Globalization and convergence: Latin America in a changing world

A new international order which is the result of the recent changes in international political and economic relations is in the process of formation. The initial characteristics of this order point to a world setting in which the centripetal forces seem to be more marked than in the past and arc leading to a more convergent world favourable to greater consensus, in which the actions of each country have repercussions on those of the others, so that concertation and harmonization become necessary. Together with these forces, however, there are others of a centrifugal nature, such as the awakening nationalisms in eastern and southern Europe and the pressures for greater protectionism by those who are having to bear the burden of the adjustment to a more convergent world.