Latin America And The Illusion Of Peace

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Glossary -- Introduction -- Inter-state conflict in Latin America -- Latin America's security architecture -- Significance of Latin American conflict -- Chapter One Sources of conflict -- Inter-state controversies -- The domestic drivers of foreign policy -- Conclusion -- Chapter Two The dynamics of militarisation -- Understanding militarisation -- Political-military strategies -- Strategic balance -- Characteristics of force -- Constituency's willingness to pay costs -- Leader's accountability -- Conclusion -- Chapter Three Latin American hot spots -- Colombia-Ecuador, with Venezuela contributing to tensions -- Nicaragua-Costa Rica -- Bolivia-Chile -- Dominican Republic-Haiti -- Argentina-United Kingdom -- Conclusion -- Chapter Four Preserving the illusion: managing conflict in Latin America -- United States: preoccupied elsewhere -- Brazil's paradox: global aspirations limit regional impact -- The multilaterals: going against the grain -- Conclusion -- Conclusion -- Appendix One Selected unresolved inter-state disputes in Latin America -- Appendix Two Memberships -- Appendix Three Latin America boundary settlements 2000-2011 -- Notes

This book explores interstate conflict and its dynamics in the context of Latin Americas contemporary conflict management experience. The myth of Latin America as a region of peace means that each time the use of force rises to the level of global attention (e.g., Ecuador-Peru 1995 or Colombia-Ecuador 2008) analysts and the press ask, "how could that happen here?" Yet the official uses of military force in interstate relations are significantly more prevalent than most analysts within and outside the region understand, and the region is facing new and potentially destabilizing challenges. It is the contention of this book that mitigating the threat raised by militarized interstate relations requires understanding the various ways in which military force can be employed short of war; this in turn requires illuminating the decision making process that produces militarization of a disagreement, considering options for dissuading the decision makers from choosing to militarize and limiting escalations when militarization does occur.

This new Handbook is a comprehensive collection of cutting-edge essays on all aspects of Latin American Security by a mix of established and emerging scholars. The Routledge Handbook of Latin American Security identifies the key contemporary topics of research and debate, taking into account that the study of Latin America’s comparative and international politics has undergone dramatic changes since the end of the Cold War, the return of democracy and the re-legitimization and re-armament of the military against the background of low-level uses of force short of war. Latin America’s security issues have become an important topic in international relations and Latin American studies. This Handbook sets a rigorous agenda for future research and is organised into five key parts: • The Evolution of Security in Latin America • Theoretical Approaches to Security in Latin America • Different 'Securities' • Contemporary Regional Security Challenges • Latin America and Contemporary International Security Challenges With a focus on contemporary challenges and the failures of regional institutions to eliminate the threat of the use of force among Latin Americans, this Handbook will be of great interest to students of Latin American politics, security studies, war and conflict studies and International Relations in general.

Strategic Culture(s) in Latin America elucidates why many state-actors in the Global South exhibit a remarkable degree of policy continuity in their external behavior despite structural incentives for change. This book contends that the theoretical notion of strategic culture is instructive to explain such a puzzle. It extends the application of strategic culture beyond the policy of nuclear deterrence among great powers into other equally strategic areas of policy, such as diplomacy, political economy, regional international institutions, legal norms, politico-military institutions, and different security agendas beyond war and peace, for example, the illicit drug-trade and peacekeeping missions. The overall contribution of this book is three-fold: first, it rescues, updates, and expands the original conceptual and theoretical dimensions of strategic culture. Second, it extrapolates further theoretical implications of the concept through its application to five policy domains in Latin America beyond the original application of the strategic culture perspective to nuclear weapons strategy among great powers in the 1970s. Third, it draws together the theoretical and policy implications of the strategic cultures in Latin America and identifies possible applications for other peripheral, non-great power policy areas and issues in the Global South. This book will be of interest to academics, graduate and undergraduate students, policy analysts, and practitioners of Latin American Studies, International Relations Theory and Security Studies.

This volume commends itself to the reader to provoke thought about what governments and international organizations ought to do when faced with the responsibilities of a given peace operation. Equally important, it suggests what we as citizens in the world community ought to demand of our governments and that community in the current world disorder. The intent is to help decision-makers, policy makers, opinion-makers and students understand the nature of the problem that is likely to provide the greatest challenge to international security management into the next century.

This volume explores the repercussions of a changing world order on regional security in Latin America. It examines how global and regional power shifts impact on the evolution of regional institutions as well as on state policies adopted in response to regional security challenges such as border conflicts, political instability, migration, drug-trafficking, organized crime, and terrorism. Contributions to this volume analyze the topic from three angles: power dynamics and its effects on regional security governance; the contribution of regional institutions to the management of security challenges; and the impact of power dynamics on states’ shifting security priorities. Written by specialists from Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, the United States and Europe, the chapters weave theory and case studies to provide a rich description of the impact of power and politics on regional security in Latin America. This book is an invaluable resource for students, scholars and practitioners interested in Latin American politics, regional cooperation, and war and conflict studies, as well as international security and international relations in general.

Patrick Iber tells the story of left-wing Latin American artists, writers, and scholars who worked as diplomats, advised rulers, opposed dictators, and even led nations during the Cold War. Ultimately, they could not break free from the era’s rigid binaries, and found little room to promote their social democratic ideals without compromising them.