Introduction

The central role of the United States in inter-American relations is so evident that, as Chilean sociologists Gustavo Lagos and Alberto Van Klaveren indicate in the initial sentence of their chapter, the entire field of inter-American relations is sometimes reduced to the study of interactions between the United States and Latin American nations. The dominance of the United States is most clearly evidenced in multilateral relations among the hemisphere’s nations. Since the mid-1970s, the most obvious and omnibus issue of humanitarian concern has been human rights. In the perspective of many US foreign policy decision makers, the human rights issue is inextricably linked to a second humanitarian concern—the promotion of democratic values. One of the most fascinating aspects of US-Latin American relations is the ease with which US officials can convert an economic issue raised by Latin Americans into a question of US national security. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.