Last week a friend from a government agency asked me in a mesmerising way: Are there already publications on the Pacific Alliance? Well, there are in fact three dedicated edited books on the Pacific Alliance!
I would like to review these recent publications on the Pacific Alliance for the general public to get a sense of what they can get from them.
- Alianza del Pacífico: en el Proceso de Integración Latinoamericano (the Pacific Alliance in the Latin American Integration Process) by CIEPLAN and the Interamerican Development Bank. This 2014 edited exploratory publication provides general insights on several aspects of the Pacific Alliance such as the relational issues with Mercosur and Brazil. An interesting approach is proposed by Alexandro Foxley in his short contribution on productive integration. As mentioned the book is only exploratory and does not provide details on the particular challenges of the PA to move forward. The book is available for free at: www.kas.de
- La Alianza del Pacífico Mitos y Realidades (The Pacific Alliance: myths and realities). This is a 2015 edited publication that offers more in-depth analysis on particular topics and issues of the Pacific Alliance. It examines the Pacific Alliance in the regional and the global context with contributions by several authors. The publication briefly addresses some of the general challenges that arrive from the current institutional structure posing the question on how it does not conform with the institutional requirements to establish a common market. Moreover, the book includes a section on the challenges and cooperation avenues on security issues related to drug trafficking, money laundry, and organised crime for the PA members. The book is available for free at: www.kas.de
- Perspectivas y Oportunidades de la Alianza del Pacífico. (Opportunities and Prospects of the Pacific Alliance). This is a 2015 edited contribution by Universidad CESA and Universidad del Desarrollo. The book delves into more detail on the achievements that the PA has made up to this point and also touches on particular aspects of the PA, including contributions on particular countries such as Chile and Peru. The chapter by Edgar Vieira is worth exploring since it provides interesting insights from a theoretical and practical point of view. Some general recommendations on steps forward come from the contributions while a strong economic focus on their analysis persists in most of the chapters. Photocredits: Panaawat/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
There are of course other shorter publications that I consider more as working papers, including:
Dimensiones y Efectos Económicos de la Alianza del Pacífico (Dimensions and Economic Effects of the Pacific Alliance). More of an examination of the economic dimension. Available at: www.kas.de
Alianza del Pacífico: Desafíos como Vía hacia la Integración (The Pacific Alliance: Challenges as a mean for Integration). More of a Legal Analysis. Available at: www.kas.de
As edited publications, some of the articles/chapters tend to be repetitive on their contributions, but in general, they give a good grasp of the achievements so far by the integration mechanism, and the challenges that may surface in the future are addressed in general terms.
Unfortunately, they are all in Spanish, and up to this day, there is not a comprehensive publication on the Pacific Alliance and the construction of the deep integration project in English. Questions on the leadership within the PA and the need for a paymaster for the integration to progress have not been addressed. Although some contributors are starting to reflect on the social relevance of the project this dimension has not been tackled in detail.
Do you know of any other interesting publication on the PA that you would like to share your views on?
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