A new article in the Eurasia Review argues that they might not – at least not as much as we think. We cut a card from the introduction but encourage you to read the entire thing. It provides some interesting context as well as pretty solid US-LA relations defense. You can find the card (and the link) below the fold.
Status quo solves US-Latin America relations – more direct engagement isn’t key.
Goforth, 2013 [“US – Latin America Relations: In Defense Of Benign Neglect – Analysis,” Eurasia Review, Sean, professor of world politics and international political economy at Coastal Carolina University, September 25, http://www.eurasiareview.com/25092013-us-latin-america-relations-defense-benign-neglect-analysis/]
In some respect, he’s right. Washington has no envoy shuttling about Latin America, much less an express initiative aimed at achieving region-wide peace. Instead of schemes to incite a group of allies to counterbalance a foe, Wikileaks cables showed persistent US indifference to Latin American affairs. Nearly a decade has passed since the United States expended real effort to create an Alaska to Argentina free trade zone. Beyond regular dealings with Mexico and Colombia, the State Department and other arms of the US government expend little energy on Latin America.
Yet Washington’s aloofness is hardly a sign of short sightedness. If anything, it shows a historical awareness that whenever the United States has tried to use Latin America as the key to its global grand strategy, it jams the lock. And contrary to what Rothkopf and others would have people believe, disengagement does not amount to US decline. Rather, without so much as a pat from Washington, Latin America’s political landscape is mode rating, with radical regimes increasingly marginalized at the same time that the region transforms into an economic bloc of consumers, which will inevitably benefit US companies and may well serve as the basis for a long overdue regional integration agreement.
Check out the rest of the article here.
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