31705 - International Relations of Latin America

Learning outcomes

Objective of the course is to provide a map of Latin American geopolitics, with particular attention to the history of relations between the United States and Latin America. At the end of the course the student will be able to understand and interpret the Latin American international system and its interaction with Hemispherical and global systems.

Course contents

The course will study the Interamerican relations embracing the entire range of time from the independence of Latin American states from Spain and Portugal and the present day. From the Monroe Doctrine, therefore, the war between the U.S. and Mexico and the Hispanic-American War for Cuba, to continue with the age of the Big Stick and Dollar Diplomacy, the Good Neighborhood, the consolidation of interamerican system after the Second World War, the relations between the U.S. and Latin America during the Truman administration, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr. and after the end of the Cold War. Particular attention will be placed on intra-American relations, namely the history of relations between nation-states of Latin America.

Readings/Bibliography

Peter H. Smith, Talons of the eagle: dynamics of U.S.-Latin American relations, - 2. ed. - New York - Oxford : Oxford university press, 2000

 

For students who have never attended Latin American History:

L.Zanatta, Storia dell'America Latina contemporanea, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2010

(in spanish:Historia de América Latina, de la Colonia al siglo XXI, Siglo XXI, Buenos Aires 2012)

 

Students will also study two books chosen from the following:

 

 

Brands Hal, Latin America's Cold War, Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2010.

Darnton, Christian, Rivalry and Alliance Politics in Cold War Latin America, Johns Hopkins U.P., 2014.

Domínguez Jorge and Fernández de Castro Rafael, [editors], Contemporary U.S.-Latin American relations : cooperation or conflict in the 21st century? New York : Routledge, 2010.

Fornes Gaston and Alan Butt Philip, The China-Latin America axis: emerging markets and the future of globalization, Palgrave 2012.

Gardini, Gian Luca, The Origins of Mercosur: Democracy and Regionalization in South America, Pallgrave – Macmillan 2010.

McPherson, Alan, Intimate ties, bitter struggles : the United States and Latin America since 1945, Washington : Potomac books, 2006.

Poggio Teixeira, Carlos Gustavo, Brazil, the United States, and the South American subsystem : regional politics and the absent empire, Lexington Books, 2012.

Rabe, Stephen G., The most dangerous area in the world: John F. Kennedy confronts communist revolution in Latin America, Chapel Hill , The University of North Carolina Press, 1999.

Zanatta, Loris, I sogni imperiali di Peron, Libreria Universitaria, Padova 2016.

Teaching methods

Assessment methods

oral interview

Office hours

See the website of Loris Zanatta