Even though it is highly relevant, the structural positioning of Latin American states as a whole has been only marginally addressed in International Relations scholarship. This is partly due to the persistent focus on individual countries —especially the largest economies such as Brazil or Mexico— and partly due to the relatively secondary weight attributed to most Latin American states within the international system when compared to major European and Asian powers.

Structural Positioning of Latin America: From Early Approaches to an Open Question

Nevertheless, by the late 1960s, a pioneering contribution addressed this gap. In Relaciones Internacionales, integración y desarrollo (Nueva Visión, 1969), Johan Galtung, Manuel Mora, and Simon Schwartzman advanced an early attempt to analyse Latin America as a collective unit. Their approach relied on

“structural variables who define the position of the countries in a system of stratification and interaction, measured by some simple indicators” (Galtung, Mora & Schwartzman 1969, 187).

Despite the technological and statistical limitations of the time, their study “El sistema latinoamericano de naciones: Un análisis estructural” managed to process data for 20 countries and identify differentiated positions within the regional hierarchy. This represented a foundational step toward understanding Latin America not as a homogeneous space, but as a stratified configuration of states.

Since then, the regional reality has evolved gradually, yet without producing a substantial transformation in its overall structural position. Decades later, the central question is no longer whether Latin American states have achieved a sustained ascent, but rather how their relative power has evolved—and, in particular, why improvements in national capacities have not consistently translated into stronger positions within the international system.

Limited Structural Mobility: Evidence from 1975–2013

It is precisely this question that Las promesas del ascenso estructural de los países de América Latina (Morales & Rocha, 2015) addresses, constituting a relevant contribution insofar as it revisits, in a longitudinal perspective, whether the strengthening of national capacities in the region has translated into an effective repositioning within the international hierarchy. By shifting the focus from isolated country analyses to the regional configuration as a whole, the study reconnects with earlier structural approaches while updating their analytical scope.

Methodologically, the paper combined a theoretical–quantitative framework for measuring national power with a longitudinal dataset covering the period 1975–2013. This allowed for a systematic classification of countries according to their structural position, capturing patterns of ascent, stagnation, and decline.

The findings suggest that, although Latin America experienced sustained economic growth, this did not generate proportional improvements in national capabilities. Structural mobility remained uneven and limited: only a few countries improved their relative position, while most remained stable or experienced setbacks. This revealed a persistent gap between capacity accumulation and effective structural repositioning, thereby opening the debate on the underlying constraints that continue to shape the region’s trajectory.

From Limited Mobility to Power Reduction: A New Lost Decade

Building on these findings—particularly the persistent gap between capacity accumulation and effective structural repositioning—Nueva década perdida en América Latina. Reducciones de poder nacional en el Cono Sur, los Andes y México (Morales Ruvalcaba, 2023) extends the analytical trajectory initiated in Las promesas del ascenso estructural de los países de América Latina by updating both its temporal scope and empirical basis. While the earlier study identified a limited and uneven pattern of structural mobility up to 2013, this subsequent work revisits the same problem under a markedly different regional context, characterised by stagnation, external constraints, and declining relative capacities. In this sense, it does not revise the original hypothesis, but rather reinforces it by examining whether the previously observed gap has persisted, narrowed or deepened.

Methodologically, the new study deepens the original framework by refining the measurement of national power and applying it to a more recent period, allowing for a more granular assessment of trajectories across subregions. Its findings point to a deterioration rather than an improvement: several countries in the Cono Sur, the Andean region, and Mexico exhibit reductions in their relative power position, confirming a pattern of structural contraction. This suggests that the limited gains identified in the earlier period were not only insufficient to alter the region’s overall positioning but also fragile in the face of shifting international conditions. As such, the notion of a “new lost decade” captures not merely economic stagnation, but a broader reversal in geostructural mobility, thereby consolidating and intensifying the conclusions reached in the original study.

Rethinking Power Positioning in Latin America

These findings point to the need for a more fine-grained analytical agenda focused on country-level and subregional dynamics across Latin America. Moving beyond aggregate assessments, future research should examine how positioning within the region’s geoestructural configuration varies across countries and subregions, identifying differentiated trajectories of power, constraints, and opportunities. Such an approach would not only refine the measurement of national power, but also provide a more precise understanding of the mechanisms shaping mobility within this geoestructural configuration, thereby strengthening the empirical and analytical foundations for assessing Latin America’s position in the international system.

Last updated: March 17, 2026