The Pacific Alliance Blog spoke to Angelica Guerra-Baron about her outstanding PhD research investigation on constructing a collective identity in the Pacific Alliance.

Ms Guerra holds a PhD in Political Science and Government from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru where she also works as co-researcher for the International and Regional Order’s group (GIOR by its Spanish Acronym). She has been a professor, lecturer, and thesis advisor at prestigious universities in Colombia and Peru. Ms Guerra was a legal advisor for the Directorate of Investment, Services and Intellectual Property at the Colombian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism. Her research interests are collective identities and narratives, foreign policy, economic governance (foreign investment, services), and legal and regulatory aspects.

Ms Guerra, how did you become interested in the topic of collective identity in the Pacific Alliance?

As a lawyer trained in international affairs (with an emphasis on economics), engaged in public policies and academic research, I was keen on linking social sciences and political affairs. Around 2014, I was working on the Foucauldian idea and the relation between power and knowledge. During the process, I realised the theoretical and empirical importance of such analysis applied to International Relations (IR). I also became aware of the necessity to incorporate both knowledge and power to study collective identities. Additionally, at that point, the South American political landscape was of great interest, especially under the influence of Hugo Chavez’s cosmovision regarding the regional order.

Thus, South America witnessed the rising of multiple and contradictory identities of intergovernmental and supranational regional schemes. All these factors combined drew a clear path for me to study the Pacific Alliance.

Before going into more details of your current research, what does a collective identity mean? Why is it important?

To grasp the concept of collective identity, we must first divide the terms. Social sciences defined identity as an explicative element of social phenomena. That concept has spread to different disciplines; even shifting away from ethics, philosophy, IR, political science, and social psychology towards entrepreneurship by applying it to the productive sector, client’s relations, and trademarks branding. This spreading made it possible to find the concept’s brass in its broader explicative scope and explanatory capacity. Thus, identity may be applied to a wide range of subjects, either individually or collectively.

As I stated to UNU-CRIS Blog Connecting Ideas, a collective identity is a social category that defines who we are (as a group). Based on Abdelal’s work (2006, 2009), a collective identity content may be analysed through its normative dimension, relational comparisons (Self-Other), collective objectives (as I call it), or its cognitive dimension. My thesis addressed all these variables to successfully unwrap the concept’s complexity and constant evolution through an identitarian lens.

Studying the PA’s collective identity is crucial to unravel its dynamism and key features. The concept’s relevance lies in the necessity to reinforce medium and long-term plans, performance and implementation strategies, and sustainability ‒despite or within political and economic distress.

What did you conclude about the process of constructing a collective identity in the Pacific Alliance? Which factors/drivers lead to this process?

This research allowed me to conclude ‒ among other aspects ‒ that there is a collective identity within the PA. I unveiled the global, regional, and domestic drivers that triggered the PA’s creation process and its performance simultaneously.

The three-level analysis pushed me to comprehend the ongoing cyclical relationship between the drivers, as well as shifts and continuities from a narrative perspective. This approach also spotlighted the reasons behind the PA’s creation, voyaging beyond macroeconomic variables, international trade interests or foreign policy convergence. Furthermore, my methodology exposed the PA’s identity patterns and their potentials, thus facilitating better and deeper public-private partnerships – for example.

The results reached are methodologically grounded on an inductive qualitative study based on an interactive coding process.

You suggest that collective identity in the Pacific Alliance has taken place in different stages. Could you elaborate more on this view?

The methodological approach – mentioned before – allowed me to identify consistency from the key agents and private stakeholders, unearthing narrative plots along the research period (2007-2014). Each one of them was time-framed into three distinguishable stages: Genesis (2007-2010), which corresponds with the Latin American Pacific Basin Forum (ARCO in Spanish); High ministerial meetings (October 2010-April 2011); and Public announcement, formalisation, and implementation (April 2011-2013), which is riddled with substages. Additionally, I tackled impugnation ‒ another dimension of collective identity ‒ and its expression (discourses and narratives) (2014).

What agents and actors were and have been involved in this process of constructing a collective identity?

Relevant IR literature and regionalism studies usually focus on the role that presidents and foreign ministries play in shaping collective identities. However, I realised that incorporating other state agents (close advisors, technocratic teams, IOs) and private actors was not only helpful but necessary to understand the PA dynamics and future development. In a nutshell, identifying the PA identity patterns ‒ its very nature ‒ means uncovering its symbolic power under its international involvement, transcending beyond the network of international investment treaties that lie beneath.

If you are interested to know more about Ms Guerra’s work regarding the Pacific Alliance, please visit our online library featuring her academic articles and book chapters.

You may also reach out to Ms Guerra at Academia.edu

Ms Guerra’s views in this Blog are personal and do not reflect the policies and opinions of the institutions she is affiliated with.

Abstract:
This paper investigates the determinants that made possible the creation of the Pacific Alliance. For this purpose, this work describes the international and regional context in which the Alliance was created and that allowed the convergence of related interests between Chile, Colombia, Peru and Mexico. These converging interests, determined by similar identities, led to the creation of a collective project: The Pacific Alliance. The paper argues that the interests, characteristics and similar identities, configured national preferences that were materialised in the creation of an economic integration project with particular characteristics. This project serves as a platform for the coordination, articulation, insertion and economic development of its members.

Resumen:
Este documento indaga sobre los determinantes que hicieron posible la creación de la Alianza del Pacífico. Para ello, se describen elementos del contexto internacional y regional dentro del cual se gestó la Alianza, y que permitió la convergencia de unos intereses afines entre Chile, Colombia, Perú y México que, determinados por identidades similares, desembocaron en un proyecto colectivo: La Alianza del Pacífico. El argumento principal es que los intereses, las características y las identidades comunes configuraron unas preferencias nacionales que fueron materializadas en la creación de un proyecto de integración económica con características particulares, que sirve de plataforma para la coordinación, la articulación, la inserción y el desarrollo económico de sus miembros.

