRD GENERATION REGIONALISM

AND POLITICAL ECONOMY

Thomas Muhr

University of

Bristol

Abstract

The article

employs

an historical

approach

to

cooperation

and

integration

in

Latin

America

and the Caribbean

(LAC)

in

order to

argue

that,

to

date,

the

Bolivarian Alliance for the

Peoples

of Our

America

-

Peoples'

Trade

Agreement (ALBA-TCP)

is the

only integration

project

under

construction in

Our America that

not

only actively integrates

the entire

LAC,

but also

is the

most

comprehensive, sophisticated

and

dynamic

regionalism

in

the area.

I

draw on

Fredrik

Söderbaum and

Luk

van

Langenhove's

notion

of

'generations'

of

regionalisms,

identifying

the

import

substitution influenced

initiatives,

the neoliberal

'open

regionalisms',

and the

post-neoliberal

and

counter-imperialist

projects

launched

over the

past

decade,

especially

the ALBA-TCP.

By explicitly

associating generations

of

regionalisms

with

particular

political

economic

models,

I

emphasise

politics

and

ideologies

in

the

analysis,

which are absent

in

Söderbaum

and van

Langenhove's

classification. The

politics,

institutionalisation

and

organisational

structure of

the ALBA-TCP as a

third

generation regionalism

and

counter-

globalisation

project

are

discussed.

Keywords:

ALBA,

development, globalisation,

political economy,

regionalism,

socialism

Introduction1

The shift to

the left

in

Latin America

and the Caribbean

(LAC or,

in

Bolivarian

terms,

'Our

America') has,

inter

alia,

reopened

the discussion

over the direction

of

regional

integration

within a

counter-imperialist

and

post-neoliberal

rationale.

Driven

by

the

'progressive' governments,

especially

the Bolivarian

Republic

of

Venezuela,

the first decade of

the new millennium

has seen the

creation of three

International

Journal

of Cuban Studies 3.2 &

3.3 Summer/Autumn

2011

CONCEPTUALISING THE ALBA-TCP

99

new

regionalist projects:

the Bolivarian

Alliance for the

Peoples

of Our

America

- Peoples'

Trade

Agreement

(Alianza

Bolivariana

para

los

Pueblos de Nuestra

América

- Tratado de Comercio

de los Pueblos

- ALBA-TCP),

officialised

in

2004;

the Union of South American

Nations

(

Unión de

Naciones Sur americanas

- UNASUR),

formalised

in

2008; and the

Community

of Latin American

and

Caribbean States

(

Comunidad de Estados de América

Latina

y

el Caribe

- CELAC),

ratified

in

2010. With the

ALBA-TCP at the

core,

the

following conceptualisa-

tion of

these new social formations draws on Fredrik

Söderbaum and Luk van

Langenhove's

notion of

'generations'

of

regionalisms,

which bears the

advantage

over 'waves' and

'phases'

in that

generations

can be viewed as co-existing

and

overlapping,

rather than one

necessarily

replacing

the other

(Söderbaum

and van

Langenhove

2006).

A

brief

introduction to the idea of

'generations'

of

regionalisms

will

underlie

the

identification of first

generation,

import

substitution

industrialisation

(ISI)

driven

regionalisms,

and second

generation,

neoliberal

'open regionalisms',

in

LAC.2

By

explicitly associating

these

generations

with

particular political

economic

models,

I emphasise politics

and

ideologies

in

the

analysis

of

regionalisms

in

LAC,

which are absent in

Söderbaum and van

Langenhove's generic

proposal.

My

exploration

of the

emergence

of a third

generation

of

regionalisms

in

LAC

will

sketch out some of

the features of

CELAC,

as well as

the Venezuela-driven

re-constitution

of

the second

generation

South

American

Community

of

Nations

(Comunidad

Suramericana de Naciones

- CSN)

as

UNASUR,

which was

paralleled

by

the construction

of the ALBA-TCP. The politics,

institutionalisation and

organisational

structure of the ALBA-TCP as

a third

generation regionalism

and

counter-globalisation project

are

discussed,

to

argue

that to date the

ALBA-TCP

is

the

only integration project

under

construction

in

Our

America that is not

only actively integrating

the entire

LAC, but also is the

most

comprehensive,

sophisticated

and

dynamic regionalism

in

the area.

Generations of

Regionalism

and Political

Economy

To Söderbaum and van

Langenhove,

the notion of

generations

of

regionalisms

refers

to

empirical qualities

rather than

historical

location,

which avoids

the

dichotomy

of 'old' and 'new'

regionalisms

and the associated strict

periodisation.

In

this

view,

first

generation,

state-centric

regionalisms

are

'introverted' and tend to be

narrowly

defined as trade or

security

alliances. The

second

generation

is

understood as more

comprehensive

and

multi-dimensional,

to include the

political,

social,

cultural and

environmental,

with the ambition to

establish

regional

coherence and

identity.

Within the

post-Westphalian

order,

second

generation

regionalisms

are more

extroverted and

linked with

processes

of

globalisation

for

multi-lateral trade.

IJCS

Produced and distributed

by

Pluto

Journals

cubanstudies.plutojournals.org