ABSTRACT

Drawing on the research and experience of fifteen internationally recognized Latin America scholars, this insightful text presents an overview of inter-American relations during the first two decades of the twenty-first century. This unique collection identifies broad changes in the international system that have had significant effects in the Western Hemisphere, including issues of politics and economics, the securitization of U.S. foreign policy, balancing U.S. primacy, the wider impact of the world beyond the Americas, especially the rise of China, and the complexities of relationships between neighbors.

The second edition of Contemporary U.S.-Latin American Relations focuses on U.S. neighbors near and far —Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela. Each chapter addresses a country’s relations with the United States, and each considers themes that are unique to that country’s bilateral relations as well as those themes that are more general to the relations of Latin America as a whole. The book also features new chapters on transnational criminal violence, the Latino diasporas in the United States, and U.S.-Latin American migration. This cohesive and accessible volume is required reading for Latin American politics students and scholars alike.

chapter 2|32 pages

U.S.–Mexican Relations

Coping with Domestic and International Crises

chapter 3|21 pages

The United States and Cuba

Intimate Neighbors?

chapter 4|23 pages

U.S.–Argentine Relations

The Years of Cristina and Obama

chapter 6|22 pages

Chile and the United States

A Cooperative Friendship

chapter 7|33 pages

Colombia and the United States

The Path to Strategic Partnership

chapter 8|31 pages

U.S.–Peruvian Relations

Cooperation within the International System of the Twenty-First Century

chapter 9|22 pages

U.S.–Venezuelan Relations after Hugo Chávez

Why Normalization Has Been Impossible

chapter 11|22 pages

Breaking the Vicious Cycle

Criminal Violence in U.S.–Latin American Relations

chapter 12|17 pages

U.S. Immigration Policy

Politicization and Impasse