From antagonistic autonomy to relational autonomy: A theoretical reflection from the southern cone

5. It is relevant to recall that of the 39 occasions on which the United States used its armed forces in the region during the twentieth century, it did so 38 times in the Caribbean Basin and only once in South America (in 1986 in Bolivia through Operation Blast Furnace). In this respect, see Grimmett 1999.

6. Without denying the importance of the dependency school, it is necessary to keep in mind that this approach was never conceived of as a theory for explaining foreign policy.

7. The "vertical dimension of power" corresponds to relations of domination and subordination between counterparts with unequal attributes of power and influence, which have been characterized by asymmetrical opposing terms such as center-periphery, North-South, developed world-Third World, and so on. The "horizontal dimension of power," by contrast, refers to the relations among the most powerful states in the international system.

8. For Schroeder, "hiding" occurs in conditions of competition for hegemony and implies that a minor actor in the international system assumes an isolationist and defensive posture, which supposes avoiding contacts with the counterparts in the struggle, preferring passivity or opting for neutrality or nonalignment (Schroeder 1994).

9. The predominant view of autonomy in this case is implicitly derived from a negative utilitarianism, owing to the view that a state should only seek it based on the imperative of minimizing its possible costs rather than maximizing its potential benefits. Conceptually, on a personal level, following the arguments of Bobbio et al., positive utilitarianism "considers obligatory the minimization of pain (or of evil) and the optimization of pleasure (or of good)"; at the same time, "negative utilitarianism, on the other hand, is understood as the position according to which the only moral obligation we have is to minimize pain or suffering (where the deprivation of pleasure does not by definition imply an increase of pain), while the production of pleasure, on the other hand, is considered to be something not strictly obligatory, but rather, something optional" (Bobbio et al. 1991, 1610-11).

10. In a later book, Mouritzen develops this strategy in greater detail and proposes calling it "adaptive acquiescence" (Mouritzen 1988).

11. Andrew Hurrell and Ngaire Woods have shown that the loss of autonomy commonly associated with globalization has not occurred to the same degree in medium-sized or small countries that occupy similar positions in the international system (Hurrell and Woods 1995, 468-69).

12. Evans has, of course, also exerted influence on other international relations analysts who work on the subject of autonomy. David Held, for example, maintains in a recent book that national autonomy has to be thought of "as embedded within broader frameworks of governance in which it has become but one set of principles, among others, underlying the exercise of political authority" (Held 1999, 444).

13. In the South American context, other authors have presented perspectives related to this notion of relational autonomy. For example, Celso Lafer, building on the ideas previously developed by Gelson Fonseca, Jr., says, in reference to the foreign policy of Brazil: "if the country was previously able to construct, with reasonable success, its possible degree of autonomy through a relative distancing from the world, then at the turn of the millennium this autonomy, necessary for development, can only be achieved through active participation in the elaboration of norms and codes of conduct for the governance of world order" (Lafer 2000, 229). On the other hand, a recent report prepared by Colombian and Venezuelan scholars presents a notion of autonomy that shares some elements with the one proposed here. The report speaks, although still very imprecisely, of the need to develop a "concerted autonomy," particularly with respect to the United States. Among other important aspects, this autonomy implies that divergent interests with other nations should "be processed by means of mechanisms of collaboration and not of confrontation" (Grupo Academico Binacional 1999, 59).