This article analyzes the international context which allowed the creation of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and the conditions which generated the definition of its model. If, on one hand, globalization had an impact on this context, on the other, the evolution of economic regionalism will strongly influence the type of integration of Mercosur countries. The world transformations, linked to the Post War new international order and to the end of Cold War, will influence Latin America. Through an historical and analytical approach, the authors show that Mercosur adopted features of two different generations of regionalism, as a result of a specific historical experience.
Mercosur; International economic order; Globalization; Regionalization