Paraguayan Foreign Policy and Mercosur's External Agenda

• Grant number: 24/20650-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2024
• End date: November 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - International Politics
• Principal Investigator: Guilherme Augusto Guimarães Ferreira
• Grantee: Lucas Biagini Muniz e Borges
• Host Institution: Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Osasco. Osasco , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 24/13017-3 - THE POLITICS OF SMALL STATES: Paraguay, Uruguay and Mercosur's external agenda, AP.R

Abstract

This project proposes a study on the performance of Paraguay in The Southern Common Market (Mercosur) with the objective of identifying its expectations, interests and foreign policy strategies, in order to understand how these have influenced Mercosur's external negotiation agenda. The initial theoretical framework of this project will be developed around the concept of small states and discussions on the role of institutions as a platform for expanding these states' capacities to exert influence. Based on this, the aim is to map out Paraguay's priority issues and agendas within Mercosur's external negotiations, especially those in which there are divergent positions between the bloc's Member States; identify and describe how Paraguay government has acted and voted on the previously identified agendas, as well as the degree of success achieved in each of them; and discuss Paraguay's impact on Mercosur's external negotiations. Methodologically, it is proposed the use of Process-Tracing and triangulation between bibliographic sources, documents and interviews with political actors. Thus, in addition to the case studied, we aim to contribute to the debate on the role of small states in regional integration processes from a South American perspective.