In search of international influence: Mexico as an entrepreneurial power
| Author | Ana Covarrubias,Jorge A. Schiavon |
| Published date | 01 December 2018 |
| Date | 01 December 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0020702018811901 |
| Subject Matter | Scholarly Essays |
Scholarly Essay
In search of international
influence: Mexico as an
entrepreneurial power
Ana Covarrubias
Center for International Studies, El Colegio de Mexico, Mexico
City, Mexico
Jorge A. Schiavon
Division of International Studies, Centro de Investigacion y
Docencia Economicas, Mexico City, Mexico
Abstract
This article argues that the concept of entrepreneurial state is useful for analyzing
Mexican foreign policy during recent decades. It argues that Mexico has behaved as
an entrepreneurial state, following a limited foreign policy agenda to address national
priorities, with important restrictions in terms of resources and agency, but seeking to
obtain international recognition as a relevant global player that has influence on world
affairs. This entrepreneurial behaviour is analyzed in Mexico’s participation in inter-
national organizations (UN) and negotiations (climate change), mini-lateral mechanisms
(MIKTA), and regional affairs (Central and Latin America). These cases show that, due
to its limited capacities and agency, but its desire to become a relevant regional and
global player to advance its national interest, Mexico has created coalitions with like-
minded countries, pursued limited but domestically relevant global objectives, and
invested its scarce foreign policy resources in an entrepreneurial manner.
Keywords
Mexico, foreign policy, international influence, entrepreneurial state, middle power,
regional power, multilateralism
In 2002, Peter Hakim wrote an article in Foreign Affairs suggesting that Mexico
and Brazil were ‘‘going global’’: Mexico had opted for an open economy to foreign
trade and investment, and for closer relations with the United States, whereas
International Journal
2018, Vol. 73(4) 535–553
!The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/0020702018811901
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Corresponding author:
Ana Covarrubias, Center for International Studies, El Colegio de Mexico, Carretera Picacho-Ajusco 20,
colonia Ampliacio
´n Fuentes del Pedregal, delegacio
´n Tlalpan Mexico, Mexico City 14110, Mexico.
Email: ancova@colmex.mx
Brazil’s projection was based on a relatively closed economy, and on pursuing
leadership in South America.
1
Hakim argued that Mexico and Brazil had the
demographic and economic strength to influence international affairs: they were
both upper-middle income countries, and both succeeded in overcoming serious
financial crises.
2
A decade later, in 2012, The Economist published a special report
entitled ‘‘Going up in the world,’’
3
which suggested that Mexico’s ‘‘rise’’ was not
supported by facts, but rather on its potential power.
It is true that the 2000 elections appeared to announce a new beginning for
Mexico’s domestic politics and foreign policy: for the first time after more than
70 years, the opposition party National Action Party (PAN) won the elections, a
shift that many interpreted as Mexico’s democratization. Ever since, the two PAN
administrations (2000–2012) and one Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI)
administration (2012–2018), have explicitly searched for an internationally recog-
nized status in the world for Mexico. In the era of the G20, BRICS, and IBSA,
Mexican governments have struggled to make the country a newly prominent
participant, in the words of John Ravenhill.
Since 2000, Mexican governments have tried to project Mexico as a middle,
emerging, or regional power, using these concepts interchangeably and without
defining them. These governments have simply referred to objective indicators
such as the size of the country or the economy, demographic figures, export cap-
acity, et cetera, to justify Mexico’s middle, regional, or emerging condition.
Mexico’s ultimate goal has been to be ‘‘influential’’ in the international system.
Thus, in addition to the concepts of ‘‘middle,’’ ‘‘regional,’’ or ‘‘emerging’’ power,
Mexican governments have used other notions such as ‘‘influential actor’’ or ‘‘actor
with global responsibility.’’
Is it useful to analyze Mexico’s foreign policy as that of an entrepreneurial state
instead of that of a middle, emerging, or regional power? We believe it is, for
several reasons. First, even if Mexican governments have not been capable of
clearly defining the way in which they perceive Mexico’s place and role in the
world, they have all believed that the country’s foreign policy should be influential
in world affairs. The concept of entrepreneurial states helps us understand what
influence means, what it is used for, and if there is an identity that gives content to
such influence. Mexican governments believe that resources justify and lead auto-
matically to participation in world affairs, without a well-defined sense of middle-
powermanship, especially in terms of good international citizenship and the global
order. This article will analyze, first, how Mexican governments have pursued a
number of very different objectives, from ‘‘behaving appropriately’’ by defending
universal values, to pursuing narrow interests such as promoting trade, protecting
the country’s southern border, or managing its rivalry with Brazil. Second, it will
examine how Mexico’s most important initiatives to achieve its influence in the
1. Peter Hakim, ‘‘Two ways to go global,’’ Foreign Affairs 812, no. 1 (2002): 148–162.
2. Ibid., 149.
3. ‘‘Going up in the world,’’ The Economist, 24–30 November 2012, 3–16.
536 International Journal 73(4)
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