Latin America and the Illusion of Peace

Latin America and the Illusion of Peace
Author: David R. Mares
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 118
Release: 2018-01-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351224409

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.

Latin America and the Illusion of Peace

Latin America and the Illusion of Peace
Author: David R. Mares
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2017-06-30
Genre:
ISBN: 9781138452473

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

Practicing Peace

Practicing Peace
Author: Aarie Glas
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2022
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0197633226

"This chapter introduces the comparative regional study of conflictual peace in Southeast Asia and South America over five sections. First, it surveys trends in interstate peace and conflict in both Southeast Asia and South America in order to illustrate the puzzle at the heart of this book: the long, but conflictual peace of each region. The second section explores existing accounts of this reality, highlighting the role of state power, regional organizations, and norms and in culture in shaping regional relations"--

American Crossings

American Crossings
Author: Maiah Jaskoski
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2015-12-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1421418304

US Agencies at the Mexican Border were overwhelmed in 2014 as tens of thousands of unaccompanied children arrived from Central America. Unprepared to receive migrants of this particular kind, the US government deployed troops to carry out a new border mission: the feeding, care, and housing-of this wave of children. This event highlights the complex social, economic, and political issues that arise along international borders. In American Crossings, nine scholars consider the complicated modern history of borders in the Western Hemisphere, examining them as geopolitical boundaries, key locations for internal security, spaces for international-trade, and areas where national and community identities are defined.

The Peace of Illusions

The Peace of Illusions
Author: Christopher Layne
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780801474118

In a provocative book about American hegemony, Christopher Layne outlines his belief that U.S. foreign policy has been consistent in its aims for more than sixty years and that the current Bush administration clings to mid-twentieth-century tactics--to no good effect. What should the nation's grand strategy look like for the next several decades? The end of the cold war profoundly and permanently altered the international landscape, yet we have seen no parallel change in the aims and shape of U.S. foreign policy. The Peace of Illusions intervenes in the ongoing debate about American grand strategy and the costs and benefits of "American empire." Layne urges the desirability of a strategy he calls "offshore balancing": rather than wield power to dominate other states, the U.S. government should engage in diplomacy to balance large states against one another. The United States should intervene, Layne asserts, only when another state threatens, regionally or locally, to destroy the established balance. Drawing on extensive archival research, Layne traces the form and aims of U.S. foreign policy since 1940, examining alternatives foregone and identifying the strategic aims of different administrations. His offshore-balancing notion, if put into practice with the goal of extending the "American Century," would be a sea change in current strategy. Layne has much to say about present-day governmental decision making, which he examines from the perspectives of both international relations theory and American diplomatic history.

Wars of Latin America, 1982-2013

Wars of Latin America, 1982-2013
Author: René De La Pedraja
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2013-10-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 078647016X

This book, continuing the narrative begun by the author in two preceding volumes, provides a clear description of military combat occurring in Latin America for the years from 1982 into mid-2013. Although the text concentrates on combat operations, matters of politics, business and international relations appear as necessary to understand the wars. The author has uncovered many previously unknown sources to provide new information never published before. The book traces the many insurgencies in Latin America as well as conventional wars. Among the highlights are the chapters on the Falklands War and the U.S. invasions of Grenada and Panama. One useful aspect of the text is an explanation of why, of the many insurgencies appearing in Latin America, only those in Cuba and Nicaragua were successful in overthrowing governments. The book also helps explain why even unsuccessful insurgencies have survived for decades, as has happened in Colombia and Peru. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Routledge Handbook of Latin American Security

Routledge Handbook of Latin American Security
Author: David R. Mares
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2015-07-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317965094

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.

Toward Responsibility in the New World Disorder

Toward Responsibility in the New World Disorder
Author: John T. Fishel
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2013-10-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1135258023

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.

Strategic Culture(s) in Latin America

Strategic Culture(s) in Latin America
Author: Félix E. Martín
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2023-11-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1003801862

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.

Militarist Peace in South America

Militarist Peace in South America
Author: F. Martín
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2006-08-06
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1403983585

Martin derives several realist and liberal propositions on the causes of war and peace and tests them, utilizing evidence from the peace in South America, as well as developing and discussing the "Militarist Peace" hypothesis.