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| Authors: | Charlene Barshefsky, Senior International Partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP James T. Hill, President, The JT Hill Group, Inc. |
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May 20, 2008
Miami Herald
The Colombia and Panama free-trade agreements are stalled in Congress. The Merida Initiative—President Bush’s proposal to aid Mexico in the fight against drugs—languishes on Capitol Hill. Last week, the president dismissed calls for a revised policy toward Cuba, despite the leadership change there. A wave of populist backlash has produced anti-American leaders such as Hugo Chávez and Evo Morales, challenging the political landscape of the region.
At the same time, Latin America is strategically, culturally, economically and politically more important to the United States than ever before. The region provides 30 percent of U.S. oil—more than the Middle East—and is a leading source of alternative fuels. Some 18 million Latin American migrants—both documented and not—now live in the United States. Latin America is one of the United States’ fastest growing regional trading partners. It is also its largest source of illegal drugs.
With the hemisphere far more integrated than most appreciate, U.S.-Latin American relations demand special attention. As co-chairs of a comprehensive effort convened by the Council on Foreign Relations to address the U.S.-Latin American relationship, we assessed U.S. policy toward its Southern neighbors and suggesting a new direction for policy to reinvigorate, bolster and support the full range of interests in the region.
The longstanding focus of U.S. policy toward Latin America —trade, democracy and drugs—no longer maximizes the interests of either partner.
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.
In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.
Complete list of CFR Books.
This report argues that the United States must lead with domestic action on climate change and proposes a U.S. negotiating strategy for a global UN climate agreement that includes commitments from all major economies, while also promoting a less formal Partnership for Climate Cooperation that would focus the world's largest emitters on implementing aggressive emissions reductions.
This Task Force report examines changes in Latin America and in U.S. influence there, while taking account of the region's enduring importance to the United States. The Task Force offers an agenda for U.S. policy toward Latin America and identifies four critical areas that should provide the basis of a new U.S. approach.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR.
Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
