Latin America and the Caribbean in the Global Context : Why Care About the Americas?

Current perspectives on Latin America’s role in the world tend to focus on one question: Why is Latin America always falling behind? Analysts and scholars offer answers grounded in history, economic underdevelopment, or democratic consolidation. Bagley and Horwitz, however, shift the central question to ask why and to what extent does Latin America matter in world politics, both now and in the future. This text takes a holistic approach to analyze Latin America’s role in the international system. It invokes a combination of global, regional, and sub-regional levels to assess Latin America’s insertion into a globalized world, in historical, contemporary, and forward-looking perspectives. Conventional international relations theory and paradigms, introduced at the beginning, offer a useful lens through which to view four key themes: political economy, security, transnational issues and threats, and democratic consolidation. The full picture presented by this book breaks down the evolving power relationships in the hemisphere and the ways in which conflict and cooperation play out through international organizations and relations. Cover 1 Half Title 4 Title Page 6 Copyright Page 7 Dedication 8 Table of Contents 10 List of illustrations 14 Acknowledgments 15 Part I: Why Do Latin America and the Caribbean Matter? 16 1. Why Care About What Happens in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)? 18 Introduction 18 Location, Location, Location, and a Complicated Relationship 20 Organization of the Book 23 2. The Insertion of Latin America and the Caribbean in World History 29 Introduction 29 Spain and Portugal Explore the World: Opportunism and Epidemic Outbreaks 30 The Era of Colonialism 31 Napoleon, Europe, and Independence from Spain and Portugal 34 Latin America’s Importance During the Era of Corporate Capitalism 39 Latin America, the Caribbean and the American Century 40 3. A Theoretical Framework to Understand Latin America in World Affairs 49 Introduction 49 Realism 50 Institutionalism 51 Liberalism 52 Constructivism 54 The English School 56 Critical Approaches 56 Underdevelopment and Dependency Theory: Made in Latin America 57 Using Theoretical Tools to Understand the Americas 58 Part II: Latin America and the Caribbean: Power and Political Economy 68 4. Economic Power: Commodity Lottery Booms and Busts 70 Introduction 70 Growth and Inequality, Dependent Development, and Orden y Progreso 71 The Commodity Lottery 72 Latin America in the Twentieth Century 73 World War II, Import Substitution (IS), Economic Growth and Protectionism 76 The Cold War and a Realist World Order 77 The Golden Era of Import Substitution 79 Debt-led Growth and Globalization 81 The “Lost Decade” of Economic Growth 84 5. Latin American and Caribbean: Political Economy in the Twenty-First Century 100 Introduction 100 Latin America and the Caribbean Enter the Twenty-First Century 102 Economic Growth and the 2008 Global Downturn 103 Made in China or Hecho en Mexico, or Brazil, Chile, Peru, or Colombia 106 Latin America Looks to the East 111 Part 3: Security and Democracy 118 6. Power: Political Institutions and emocracy 120 Introduction 120 How Caudillismo Helped Establish a State 121 The Caudillo Tradition and Presidentialism in Latin America 124 The Importance of the “Third Wave” of Democratization in LAC 125 A “How To” Guide to Democracy for Latin America and the Caribbean 129 7. Electoral Democracies in Latin America and the Caribbean 136 Introduction 136 Electoral Democracies 137 Latin America’s Two Lefts 140 The Pragmatic Center and the Ghost of Caudillismo’s Past 147 8. Challenges to Democracy: Drug Trafficking, Organized Crime and Terrorist Networks in LAC 156 Introduction 156 The Globalization of Drug Consumption 157 Partial Victories Against Drugs 159 Proliferation of Areas of Cultivation and Smuggling Routes (the Balloon Effect) 161 Dispersion and Fragmentations of Criminal Drug Trafficking Organizations (the Cockroach Effect) 163 Transnational Criminal Organizations and Terrorism in LAC and Beyond 167 Iran’s Activities in Latin America 171 Reaction to Terrorism and Regional Cooperation 175 Failure of Political Reform or State Building (the Deinstitutionalization Effect) 176 The Inflexibility and Ineffectiveness of Regional and International Drug Control Policies 178 The Failure of U.S. Drug Policies 178 The Search for Alternatives: The Debate over Legalization, Decriminalization, and Harm Reduction 179 Part IV: Latin America and the Caribbean on the World Stage 192 9. Latin America and the Caribbean and the Development of the Inter-American System 194 Introduction 194 The Inter-American Context 196 The Inter-American System and LAC Independence 197 World War II, Security and the Birth of the Inter-American System 198 The Cold War and U.S. Supremacy 200 Security Cooperation 203 9/11 and the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) 205 The Americas: A Community of Democracies 208 Reimagining Hemispheric Regionalism: The Economy 215 10. We Should Care about Latin America and the Caribbean 230 Introduction 230 LAC: A Tale of Two Economies 232 Brazil and Mexico: Friends or Foes? 234 Latin America and the Caribbean: A Tale of Two Lefts 237 Latin America and the Caribbean, and the U.S. 240 Why Latin America and the Caribbean Matter 245 Bibliography 256 Index 276