Towards another way of (re)thinking International Relations: hegemony and consensus building

• Main Authors: Camila Feix Vidal, Luan Correa Brum
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Graduate Programme in International Strategic Studies (PPGEEI) 2020-11-01
• Series: Revista Conjuntura Austral
• Subjects: hegemony; united states; latin america
• Online Access: https://seer.ufrgs.br/ConjunturaAustral/article/view/105342/59165

This work is a theoretical effort that aims to contribute to rethinking IR from sociological and neogramscian lenses focusing on the United States hegemonic role in Latin America through consensus practices. This study presents the strategies of internationalization by an economic and dominant social class promoting the US capitalist system using, for that, institutions and individuals part of a certain economic and dominant class. To do so, we analyze the role that the National Endowment for Democracy and Atlas Network have been developing in Latin America while vehicles for a strategy of US hegemonic maintenance. As a result, we find an intrinsic relationship between these institutes and the State Department as well as between Latin American and US institutes and when delivering and naturalizing the neoliberal ideal. More than just presenting the ties between two dominant fractions and their efforts on promoting a neoliberal agenda, this study incite us to reflect upon practices and concepts relatively marginalized in International Relations such as hegemony, consensus building and the role of ideologies such as neoliberalism that maintain the dominant economic structure.