Relaciones Internacionales e historia en América Latina: los caminos para reconocer nuestros mundos

Abstract

Until the beginning of the 20th century, the international reality was studied, mainly, from diplomatic history. Since then, with the emergence and development of the discipline of International Relations dominated by the Center, more than a description of past events provided by historians was sought, an understanding of the facts of the present time. However, since the second half of the twentieth century, the works that address the relationship between History and International Relations have been considered important in perspectives that highlight their necessary 'dialogue'. In South America, contributions to the analysis of International Relations from History come from Latin American Structuralism, Peripheral Realism, the School of Brasilia and Decolonial Studies. From different worldviews, theoretical approaches or categories of analysis, history is presented as the necessary path to identify the problems, challenges or obstacles in the insertion of Latin America in an international system of equals. In the pages that follow, we will present these perspectives considering, based on their most representative authors, the general basis of their assumptions in connection with the review of the theoretical currents of the Center, the place assigned to history, the associated methodology and the implications of the historical approach for the analysis of Latin America in the international system. In the approach of International Relations to History, the revision of principles that are typical of Modernity has dominated and that lead to ask about the objectives and goals of America, its own internal power dynamics, the factors that hinder or make possible its international insertion and the analysis instruments necessary for the development of its international policies, as well as concepts that are explanatory of its own history and contribute to the own disciplinary dimension of International Relations in an American key.