1 Latin America: Contrasting Motivations for Regional Projects 1 Diana Tussie In Review of International Studies, Volume 35, Supplement 1, March 2009 Introduction Latin America has a long tradition in a diversity of regional associations. The region broadly speaking is in some ways unique because of its shared beginnings in the system of states, commonality in terms of Iberian as well as indigenous culture 2 , the intimate exposure to the US reach and the ultimate mark of US hegemony. In this sense, policy diffusion is hardly ―new‖; regionalism as quite a dense web for policy diffusion dates as far back as the struggles for independence and the coetaneous conformation of republics. This is a distinct birth mark, which also helps to explain regionalism‘s trajectory, and its mix of contestation, adaptation and pragmatism to a number of realpolitik dilemmas. The time frame, together with the exposure to a particular set of influences, distinguishes the Americas from other expressions of regionalism around the world. Frontiers are mostly consolidated, a feature that is reflected in the lowest levels of armed conflicts between states and the lowest share of military expenditures in GNP worldwide . The 1968 Treaty of Tlateloloco established an early commitment to prohibit and prevent the use, manufacture, production or acquisition of nuclear weapons in the region, then turning Latin America into the sole continent free from nuclear war competition. While the region is also largely free of religious conflicts and strong ethnic strife, the differences in size and levels of development are several times larger than those found between the actual and prospective members of the European Union. Although a continent of many contrasts, policy trends, patterns of consensus and conformity have come in tides. Such commonalities, whether economic, political or social, have provided a distinct analytical and normative frame. True to this pattern, the last decade of the twentieth century ushered in a paradigm shift, a new flux of styles, fashions and philosophies manifest in the collapse of military rule, renewed electoral competition and the crumbling of import substitution that had shaped and inspired policy for so long. Trade became the mechanism for the transmission and adaptation of neo-liberal principles. 1 The diligent research assistance of Melisa Deciancio is most gratefully acknowledged. 2 Fawcett, Louise, ―The Origins and Development of the Regional Idea in the Americas‖ in L Faw cett and Mónica Serrano Eds, Regionalism and Governance in the Americas (London: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2005)