Latin America is developing rapidly. As the authors see the region, a small group of countries has found a fast-forward button. In these countries change is exciting, occurring at such a rapid pace that a major breakthrough hi economic growth appears within grasp. After an almost decade-long period of recession and stagnation, many Latin American economies now have elected governments. With a few exceptions, most have also improved their socioeconomic conditions beyond meeting basic human needs. Yet few North Americans or Europeans are aware of these advances. How does Latin America fit into the changing world in the 1990s, and why should someone living in the United States, Europe, or developed parts of the Pacific Basin care? Fast Forward shows that Latin America's economic renaissance clearly has implications for a post-Cold War world order. Latin America is starting to make important contributions, particularly in the areas of international diplomacy, economics, and culture. Collectively, Latin Americans now demonstrate a coherent collective will about where they wish to take themselves. This does not mean that U.S. influence in the Americas will soon disappear, but that new challenges in the international system will force greater equity in Western Hemisphere relationships. While Latin America in the 1990s offers much to be excited about, the authors caution that there are dangers in being too enthusiastic. The always-present potential for top-down authoritarian approaches must temper enthusiasm about a better Latin American future. Despite this, the authors see a well-defined departure from past economic modes occurring and the potential for a higher level of development for some countries. This book is for economists, sociologists, and political scientists interested in economic and political development, and researchers interested in Latin America in particular.

What are Latin America’s prospects for the twenty-first century, in the face of rapidly changing international conditions and increasing internal social pressures? In this volume eminent Latin American scholars and activists explore their collective future. They analyze a wide range of issues, including economic alternatives to neoliberal policies,

Twenty-first century Latin America is rich in history, culture, and political and social experimentation. In this fascinating and insightful analysis, Gardini looks at contemporary developments at three interconnected levels: state, region and globe. At the state level, leaders such as Evo Morales of Bolivia and Chavez of Venezuela embody a renewed intellectual autonomy in the continent, while revealing significant discrepancies between their rhetoric and their actions. At the regional level, while a consensus has emerged over Latin American unity as the only way towards development, the existence of several competing schemes of regional economic and political integration more accurately reflect the diversity of the area. At the global level, elements of change, such as the rise of Brazil and the involvement of China as a new trade partner, sit alongside traits of continuity, such as the crucial political, economic and ideational role played by Washington. Overall, Gardini argues that despite the numerous challenges to be faced, Latin America is now more wealthy, autonomous and better-placed in global geopolitics than at any time in its recent history.

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 decade of the twenty-first century. This unique collection identifies broad changes in the international system that have had significant affects 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. Contemporary U.S.-Latin American Relations focuses on the near-neighbors of the United States—Mexico, Cuba, the Caribbean and Central America—as well as the larger countries of South America—including 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. This cohesive and accessible volume is required reading for Latin American politics students and scholars alike.

Beginning in the 1980s, Latin America became a laboratory for the ideas and policies of neoliberalism. Now the region is an epicenter of dissent from neoliberal ideas and resistance to U.S. economic and political dominance; Latin America's political map is being redrawn. Already half a dozen progressive governments have swept into power--in Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela--and more may follow. Latin America After Neoliberalism is a fascinating look at what is perhaps the most politically dynamic region in the world--and an authoritative guide to the political movements and leaders that are part of this historic change. Published in conjunction with the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) and written by leading progressive analysts of the region, this book takes on the full spectrum of contemporary issues in Latin America, from political transformation to the role of women, indigenous people, and labor coalitions. Latin America After Neoliberalism attempts to make sense of the ongoing upheavals throughout the continent as it moves into the vanguard of an international rejection of neoliberalism for a new and viable progressive alternative.

`This excellent textbook provides students of Latin America with a rich and deep analysis of the processes and outcomes of globalization, past and present. Diversity and difference are explored using vivid and detailed country profiles. A strength of this textbook is its ability to explain complex issues in a way that is engaging and informative. It provides conceptual frameworks for students to engage in independent analysis of the complexities of global forces as they impact on, and interact with, the "local" in different contexts. It also, however, engages with the issues of crucial importance for the lived realities of Latin American people- poverty, development, the state and resistance under changing political, economic and ideological conditions. An essential buy for serious students of Latin America′ - Anne Boran, Chester College, University of Liverpool `This is an outstanding textbook which will appeal to a wide audience but especially those wishing to understand contemporary Latin America.... I have been studying Latin America for over 40 years and wish I could have written such a lucid and engaging book′ - Dr Crist[ac]obal Kay, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague Introduction to Latin America provides a completely new introduction to the political, social and economic forces shaping this essential region of undergraduate study today. It is the first textbook to place Latin America within a genuinely global context and introduce the debates and impact of globalization, neoliberalism, democratization, and the environment. It fully reviews the traditional literature in the postwar period (such as modernization or dependency theory) to demonstrate the way in which Latin America has often been misunderstood and introduces more recent theorizing to consider the longer-term prospects for equitable and sustainable development. Encorporating maps, case study boxes, summary exhibits, and guides to further reading, Introduction to Latin America will be an essential text for all students of Latin America across politics, international studies, geography, sociology and development studies.