This book examines security in Latin America through an environmental lens, at a time when this region faces a broad and growing spectrum of threats. The book considers the backdrop against which security debates about Latin America have been conducted; the extent to which scholarship has been dominated by traditional US strategic concerns; and how, in the changing context at the end of the Cold War, some policymakers within Latin America itself at both national and regional levels began to reposition security. It argues that traditional security scholarship focusing on military defence and strategic affairs in this region is hard to explain and out of date, and offers reasons why a new focus on environmental threats within a broader human security perspective has much to offer this field. Such a focus is justified by the scale of the challenges that environmental degradation is posing in Latin America, and the very real impact of climate change there. The book considers how the various theoretical possibilities of the term 'environmental security' all have some potential application to this region, where the natural environment is rapidly being securitized by military forces on behalf of their states. Finally, it proposes that a fruitful approach to Latin America might be one where human and environmental security have parity. This book will be of interest to students of environmental security, Latin American security, human geography and IR in general.

Politics Latin America examines the role of Latin America in the world and its importance to the study of politics with particular emphasis on the institutions and processes that exist to guarantee democracy and the forces that threaten to compromise it. Now in its third edition and fully revised to reflect recent developments in the region, Politics Latin America provides students and teachers with an accessible overview of the region's unique political and economic landscape, covering every aspect of governance in its 21 countries. The book examines the international relations of Latin American states as they seek to carve out a role in an increasingly globalised world and will be an ideal introduction for undergraduate courses in Latin American politics, comparative politics, and other disciplines. This new edition will include: updated references to scholarship and debates; new themes such as environmental rights, women presidents, the Latin American Pope, Afro-Latinos, and the politics of sexual diversity; examination of demographic change and social movements; a new chapter on environmental economics and sustainable development. This book is essential reading for undergraduates taking courses in Latin American Politics.

The Reinvention of Mexico explores the ideological conflict between neoliberalism and nationalism that has been at the core of economic and political developments in Latin America since the mid-1980s. It focuses on Mexico, which offers a unique opportunity to study one of the ruptures in 20th-century political thought that has come to define an era of unprecedented globalization. The book examines how neoliberals dismantling the statist economy in Mexico under President Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-94) confronted the dominant, official ideology upon which the country's development had hitherto been based: revolutionary nationalism. It also considers how intellectuals and the main political forces to the left and right of the PRI grappled with the issues generated by the climate of market reform, in a period when there appeared to be few ideological alternatives to it, and the broader effort to reconcile economic liberalism with revolutionary nationalism that Salinas was attempting. Showing that the case of Mexico during the 1990s had important implications for the study of nationalism, the book offers timely insights into national responses to globalization and the form taken by debates about the most appropriate vision of political economy in Latin America. The highly contested result of Mexico's 2006 election demonstrated the extent to which the fateful ideological conflict between neoliberalism and nationalism remains unresolved.

Human development and the momentous forces of globalization confront the natural world in Latin America and the Caribbean with unprecedented challenges that are shaping a new kind of politics. This first volume of Environmental Politics in Latin America and the Caribbean introduces readers from a broad range of disciplines to the principal environmental problems facing one of the most ecologically diverse parts of the world - from deforestation, land degradation, biodiversity loss and water shortages to climate change. It provides an essential introduction to the historical, political and economic context in which the natural environment in this region is being transformed, providing the backdrop for Volume II which examines the green movement and policymaking. This introductory volume sketches the environmental history of Latin America and the Caribbean to show how society has been shaping the landscape since pre-Columbian times. It surveys ideas that have determined attitudes to the environment since Conquest and the political legacies influencing the emergence of green activism. It examines the impact of changing patterns of economic growth and how states are embracing sustainable development to confront climate change. Together, both volumes of Environmental Politics in Latin America and the Caribbean provide the framework for a modular course on this essential topic, with each chapter structured to be the basis of a single teaching unit. Using tables, boxes and maps to support the student, the two volumes offer an accessible way of understanding the background and context of environmental politics in the region as well as theoretical debates and key developments.

Politics Latin America examines the role of Latin America in the world and its importance to the study of politics with particular emphasis on the institutions and processes that exist to guarantee democracy and the forces that threaten to compromise it. Now in its third edition and fully revised to reflect recent developments in the region, Politics Latin America provides students and teachers with an accessible overview of the region's unique political and economic landscape, covering every aspect of governance in its 21 countries. The book examines the international relations of Latin American states as they seek to carve out a role in an increasingly globalised world and will be an ideal introduction for undergraduate courses in Latin American politics, comparative politics, and other disciplines. This new edition will include: updated references to scholarship and debates; new themes such as environmental rights, women presidents, the Latin American Pope, Afro-Latinos, and the politics of sexual diversity; examination of demographic change and social movements; a new chapter on environmental economics and sustainable development. This book is essential reading for undergraduates taking courses in Latin American Politics.

The Reinvention of Mexico explores the ideological conflict between neoliberalism and nationalism that has been at the core of economic and political developments in Latin America since the mid-1980s. It focuses on Mexico, which offers a unique opportunity to study one of the ruptures in 20th-century political thought that has come to define an era of unprecedented globalization. The book examines how neoliberals dismantling the statist economy in Mexico under President Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-94) confronted the dominant, official ideology upon which the country's development had hitherto been based: revolutionary nationalism. It also considers how intellectuals and the main political forces to the left and right of the PRI grappled with the issues generated by the climate of market reform, in a period when there appeared to be few ideological alternatives to it, and the broader effort to reconcile economic liberalism with revolutionary nationalism that Salinas was attempting. Showing that the case of Mexico during the 1990s had important implications for the study of nationalism, the book offers timely insights into national responses to globalization and the form taken by debates about the most appropriate vision of political economy in Latin America. The highly contested result of Mexico's 2006 election demonstrated the extent to which the fateful ideological conflict between neoliberalism and nationalism remains unresolved.

Green issues are rising rapidly up the agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean as governments struggle to reconcile the demands of globalization with the quest for equitable and sustainable growth. This second volume of Environmental Politics in Latin America and the Caribbean reveals how the region is becoming a laboratory of change - and a source of inspiration in global affairs - as states, multilateral agencies and the private sector seek sustainable solutions to its pressing problems. This volume explains the roles institutions, policies and political actors play in green policymaking and builds on the introduction to the historical, political and economic context in which they have evolved provided in Volume I. It examines how democratization in the 1980s gave new space to environmental and indigenous activists, and surveys the ideas inspiring them to forge a new kind of politics. As institutional change has become a defining feature of political development throughout this region, new environmental ministries and agencies have established new standards of regulation and enforcement. Policymakers are advancing innovative ways to tackle complex environmental problems and constitutions, laws and treaties are enshrining new green rights that increasingly assertive courts are upholding. Together, both volumes of Environmental Politics in Latin America and the Caribbean provide the framework for a modular course on this essential topic, with each chapter structured to be the basis of a single teaching unit. Using tables, boxes and maps to support the student, the two volumes offer an accessible way of understanding the background and context of environmental politics in the region as well as theoretical debates and key developments.