This book examines U.S.-Latin American relations from an historical, contemporary, and theoretical perspective. Its overriding objectives are to: 1) analyze the issues, stakes, milestone events, trends, and mutual perceptions of the relationship, and 2) use them to illustrate the utility and limitations of some of the central theories, concepts, and analytic frameworks developed to explain international relations and foreign policymaking. The text provides students a set of analytic tools that will better equip them to understand the complexities of international politics in general, and hemispheric relations in particular. By drawing examples from the distant and more recent past -- and interweaving history with theory -- Williams illustrates the enduring principles of International Relations theory and provides students the conceptual tools required to help them organize facts, think systematically about issues, weigh competing explanations, and have confidence in their own conclusions regarding the past, present, and future of international politics in the region.

This book examines U.S.-Latin American relations from an historical, contemporary, and theoretical perspective. Its overriding objectives are to: 1) analyze the issues, stakes, milestone events, trends, and mutual perceptions of the relationship, and 2) use them to illustrate the utility and limitations of some of the central theories, concepts, and analytic frameworks developed to explain international relations and foreign policymaking. The text provides students a set of analytic tools that will better equip them to understand the complexities of international politics in general, and hemispheric relations in particular. By drawing examples from the distant and more recent past -- and interweaving history with theory -- Williams illustrates the enduring principles of International Relations theory and provides students the conceptual tools required to help them organize facts, think systematically about issues, weigh competing explanations, and have confidence in their own conclusions regarding the past, present, and future of international politics in the region.

The last two decades saw a host of governments abandon statist development models for more market-friendly ones. However, not all reform attempts fared equally well. Why do some governments succeed in implementing market reforms while others fail? Why might the same government succeed in one policy area but not another? Market Reforms in Mexico explores these central questions by examining Mexico's reform experience in privatization, deregulation, and environmental policy. More than simply a book on 'Mexican politics, ' this study speaks to the broader political dynamics behind the success or failure to implement reforms; first, by assessing new policy initiatives in multiple arenas across presidential administrations in Mexico, then by comparing Mexico's privatization experience to that of Argentina's. Through structured, focused comparison of select case studies, the author argues that the fate of dramatic reform initiatives turned on coalition politics (both inside and outside the state), and explains how institutional dynamics and the capacity to solve the problem of policy 'costs' strongly affected reformers' prospects of success