Theorizing the Foreign Policy of Hugo Chavez: Peripheral-Offensive Realism as international strategy of the Government of Venezuela in 2008-2010

Abstract

We will use the term Peripheric-Offensive Realism as a model to explain the shifting of Venezuelan Foreign Policy after the arriving at office of president Hugo Chávez in 1999. We will mainly study the period between the years 2008-2010, when big changes happened at the international structure (financial crises and government change at the United States), also the fall of oil prices. The purpose of our research is to demonstrate if there is a direct relation between those international changes and the continuation of the objectives that had been delimited at the two main strategic plans of the Venezuelan government: The 2004 New Strategic Map and the 2007 National Project Simón Bolívar – First Socialist Plan.