A review of Latin America’s regional integration efforts - Discussing the need for a post-colonial turn with respect to the ecological challenge

Resumen

This paper argues that a post-colonial re-thinking of international relations and specifically regional integration models will help overcoming Eurocentrism and will contribute to solving contemporary global ecological challenges. By schematically reviewing Latin America’s regional integration models, the economic penetration by the European Union and the United States becomes apparent. (Economic) regional integration has led to ecological challenges. These challenges are especially evoked by the effects of economic development models based on extractivism of natural resources. This paper will illustrate the need for a re-orientation of the discussion of regional integration by presenting the post-extractivism debate as a promising starting point. It exemplifies how a more interdisciplinary and pluralistic approach helps to re-think global power structures in international relations and regional integration theory, as well as to question the economic and political dominance of the Global North.