but its influence will strengthen over
Mexico and possibly over the Caribbean and other countries with strong
migration ties to the United States.
This theme is continued in the
chapters on relations with China
(by Nicola Phillips of the University
of Manchester) and with India (by
Jorge Heine). Though neither China
nor India seem interested—at the
moment—in challenging the Monroe Doctrine, their emergence as important trading partners inevitably
challenges the historic U.S. dominance of the region.
Fresh Look
Cooper’s chapter on renewing the
OAS neatly lays out the challenges
faced by an organization that needs
to find both a voice and a strategy to
strengthen democratic institutions.
Although electoral democracy is now
the default for the region, there is
still a long way to go to make elections genuinely free and fair. Dexter
Boniface of Rollins College examines
the implications of this in a separate
chapter where he maintains that a
better regional structure of governance and accountability is needed
to counter threats to democracy.
Cooper and Heine conclude by arguing that the “region is pulling away
from ideological straitjackets as it
tries to contend as best it can with
globalization.” The results are not
always positive. While they see Brazil and Chile as celebrated successes,
Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador have
not moved in the right direction—
partly due to past failures in achiev-ing sufficient social inclusion.
Though the book does not provide
a complete answer to the question
posed by its title, it does offer a broad
range of thought-provoking perspectives. As the editors suggest, there
should be less attention paid to Washington. Instead, the focus should be
on the new players who will be the
source for new developments.
issues are tied together by an introduction that provides context. Here,
Cooper and Heine reflect on whether
the changes caused by globalization
constitute a tsunami that will sweep
everything away in its path, a tornado that will follow a more selective and narrowly focused track—or
just a mild breeze. In other words, is
globalization really changing Latin
America? And if so, how much?
They conclude that globalization
has indeed changed the rules of the
game. One important consequence,
they argue, is that our traditional
understanding of economics and
politics can no longer appropriately
explain the way Latin America ad-
vances. They warn that by continu-
ing to use models that emphasize the
prevalent role of the U.S. and focus
on the impact of Washington Consen-
sus policies on development, schol-
ars will be unable to assess present
developments and will fail to antic-
ipate future ones. The 2009 crisis in
Honduras shows the limits of exist-
ing tools to deal with democratic
challenges.
In a provocative foreword, Abraham F. Lowenthal takes on the
800-pound gorilla in the room: the
legacy of imperialism in the U.S. relationship with Latin America. According to Lowenthal, the U.S. role as a
regional hegemon will be reduced,
Patricio Navia, PhD, is a master teacher of global studies at
New York University and associate professor of political science
