This book develops a comprehensive analysis of contemporary regionalism in the Americas, which the authors characterise as Liquid Regionalism, given its unstable, flexible and loose characteristics. It innovates by introducing a new concept to assess regional initiatives in the American continents, contributing to Latin American and comparative regionalism research agendas. The book analyses major regional projects in the Americas and develops these into a novel typology of consultation, cooperation and integration. This typology helps explain the level of commitments and institutional depth of regional initiatives across the continent. The book is for scholars, postgraduate and undergraduate students interested in the regional and political dynamics of the Americas across the social sciences, including international relations, political science, sociology, international political economy, international trade, and history.

Autorentext

Karina Lilia Pasquariello Mariano is Full Professor at the Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho - UNESP (São Paulo State University), Brazil, where she coordinates the Group of Interdisciplinary Studies in Culture and Development (GEICD), the Jean Monnet Module - UNESP and participates in the Observatory of Regionalism (ODR), which is part of the Research Network on Foreign Policy and Regionalism (REPRI). Professor at the Graduate Program in International Relations San Tiago Dantas (UNESP, UNICAMP and PUC-SP). She has a Bachelor in Social Sciences from the University of São Paulo (1992), a Master in Political Science from the University of São Paulo (1996) and a PhD in Social Sciences from the State University of Campinas (2001). She has been a CNPq Productivity Scholar since 2013 and has experience in political science, with an emphasis on regional integration, working mainly on the following topics: Mercosur, regional integration theories, European Union, international relations, trade unions, regional parliaments and democracy.

Regiane Nitsch Bressan is an Assistant Professor and Researcher at the Department of International Relations, Federal University of São Paulo. Bressan is Professor and Researcher at the San Tiago Dantas Graduate Program in International Relations (UNESP-UNICAMP-PUC-SP), São Paulo, Brazil. Bressan holds a PhD and a Master's in Latin-American Integration from the University of São Paulo. She participates as an associated researcher at the Regionalism Observatory (ODR), Research Network on Foreign Policy and Regionalism (REPRI), Reflection Group on Integration and Development in Latin America and Europe (GRIDALE), Mercosur University Forum (FOMERCO), and Brazilian Network of Latin American and Caribbean researchers (BLAC Network). She has experience in developing academic projects in international politics and international relations, working mainly on the following topics: regional integration, Latin America, Mercosur, economic blocs, regional parliaments and theories of regional integration. She has been a CNPq Productivity grantee since 2024.

Bruno Theodoro Luciano is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium, affiliated to the Department of Research and Studies in International Politics (REPI) and the Institute of European Studies (IEE). He is Associate Research Fellow at the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS), PhD in Political Science and International Studies (University of Birmingham, UK), MA and BA in International Relations (University of Brasília, Brazil). He is co-editor of the journal Contemporary European Politics. Prior to joining ULB, Bruno was a Research Fellow at São Paulo State University (Brazil) and a Teaching Fellow in Public Policy and European Studies at the University of Warwick (UK). His research experience focuses on the political evolution of relations between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean, examining their intergovernmental and interparliamentary dimensions. In addition to this main line of research, he is also interested in inter-regionalism and comparative regionalism in Europe, South America and Africa, focusing on the agenda of trade, democracy protection, civil society participation and parliamentary diplomacy. He is a member of the Observatory of Regionalism - ODR - and Sub-Coordinator of the Grupo de Reflexión sobre Integración y Desarrolllo de América Latina e Europa - GRIDALE.