United States-Latin American Relations in the Post-Cold War, Post-9-11 Years

Authors

  • Stephen J. Randall Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Calgary

Abstract

This paper reviews and assesses some of the key trends in recent United States-Latin American policy with particular focus on trade and investment liberalization and security issues pertaining to the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. The paper looks in particular at the extent to which the terrorist attacks on 9/11 contributed to a sharpening of American policy on internal subversion in the region, with particular attention to FARC (The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), the ELN (National Liberation Army) and the main paramilitary organization in Colombia. Such groups, the paper, notes, have constituted a twin threat, since they both threaten civil society within Colombia and have contributed to serious border problems with neighbouring countries. At the same time they have been closely tied to the narcotics industry and as such are perceived by American officials to contribute both the organized criminal activities in the United States as well as political and destabilization in the region.

Author Biography

Stephen J. Randall, Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Calgary

Stephen J. Randall, FRSC, is Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences and Professor of History, University of Calgary, Canada. He came to the University of Calgary in 1989 as holder of the Imperial Oil-Lincoln McKay chair in American Studies and has been Dean of Social Sciences since 1994. He is President of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs (Calgary branch), and was a founding member of the Canadian Council for the Americas (Alberta branch) as well as the Western Canada office of The Canadian Foundation for the Americas. He is an elected member of the Royal Society of Canada. A specialist in United States foreign policy and Latin American international relations and politics, he holds the Grand Cross, Order of Merit from the Presidency of Colombia. Dr. Randall has served with the United Nations in international election supervision (Nicaragua, 1990; Cambodia, 1993); with the Organization of American States ( El Salvador 1991; Venezuela 1993); with the Carter Presidential Center (Jamaica 1997). He is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of a number of books, including: United States Foreign Oil Policy (1984); Ambivalent Allies: Canada and the United States( 1994, 1996, 2002, with John H. Thompson); North America Without Borders(1992, with Herman Konrad); NAFTA in Transition (1995, with Herman Konrad). He is currently completing a new edition for McGill-Queen’s University Press of his study of United States foreign oil policy.

Downloads

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 4 (2004): Summer 2004

Section

Articles