STUDY GUIDE: FINAL EXAM

1. STUDY GUIDE: FINAL EXAM Political Science 146A Winter 2012

2. TIME AND PLACE • Monday, March 19 • 7:00-9:50 p.m. • Location TBA • Closed-book exam • No cell phones, I-pods, or anything else • Bring blue books and pens/pencils • Write legibly!

3. DISCUSSION ITEMS (10/~13 = 30 points) • Daniel Ortega • Washington Consensus • FMLN • Eduardo Galeano • Cuban American National Foundation • Free Trade Area of the Americas • Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) • Operation Just Cause • MERCOSUR • ALBA • Operation Gatekeeper • Lord of the Skies • José Martí

4. SHORT ESSAYS (2/4 @ 20 points each = 40 points total) • Is NAFTA working? In what sense? Are there ways in which it seems to be failing? • Evaluate the U.S. war on drugs. What are its impacts on countries of Latin America? • Compare the political, economic, and cultural resources of three Latino communities in the United States: Cubans (or Cuban-Americans) in Florida, Puerto Ricans in New York, and Mexican-Americans in California. • What have been the principal determinants of U.S. policy toward Latin America since 9/11? How have they affected the quality of U.S.-Latin American relations?

5. LONG ESSAY (1/2 or 3 = 30 points) • Has U.S. influence over Latin America been rising or declining since the early twentieth century? Why and in what ways? • What has promoted U.S. military action in Latin America since the end of World War II? What have been the results? • Compare the Cold War with the post-9/11 era in terms of policy options and strategies available to Latin America. Be sure to identify similarities as well as differences. • Evaluate U.S. efforts to promote democracy in Latin America. On balance, have they succeeded or failed? Why?

6. Key Questions What is the current state of U.S. relations with Latin America? What (if anything) is unique or “new” about the present situation? How much have we seen before? Where is the relationship headed? What might the future hold?

7. Course Design • Conceptual Approaches • Historical Trends • The Imperial Era • The Cold War • Post-Cold War Era: The 1990s • 9/11and Inter-American Relations

8. The Post-Cold War Era • The New Economic Agenda • Drugs and Drug Trafficking • Illegal Immigration • 9/11 and U.S.-Latin American Relations • War on Terror and Latin America • Geoeconomic and Geopolitical Games • What Can Latin America Do? • Barack Obama and the Politics of Hope(?) • Toward a New U.S. Policy?

9. Principal Sources • Lectures (including guest lectures!) • Readings: • Smith, Talons of the Eagle • Domínguez and Fernández de Castro, Contemporary U.S.-Latin American Relations, chs. 1-9 <+ skim 11) • Course Reader • Videos: • Missing • Drug Wars in Mexico • The Latin American and Caribbean Presence in the U.S.

10. Core Propositions There is a logical structure or “dynamic” in U.S.-Latin American relations. A key to the relationship has been asymmetry of power. For the United States, policy toward Latin America is derivative from U.S. concerns about global issues and power relations; for Latin America, the stance toward the United States is a primary determinant of overall foreign policy. For the United States, the priority of Latin America has varied considerably; for Latin America, the United States has always been a top priority.

11. The United States and Latin America have both pursued “grand strategies.” These strategies have been forged on the basis of “bounded rationality.” Hence, the study of ideas, attitudes, and culture is essential to an understanding of inter-American relations. For this same reason, it is especially important for U.S. observers to comprehend the “logic” of Latin American reactions to the United States. An additional key is awareness of trends and developments at the global level. These affect both the content of U.S. policy and the feasibility of Latin American reactions.