Volume XII – Number 1
Larman C. Wilson
Abstract: This article traces the background of Collective Economic Security, a principle that encourages states to assist one another economically to mitigate security disasters, in the context of the Western hemisphere until 1977. The Organization of American States (OAS), an organization made up of states in both North and South America, serves in this policy as the vehicle for discussing this concept. Developing Latin American states wished to use the OAS and Collective Economic Security as a means for economic development, while the US wished for it to act as an Anti-Communist bloc. The US’s view of Collective Economic Security became more favorable once it began viewing the concept as a method for maintaining internal stability within the Western Hemisphere. The rise of Castro, for example, illustrated for US officials, the need for America to more deeply engage economically with Latin America to prevent further communist uprisings. Finally, this article predicts that the impact of Collective Economic Security will lead to no further commitments between the US and Latin America. The US will not accept legally binding economic commitments or support any enforcement mechanisms to make collective economic security operational. Moreover, many developed Latin American countries do not favor a meeting to consider collective economic security given their desire to work within a multinational market, rather than the regional one provided by the OAS.
Keywords: Latin America, Collective Economic Security. IAS, OAS, South America
