Latin America Confronts the United States
Asymmetry and Influence

Using multinational sources, the book explores how Latin American leaders influenced US policy in the context of asymmetrical power relations.

Tom Long (Author)

9781107547056, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 June 2017

272 pages
23 x 15.1 x 2 cm, 0.42 kg

'Tom Long's book does stand out for its analytical rigor and should pave the way for more theoretically motivated scholarship on US–Latin American relations.' Dexter Boniface, Latin American Research Review

Latin America Confronts the United States offers a new perspective on US-Latin America relations. Drawing on research in six countries, the book examines how Latin American leaders are able to overcome power asymmetries to influence US foreign policy. The book provides in-depth explorations of key moments in post-World War II inter-American relations - foreign economic policy before the Alliance for Progress, the negotiation of the Panama Canal Treaties, the expansion of trade through the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the growth of counternarcotics in Plan Colombia. The new evidence challenges earlier, US-centric explanations of these momentous events. Though differences in power were fundamental to each of these cases, relative weakness did not prevent Latin American leaders from aggressively pursuing their interests vis-à-vis the United States. Drawing on studies of foreign policy and international relations, the book examines how Latin American leaders achieved this influence - and why they sometimes failed.

1. Asymmetry, influence, and US-Latin American relations
2. Operação Pan-Americana: fighting poverty and fighting Communism
3. Completing the nation: Omar Torrijos and the long quest for the Panama Canal
4. A recalculation of interests: NAFTA and Mexican foreign policy
5. An urgent opportunity: the birth of Plan Colombia
6. Conclusions
References.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS], Politics & government [JP], Hispanic & Latino studies [JFSL4], Society & social sciences [J], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], History of the Americas [HBJK]