ABSTRACT
The foreign policy analysis of the Latin American and Caribbean states encounters the problem of dealing with the thirty-three entities composing the regional sector. The regional states share certain basic elements, so that we may make some generalizations that help us understand their foreign policy behavior. Three broad areas namely the external environment within which foreign policies are formulated and executed and that impinge on policy formulation, intrasocietal and political system elements that also shape the options for decision makers and specific policy orientations adopted toward the outside world are considered from the perspectives of the regional states themselves that shed light on foreign policy. The purpose of the chapter, however, is to analyze foreign policy from the point of view of the Latin American and Caribbean states themselves, in terms of how they pursue their own interests and attempt to satisfy their own needs.
