This article examines the expansion of economic, political, and military activities by the People's Republic of China in Latin America and the Caribbean. It examines how the presence is transforming the region, including the reformulation of the agenda of its leaders, businessmen, and publics, changes to its physical infrastructure, new patterns of trans-Pacific organized crime, fuel to extend the life of populist regimes, and impacts on how member countries relate to each other. It also analyzes how the new presence of China impacts US interests in the region and globally, and how China both complements, and at times competes with, other external actors in the region, such as Russia, Iran, and India.
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Brazil advanced the proposal for the South American Defense Council shortly before the summit that created UNASUR. It was approved a few months later on the occasion of another summit. The Defense Council is unprecedented in the region and challenges member states to design foreign policy together. Considering the history of security and defense arrangements in the hemisphere, Brazilian leadership in security and defense matters is an interesting new move towards regionalism. Besides the Council, during the Lula da Silva administration there have also been some other attempts at governance-building in and outside the region under Brazilian leadership. Since the theme of leadership is recurrent, especially since the military rule in Brazil, is there old wine in new bottles? Why Brazil? Why now?-these are the main research questions of this work, which also analyzes institution design and functions. Both the distinction and the connection between defense and security are explored together with an examination of both leadership and regionalism in Brazilian foreign policy and its recent move towards institution-building to deal with security and defense matters multilaterally. The paper suggests that whether the Council will be more inclined to deal with issues inside or outside the region is a key factor for the prospects of its effectiveness and endurance.
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This paper analyzes the process of integration designed by the Presidents of the Republic of Cuba and Venezuela, based on the doctrinaire socialist ideology of the two leaders, through the Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement, aimed at promoting and fomenting the progress of their respective economies and obtaining reciprocal advantages, and of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), which agreement expands on and modifies the Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement. It constitutes an alliance whose purpose is to establish Latin American-Caribbean leadership through international cooperation in various sectors, and to change the correlation of international forces, establishing a multipolar world and creating a new international political order in which the interest of the people prevails. With this purpose in mind, the integration of Latin America and the Caribbean and their position as a swing vote in international decision-making, which will make them sovereign in their decisions and masters of their own fate, is being sought. In addition, substituting products from the region for products from outside countries, and the use of petroleum as a negotiating tool, is proposed.
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