Author: Francisco J. Escobar Onofre
Spanish Title: Intereses Nacionales Convergentes en una Apuesta Colectiva: La Alianza del Pacífico
Full document: 2016, Escobar, Intereses Nacionales Convergentes en una Apuesta Colectiva- Alianza del Pacífico

Abstract:
Not available

Resumen/Introducción:

El objetivo de este capítulo es analizar la forma como Chile, Colombia y Perú se identifican como grupo en la Alianza del Pacífico e intentan construir una identidad colectiva, a partir de sus afinidades, en medio del contexto en el que se cuestiona el modelo neoliberal en Suramérica. Argumento que, a pesar del ambiente post-hegemónico suramericano, las élites de política exterior de Colombia, Chile y Perú han sabido aprovechar la convergencia de sus políticas exteriores económicas y la afinidad de las ideas sobre las estrategias de inserción en el sistema económico internacional para crear la Alianza del Pacífico. Y aunque los ritmos y el grado de madurez de las estrategias de Chile, Colombia y Perú son distintos en su acercamiento al Asia-Pacífico, la intensa interacción entre las élites de política exterior facilita la construcción de una identidad colectiva donde China es el Otro relevante.

Este capítulo se divide en cuatro secciones. La primera sección presenta el regionalismo suramericano en términos identitarios. En un segundo apartado planteo una postura teórica para comprender la Alianza Pacífico desde la economía política internacional y la teoría de la identidad social. Luego se relaciona las políticas de Chile-Perú y Colombia hacia el Asia-Pacífico, para luego abordar la Alianza del Pacífico como un grupo de insiders donde China es el otro relevante. Finalmente, una sesión de cierre.

Author: Angelica Guerra-Barón
Spanish Title: La construcción de una identidad colectiva en la Alianza del Pacífico y China como el “Otro” relevante
Full document in edited book: Ch 9 (p 196-220) 2019, Alcalde, La conexión china en la Política Exterior del Perú en el siglo XXI

Abstract:
Empirically situated in the XXI century of the political South American context ‒characterised by the coexistence of different identity narratives of the regional schemes‒ this doctoral thesis focuses ontologically on the countries of the region which became founding State Parties of the Pacific Alliance (PA) ‒Chile, Colombia, and Peru‒ from 2007 up to 2014.

This thesis’s general objective consists of defying, identifying and comprehending the construction process of a collective identity in the PA. Thereto, the specific objectives indexed are identifying the possible drivers which lead such construction; the possible agents and actors who intervened on the construction process of the PA’s collective identity; and the possible collective identity patterns which emerged along such process. This thesis addresses the Critical Theory of International Relations (IR), the Symbolic Interactionism ‒particularly, Social Identity Theory‒ and Narratives. The results reached are methodologically grounded on critical discourse analysis, narratives, and the dynamics of discursive interaction. This research has allowed concluding ‒among others‒ that: (a) there exists a collective identity within the PA which ‒as a social category‒ expresses discursively in different stages; (b) both the AP construction process and its collective identity are strategically built by different stakeholders who intervened and followed the pattern of a closed coordinative process; (c) the relational dimension of power highlighted in the PA is expressed in multiple practices ‒already shared and emerging ones‒ and through a network of relations between the structure, the agency, the agents and actors involved.

Resumen:
Situada empíricamente en el contexto político suramericano del siglo XXI ‒caracterizado por la coexistencia de diferentes narrativas identitarias de los esquemas regionales‒ esta tesis se ocupa ontológicamente de los países de la región que luego se constituyen como Estados Parte fundantes de la Alianza del Pacífico (AP) ‒esto es, Colombia, Chile y Perú‒ en un período de tiempo comprendido entre los años 2007 a 2014.

El objetivo general de la tesis consiste en definir, identificar y comprender el proceso de construcción de una identidad colectiva en la AP. Al respecto, los objetivos específicos indexados conllevan identificar los posibles elementos impulsores que orientan la construcción de una identidad colectiva en la AP; identificar los posibles agentes y actores que intervienen en la construcción de una identidad colectiva, sus dinámicas de interacción con la estructura y el poder del lenguaje tejido en esa interacción; así como identificar los posibles patrones colectivos identitarios que emergen en la construcción de la AP como grupo. Esta tesis recurre a la Teoría Crítica de las RR.II., al Interaccionismo Simbólico ‒particularmente la Teoría de la Identidad Social‒ y las Narrativas. Metodológicamente, esta tesis se basa en el análisis crítico del discurso, las narrativas y las dinámicas de interacción discursiva. La investigación permitió visibilizar ‒entre otros aspectos‒ que: (a) existe una identidad colectiva en la AP susceptible de expresarse discursivamente en diferentes etapas ‒como categoría social que es‒; (b) tanto el proceso de construcción de la AP como de su identidad colectiva son estratégicamente tejidos por los sujetos intervinientes y siguen el patrón de un discurso coordinativo cerrado; (c) la dimensión relacional del poder evidenciado en la AP se expresa en las prácticas comunes ‒ya compartidas y emergentes‒ y en la red de relaciones entre la estructura, la agencia, los agentes y actores.

Author: Angélica Guerra-Barón
Spanish Title: El proceso de construcción de la Alianza del Pacífico y de una identidad colectiva: poder, discursos y narrativas de Colombia, Chile y Perú (2007- 2014)
Summary document: El proceso de construcción de la Alianza del Pacífico y de una identidad colectiva: poder, discursos y narrativas de Colombia, Chile y Perú (2007- 2014)