The Americas Archive

For decades, Latin America policy specialists have lamented how the Western Hemisphere is never a priority for U.S. presidents. For all the United States’ economic and cultural ties with the region, however, America’s neighbors to the south do not face the kinds of imminent threats that tend to get a president’s undivided attention — and fortunately so. But while Latin America may never, and arguably should never, figure on the list of the U.S. executive’s top concerns, several innovative pushes across the U.S. foreign policy apparatus would not only dramatically help advance U.S. relations and leadership in the region, they […]

When the world thinks of up-and-coming economies, the only non-Asian country that readily comes to mind is Brazil. That, however, may soon change. The stars are aligning, presaging what could prove to be a brilliant future for Mexico. Latin America’s second-largest economy has long suffered from a combination of problems, some of which produced gruesomely bad press along with a hard-to-erase negative image. The problems, to be sure, have been real. But the image has been anything but balanced. Pictures of brutal killings in the country’s drug wars and high-pitched debates in the U.S. about waves of impoverished Mexican immigrants […]

2012 was a year of critical leadership transitions. Familiar faces who stayed on or returned to the scene — as in the U.S., Russia and Japan — were joined by new leaders in China, South Korea, France and Mexico. Elsewhere, transitions are incomplete, with question marks hanging over countries such as Venezuela and Ethiopia. This World Politics Review special report examines the world’s new and returning leaders through articles published in the past year. U.S. Obama’s Caretaker PresidencyBy Nikolas GvosdevNovember 9, 2012 Obama Must Seize Opportunity for Bolder Foreign PolicyBy Judah GrunsteinNovember 9, 2012 Obama Should Go Broad, not Bold, […]