ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the historical evolution of US-Latin American relations. It examines the Latin American views of the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, as well as perceived Latin American and US roles in the contemporary world. The ideological and cultural schism persisted during the Cold War throughout the late 1980s, when the Latin American countries as a whole began to adopt the global tenets of political democracy and economic neoliberalism, marking a move toward the United State's own ideological and political culture. At the regional level, left-wing movements has been translated into commitments to schemes for regional cooperation, such as the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) and the Economic Community of Latin American and Caribbean countries (CELAC), as a way of resisting US power and dominance in the region. Latin American views on global security are very much affected by the state's strong adherence to norms of sovereignty and non-intervention.
