Speak fraternally but carry a stick
Is there a new arms race—or just overdue retooling of armies?
GIVE or take the odd border raid and attempt to undermine a neighbour, fraternal feeling abounds in South America. Many countries are governed by people who were once leftist soul-mates. They talk of ever-greater integration. This rhetoric abounded on May 23rd, when 12 leaders met in Brasília and formally set up a Union of South American Nations. Yet like many such initiatives in the region, ambition ran far ahead of reality.
Unasur (or Unasul in Portuguese) replaces a South American Community declared in 2004 and supposed to unite two existing free-trade areas, Mercosur and the Andean Community. That proved too difficult—and is likely to remain so. The new group will have the appearance of purposefulness, including a secretariat in Ecuador and a parliament in Bolivia, but not much more than that.
The leaders also discussed setting up a South American Defence Council as a forum to talk about defence and security. Brazil has been pushing for this. Its diplomats thought that they had an agreement to make it happen. Yet they were thwarted when Colombia declined to join because of its neighbours' equivocal attitude to its FARC guerrillas.
Is there a new arms race—or just overdue retooling of armies?
GIVE or take the odd border raid and attempt to undermine a neighbour, fraternal feeling abounds in South America. Many countries are governed by people who were once leftist soul-mates. They talk of ever-greater integration. This rhetoric abounded on May 23rd, when 12 leaders met in Brasília and formally set up a Union of South American Nations. Yet like many such initiatives in the region, ambition ran far ahead of reality.
Unasur (or Unasul in Portuguese) replaces a South American Community declared in 2004 and supposed to unite two existing free-trade areas, Mercosur and the Andean Community. That proved too difficult—and is likely to remain so. The new group will have the appearance of purposefulness, including a secretariat in Ecuador and a parliament in Bolivia, but not much more than that.
The leaders also discussed setting up a South American Defence Council as a forum to talk about defence and security. Brazil has been pushing for this. Its diplomats thought that they had an agreement to make it happen. Yet they were thwarted when Colombia declined to join because of its neighbours' equivocal attitude to its FARC guerrillas.
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