ABSTRACT
Any discussion of the transition experienced in Peru in 1980 from a twelve-year military regime to a civilian administration must be based on an understanding of the major characteristics of the former and of the goals and composition of the latter. In the area of multinational corporations, the institutional military regime expropriated a number of major properties, including oil fields and mines. The findings are different when Peruvian foreign policy under the institutional military regime is measured by other than domestic standards. Under the unitary system, as the word indicates, all formal authority is located at the national level, and all political subdivisions derive their power from the central government. Most observers of Peruvian political reality tacitly adopt the first standard, among other reasons because they tend to be more knowledgeable about past Peruvian foreign policy practices than about the conduct of foreign relations among those Latin American countries that possess a foreign policy.
