Mexico's Regional Foreign Policy and NAFTA's Renegotiation (2012-2023)

• Grant number: 23/05853-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: April 01, 2024
• End date: February 28, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - International Politics
• Principal Investigator: Karina Lilia Pasquariello Mariano
• Grantee: João Roberto Fava Junior
• Host Institution: Instituto de Políticas Públicas e Relações Internacionais (IPPRI). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

At the end of the 20th century, Mexico, until then a protectionist country in the Latin American mold and with little activity on the international stage, underwent a process of democratization, value reassessment, and economic openness. This process resulted in a greater interdependence with the United States, following the creation of NAFTA in 1994. For Mexico, the perspective was to boost its development through an alliance with its neighbors; however, the results were the establishment of economic dependency and geopolitical alignment. Since the early 2000s, Mexico has initiated several initiatives to diversify its economy in pursuit of new alliances, aiming to enhance its bargaining power. In 2018, with the renegotiation of NAFTA, transformed into USMCA, the country once again faced the consequences of its relationship with the United States, which imposed a series of new regulations. The aim of this project is to discuss Mexico's regional policy and its strategies in the face of the global context of the last 12 years (2012-2023), a period of critical transformations encompassing the mandates of the last two Mexican presidents and the renegotiation period of the agreement. The research incorporates the theoretical approach of historical neoinstitutionalism, utilizing the concepts of path dependence and critical juncture as tools to comprehend the formation process and behavior of institutions, particularly in times of crises. The analysis will focus on Mexico's political activity within three regional blocs (NAFTA/USMCA, APEC, CELAC), employing documentary and historical methods, along with techniques such as content analysis and discourse analysis concerning the proposed conjuncture period and its critical situations. Additionally, the analysis will involve the use of current technological tools for the collection, organization, and processing of qualitative data, as well as for the interpretation and analysis of this data.