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Begin New Search Topic Foreign Policy Author Gabriel Marcella

1. American Grand Strategy for Latin America in the Age of Resentment

Author:
Gabriel Marcella
Publication Date:
09-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College
Abstract:
The fear that extra-hemispheric powers would strategically deny Latin America as a friend of the United States has animated American statesmen since the 19th century. Such fear certainly pervaded the Cold war competition. Today the challenge to the security and well-being of Latin America is neither ideological, nor military, nor external. Strategic denial is more likely to come about from a highly combustible blend of poverty, crime, despair, corruption, resentment, and antidemocratic sentiments that promise a vague 21st century socialism under new authoritarian clothing. The sentiments are sinking deep roots in the socio-political landscape, and they are profoundly anti-American.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Cold War
Political Geography:
United States and Latin America

2. The United States and Colombia: The Journey from Ambiguity to Strategic Clarity

Author:
Gabriel Marcella
Publication Date:
03-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
President Bush's sweeping support for Colombia underlines a remarkable turnaround in U.S. policy. Driven for years by the ambiguity of a counternarcotics-only approach, the United States has now adopted a more comprehensive recognition of Colombia's deeply rooted and complex security problem. Indeed, Colombia is a revealing paradigm for twenty-first century conflict. It is a surprisingly weak state under assault by a powerful combination of ungoverned national territory, insurgent terrorism of the left and right, international crime organized around drug trafficking, a deeply rooted counterculture of violence and impunity, ecological damage, and institutional corruption. Unlike the Cold War military and ideological confrontation between two superpowers, a country's debilities, rather than its strengths, breed the viruses that threaten the international community and the United State.
Topic:
Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
United States and Colombia