The Hidden Diplomatic History of Argentine-Brazilian Bilateral Integration: Implications for Historiography and {Theory

Most of the literature has given the credit for the Argentine-Brazilian bilateral integration either to the military administrations on the ground of the diplomatic rapprochement of 1979-1982, or to the newly democratic administrations by virtue of the announcement and formalisation of integration in 1985 and 1986 respectively. Fresh primary material, both archival sources and interviews with key players in those events, reveals that the idea of integration was born and discussed between 1983 and 1984, in a situation of regime asymmetry, having Argentina returned to democracy in 1983 and Brazil in 1985. However, democracy proved to be fundamental in the development of negotiations and their finalisation. Implications for historians may be quite straightforward. Theorists of democratic peace and cooperation may have to temper certain results emerging from essentially statistical exercises with the qualitative analysis the historicist method provides for a correct assessment of the significance of regularities and exceptions.