Latin American Thinking in International Relations Reloaded
| Autor | Florent Frasson-Quenoz |
| Cargo | PhD International Security and Defense |
| Páginas | 53-75 |
AbstRAct
In the midst of uncertainty –generated by
the narratives of the decline of the United
States– academics are looking for answers and
cerebral stimulus in the heart of the academic
Terra Incognita that is the “Global South”.
Building on this interpretation, I formulate
a simple question: Does a Latin American
school of thought exist in International Re-
lations? In order to respond to this question
I will propose a model that will allow for an
assessment of the existence of a Latin Ameri-
can school of thought in International Rela-
tions. Additionally, this model will enable
me to distance myself from the air du temps;
that is, to celebrate the existence of a school
of thought before even being certain that it
actually exists. For sure, the assessment done
here will only stand as a rst attempt, and is in
no way exhaustive. Nonetheless, it will allow
me, rstly, to demonstrate that the eagerness
to promote any kind of academic proposal
to the status of “school” is detrimental to the
central goal of generating knowledge and,
second, to stimulate others to think about
the subject along the same lines.
Key words: Latin american thinking in
international relations, research enterprise,
knowledge aggregation, global south, au-
tonomy.
Latin American Thinking in
International Relations Reloaded
Florent Frasson-Quenoz*†
* PhD International Security and Defense. Researcher at the Centro de Investigaciones y Proyectos Especiales
(). School of Finances, Government and International Relations. Externado de Colombia University, Bogotá
(Colombia). orent.frasson@uexternado.edu.co
† I would like to thank Arlene Tickner and all members for their valuable comments on early drafts. e
views expressed in this article are those of the autor.
Recibido: 29 de febrero de 2016 / Modicado: 15 de marzo de 2016 / Aceptado: 17 de abril de 2016
Para citar este artículo
Frasson-Quenoz, F. (2016). Latin American inking in International Relations Reloaded. , 23, 53-75.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18601/16577558.n23.04
Florent Frasson-Quenoz
54
OASIS, No 23 • Enero-Junio 2016 • pp. 53-75
Pensamiento
latinoamericano
en relaciones
internacionales recargado
Resumen
En medio de la incertidumbre generada por
las narrativas de declive de Estados Unidos,
los académicos están buscando respuestas y
estímulos en el corazón de la Terra Incognita
que es el Sur Global. Construyendo sobre
esta interpretación, se formula una simple
pregunta: ¿existe una escuela de pensamiento
latinoamericana en relaciones internacionales?
Para responder a ella proponemos, por un
lado, un modelo que nos permitirá evaluar
la existencia de una Escuela de Pensamiento
Latinoamericana. Por otro lado, este modelo
nos hará posible alejarnos del air du temps;
es decir, celebrar la existencia de una Escuela
de Pensamiento antes de estar seguros de que
exista. Indudablemente, la evaluación que
se hará aquí será solo un primer esbozo, de
ninguna manera es exhaustiva. Sin embargo,
nos dejará, primero, demostrar que el afán por
promover cualquier propuesta al estatus de
“Escuela” se hace en detrimento del objetivo
central de la generación de conocimiento y,
segundo, estimular a otros a pensar este asunto
en las mismas líneas.
Palabras clave: pensamiento latinoameri-
cano en relaciones internacionales, esfuerzo
investigativo, agregación al conocimiento, sur
global, autonomía.
IntRoductIon
e way we conceive interactions in world
politics has always been a topic of discussion.
Nowadays, the reading we do of the inter-
national order is a topic of debate not only
for academics but also for specialized social
networks and, more broadly, in the media.
In this particular context, the last economic
crisis strengthened those who defend the idea
that the international system drifted from
unipolarity to “apolarity”; that is to say, that
the current state system is under no leader-
ship. Exhausted and discredited, the Ameri-
can superpower is presented as a wanderer
without the capacity nor the will to impose
its rule. Following this narrative, we are to
understand that because no states have the
means to overthrow the “hegemon” nor the
interest/capacity to ll in the gaps left open in
the current world order, leadership is absent
(Badie, 2004, 2011).
Obviously, not everyone accepts this
sociological reading1. Nonetheless, this narra-
tive allows for a contextualization of a much
more interesting phenomenon: the increas-
ing attention “non-Western” thinking re-
ceives in our discipline (Tickner and Wæver,
2009; Tickner and Blaney 2012). is interest
could also be interpreted as a consequence
1 However, a wide range of works do postulate the decline of the American power and an even larger number
of academics discuss the reconguration of the international system’s order.
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