This article examines the foreign policy of Latin America and the Caribbean toward the People's Republic of China. It finds that, for those nations recognizing Taiwan, most Latin American nations have had relatively few political differences with the PRC. Exceptions include Brazil's bid for a seat on the UN Security Council and Mexico's receipt of the Dali Lama under the sexenio of Felipe Calderón. Within the region, the most important differences have emerged on issues of foreign economic policy. The article finds that Latin America's heterogeneous orientation toward China on economic issues may be understood in terms of four cross-cutting cleavages, which reflect economic, political, and geographic divisions in the region more broadly: (1) north versus south, (2) populist regimes versus market economies, (3) pure resource exporters versus industrialized exporters versus nonexporting capital recipients versus pure importers , and (4) Pacific versus Atlantic.
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The purpose of this paper is to characterize China's growing relationship in Latin America and the Caribbean from a US perspective, the US response to that relationship, and some of the opportunities and challenges that the changing relationship creates for all parties. It argues that some of the greatest challenges are likely to come not from China-Latin America military engagement, but rather, from the growing physical presence of Chinese companies on the ground in the region, and byproducts of expanding commercial interactions such as trans-pacific criminal activity.
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In this article, Dr. Philip Kelly discusses the geopolitics of security concerns between the United States and Latin America. Kelly defines the various schools of geopolitics and, subsequently, the characteristics of traditional geopolitics. By breaking down the Western Hemisphere into three separate Americas—North America, Middle America, and South America—Kelly assesses each region and its unique geopolitical characteristics. Finally, the article addresses a number of geopolitical concepts that represent the structure of current Western Hemispheric security. In conclusion, Kelly suggests that South America ultimately remains a low priority in North American strategic security concerns, and posits that a united and prosperous Latin America isolated from Eurasian connections directly benefits North American security.
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This paper provides a comparative analysis of China's emerging role in international relations and its ties to the United States and Latin America, and China's future impact on the Western Hemisphere. The author discusses the challenges and opportunities inherent to the current China-US relations, such as currency, military, intellectual property, cyber security, and human rights tensions, and the impact those factors will have on the relationship in the future. China's pursuit of closer ties with the countries of Latin America, long seen as within the US sphere of influence, represents a major challenge for the US-China relationship.
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