This is a good time to reflect on opportunities and challenges for Australia in Latin America. Impressive economic growth and opportunities for trade and investment have made Latin America a dynamic area for Australia and the Asia Pacific region. A growing Latin American population, Australia’s attractiveness to Latin American students, a fascination with the cultural vibrancy of the Americas and an awareness of Latin America’s increasingly independent stance in politics and economic diplomacy, have all contributed to raising the region’s profile. This collection of essays provides the first substantial introduction to Australia’s evolving engagement with Latin America, identifying current trends and opportunities, and making suggestions about how relationships in trade, investment, foreign aid, education, culture and the media could be strengthened.

Until recently, Australia and Latin America were considered irrelevant to one another. The prevailing perception in Australia had been that Latin America was too remote, disconnected, and politically irrelevant to warrant serious scholarly or public attention. In recent years, this perception has rapidly changed, with Australian universities seeking to attract Latin American students, new diplomatic relations emerging, investment in mining and other business sectors expanding, and a growing fascination in Australia with Latin American food, music, dance and other forms of popular culture. These rapid developments can only properly be understood within the context of broader global transformations underway, including shifts in power relations between the 'Global North' and 'Global South', the rise of key Latin American economies, major technological developments, and ever-increasing global interconnectivity. This pioneering interdisciplinary book ventures into the new space of Australian-Latin American relations, exploring multiple dimensions of the rapidly changing landscape within a global context.

This book explores contemporary cultural, historical and geopolitical connections between Latin America and Australia from an interdisciplinary perspective. It seeks to capitalise on scholarly developments and further unsettle the multiple divides created by the North-South axis by focusing on processes of translocal connectivities that link Australia with Latin America. The authors conceptualise the South-South not as a defined geographic space with clear boundaries, but rather as a mobile terrain with multiple, evolving and overlapping translocal processes.

This book examines the role of external powers in Latin America in the 21st century. Non-traditional partners have significantly increased their political and economic engagement with the continent. Five key questions arise: why has this surge taken place; when has it happened; in which regions and sectors is it mostly felt; what is the Latin American perspective; and what are the actual results? The book analyses 16 case studies: the United States, the European Union, China, Russia, Japan, Canada, India, Turkey, Iran, Israel, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, the ASEAN countries, South Africa and Australia. The spectrum of existing explanations in the literature spans from neo-extractivism to South-South cooperation. This volume places them in context and proposes a more multifaceted approach, stressing a combination of systemic factors and internal dynamics both in Latin America and in the external partner countries. Geopolitics still matters and so do nation states, their interests and leaders. Ultimately, this surge in engagement has largely reproduced past patterns. Are new partners that different from the old ones?

Until recently, Australia and Latin America were considered irrelevant to one another. The prevailing perception in Australia had been that Latin America was too remote, disconnected, and politically irrelevant to warrant serious scholarly or public attention. In recent years, this perception has rapidly changed, with Australian universities seeking to attract Latin American students, new diplomatic relations emerging, investment in mining and other business sectors expanding, and a growing fascination in Australia with Latin American food, music, dance and other forms of popular culture. These rapid developments can only properly be understood within the context of broader global transformations underway, including shifts in power relations between the 'Global North' and 'Global South', the rise of key Latin American economies, major technological developments, and ever-increasing global interconnectivity. This pioneering interdisciplinary book ventures into the new space of Australian-Latin American relations, exploring multiple dimensions of the rapidly changing landscape within a global context.

Using decades of their own insight into teaching undergraduate International Relations (IR) courses, leading experts offer an introduction to IR thinking throughout history in Latin America, unfolding ideas, voices, concepts and approaches from the region that can contribute to the broader Global IR discussion. The book highlights and discuss the growing possibility of a Latin American agency, defined broadly to include both material and ideational elements, in regional and international relations, covering areas where Latin America’s contributions are especially visible and relevant, such as regionalism, international law, security management, and Latin America’s relations with the outside world. This is not about exclusively "Latin American solutions to Latin American problems", but rather about contributions in which Latin Americans define the terms for understanding the issues and set the terms for the nature and scope of outside involvement. Written with verve and clarity, Latin America in Global International Relations exposes readers to the relevance of redefining and broadening IR theory. It will serve as a guide for instructors in structuring their courses and in identifying the place of Latin America in the discipline.