31705 - International Relations of Latin America

Learning outcomes

The objective of this course is to provide an overview of Latin American geopolitics, particularly focusing on the historical relationships between the United States and Latin America. By the end of the course, students will be able to: - Understand and interpret the Latin American international system and its interactions with both the hemispheric and global systems. - Grasp the history of relations between the United States and Latin America, including the systemic dynamics of international relations in the Americas.

Course contents

The course will study inter-American relations, spanning the entire period from the independence of Latin American states from Spain and Portugal to the present day. From the Monroe Doctrine, to the war between the United States and Mexico and the Spanish-American War over Cuba, it continues through the era of Big Stick and Dollar Diplomacy, Good Neighborhood, the consolidation of the inter-American system after World War II, and relations between the United States and Latin America during the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush Sr. administrations, and after the end of the Cold War. Particular attention will be paid to the dimension of intra-American relations, that is, the history of relations between Latin American nation-states.

Readings/Bibliography

Basic text

Peter H. Smith, Talons of the eagle: dynamics of U.S.-Latin American relations, - Oxford : Oxford university press, 2012 (e tutte le edizioni successive)

Preparatory text for those who have never taken courses in Latin American History:

L.Zanatta, Storia dell'America Latina contemporanea, Laterza, Roma-Bari (Nuova Edizione aggiornata), 2017

Students must also study one monographs chosen from the following (alternative texts may be agreed upon with the teacher):

Amitav Acharya, Melisa Deciancio, Diana Tussie (eds.), Latin America in Global International Relations (Routledge), Routledge, 2022.

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

Gardini, Gian Luca (ed.), External Powers in Latin America, Routledge, 2021.

Iber, Patrick, Neither peace nor freedom: the cultural Cold War in Latin America, Cambridge; London : Harvard University press, 2015

Harmer Tanya, Allende’s Chile and the Inter-American Cold War, The University of North Carolina Press, 2011.

Lajous Roberta, Historia mínima de las relaciones exteriores de México, 1821-2000, El Colegio de México, 2012.

Pettiná Vanni, Historia mínima de la Guerra Fría en América Latina, El Colegio de México, 2018.

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

Sawicka Monika, Brazil's International Activism: Roles of an Emerging Middle Power, Routledge, London 2023.

Smith Joseph, Brazil and the United States: Convergence and Divergence, Univ of Georgia Press 2010.

Williams, Mark E., U.S. and Latin American Relations, ., Cambridge University Press, 2022.

Zanatta, Loris, I sogni imperiali di Peron. Ascesa e crollo della politica estera peronista, Libreria Universitaria, Padova 2016.

Teaching methods

Traditional

Assessment methods

The final exam will consist of a standard oral exam. The assessment will take into account several aspects: acquisition of fundamental concepts; ability to critically reason on the study completed; ability to make connections between different lessons and with other subjects; and ability to organize the acquired knowledge in a discursive manner.

Teaching tools

Chalk and blackboard

Office hours

See the website of Loris Zanatta