Challenges to Security Governance in Latin America

This paper examines the progress and obstacles that states and regional organizations in Latin America face in order to deal with common threats under the lenses of the regional security governance approach. The assessment of security threats in the region indicates that while there are some common threats to the region, each country in Latin America also experiences particular security challenges, drawing a complex map of threats and security policies in the region and a variety of security governance mechanism ranging from the bilateral (Colombia Plan) to trilateral (Merida Initiative) and from sub-regional (UNASUR) and to hemispheric (OAS). In this regard, the research question of this paper is why the diversity of security governance instruments has been ineffective to improve security in the region. The key innovative analytical element of the paper is the application of a comprehensive framework to detect different levels of collective action and a variety of security sectors in Latin America. The central part of the paper adapts the traditional analysis of the five security sectors (military, political, economic, environmental and societal). In order to understand how states and regional organizations interact in each one of the five security sectors, the paper examines a) the instruments and b) the reach of cooperation. With regard to instruments, three are detected: normative (charters of regional organizations and non-binding declarations), institutional (allocation of resources and monitoring mechanisms) and crisis management mechanisms (sanctions and use of force). Regarding the reach or scope of the instruments, the inclusion of the number of actors varies according to the perception of the threats (bilateral, sub-regional, regional and global. After looking at several indicators and descriptive statistics, the project proceeds to assess the Empowerment of Regional Organizations in Latin America, namely, the institutionalization of regional security governance policies.