Description
Over the past fifteen years, the debate on the past, present, and future of the "liberal international order" (LIO) has been a focal point in Anglo-American and European International Relations (IR) scholarship. Latin America, despite its long engagement with questions of international order (Long 2018; Thornton and Rodriguez 2022), has played a minor role in these North Atlantic discussions. But what role has "LIO" occupied within Latin American IR debates? This study conducts a large-scale review of leading IR journals in the region, revealing that the concept of "LIO" has held limited significance in publications. However, around 2016, Latin American scholars began engaging with the "crisis" of LIO, reflecting a shift in regional discourse. We qualitatively assess each usage of "LIO" and related terms, finding that prior to 2016, "international," "global," and "world" order typically referred to power distributions marked by U.S. unipolarity and globalization's expansion. Post-2016, LIO is referenced primarily in relation to the diffusion of power away from the United States. Our findings suggest that while Latin American IR scholars are attentive to similar global shifts, the specific framing of international order as "liberal" has limited resonance in the region.
