13

The Post-Cold War years made way for a renewal of the Latin American debate over tensions of the environment, ethics, and international politics. Defenders of the idea that the international system emerges exclusively from interaction between sovereign and independent political entities counters those who support the centrality of the eco-political agenda of many other actors going beyond the nation-state. That is, the principles of unconditional sovereignty and non-interference, tenets that traditionally construct the contours of the field of "international relations" are questioned by a growing transnationalization of political activism in favor of ethical and responsible conduct in the environmental field. Based on these conjectures, the present article is structured in two parts: (1) a discussion on the process of internationalization of the environmental problem and contemporary tensions between environment, ethics, and international politics in Latin America; (2) an analysis of issues brought to the political agenda by Latin American environmentalists operating in the heart of transnational contention within anti- and alter-globalist movements.