The Changing Aspect of Latin American Geopolitics Today

Abstract

The international position of Latin America has significantly evolved over the past decades. This is due in part to the tendency within the sub-continent to form supranational alliances, particularly from the 1980s, and to joint international organizations originating from outside it. Furthermore, the United States’ commitments to areas beyond the Americas, namely the Middle East and more recently its re-focus on the Pacific area, has contributed to a diminution of its long-standing hegemony in Latin America. The entry of China into the Latin America sphere during the 2000s and continuing thereafter has introduced an entirely new factor into the political economy of the sub-continent. Latin America, however, represents only one aspect of Chinese foreign relations. It is doubtful that China aspires to a hegemony comparable to that which was exercised by the United States. It means, nevertheless, that the United States has now become a possibly welcome counterbalance to expanding Chinese interests.