ABSTRACT
The economically interdependent Grand Area was conceived as a counterweight to the growing integrated commercial and economic area of German-dominated continental Europe, it was seen as a viable alternative of economic interdependence in its own right. The task of coordinating the international behavior of the republics in the Western Hemisphere became a key political issue for Washington once the war broke out in Europe and the pattern of international relations was fundamentally altered. At an Inter-American Conference in Panama, the United States had decided to set up an Inter-American Financial and Advisory Committee, whose very title stressed a traditional style of intervention based on financial aid to Latin American countries. But the key word was "advisory," in which technicians and experts were sent as "advisors," generally paid from federal funds. The Western Hemisphere, was more than a laboratory for experimenting with new forms of international political economy that would enhance the US role in the world.
