ABSTRACT
Bolivian foreign policy has traditionally been considered as a function of domestic conditions: civilian versus military regimes, political stability, and economic development. Dependency, an alternative approach, has emphasized the external restraints upon Bolivian diplomacy and economy, particularly the dominant influence of the United States and the uncontrolled vagaries of the international tin market and multinational credit sources. The chapter analyses the geographic and political factors which have determined past and present patterns of international relations and which will continue to influence the future of Bolivian foreign policy in its attempt to make geopolitics about winning. Bolivian foreign policy has been aggressive, innovative, and initiatory despite the absence of economic, military, and political power and despite the key geopolitical factors of centrality, regionalism, landlocked status, and dependency, which have worked to determine it. Most Latin American countries have experienced economic and political dependency, so that dependency is not unique to Bolivia.
