STUDY GUIDE:
FINAL EXAM
Political Science 146A
Spring 2013
TIME AND PLACE
• Thursday, June 13
• 7:00-9:50 p.m.
• Pepper Canyon Hall 106
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Closed-book exam
No cell phones, I-pods, or anything else
Bring blue books and pens/pencils
Write legibly!
I. DISCUSSION ITEMS (10/~13 = 30 points)
Daniel Ortega
Washington Consensus
FMLN
Nicolás Maduro
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
SHORT ESSAYS (2/4 @ 20 points each = 40 points total)
1. Is NAFTA working? In what sense? Are there ways in which it
seems to be failing?
2. Evaluate the U.S. war on drugs. What are its impacts on
countries of Latin America?
3. Compare the political, economic, and cultural resources of three
Latino communities in the United States: Cubans (or CubanAmericans) in Florida, Puerto Ricans in New York, and
Mexican-Americans in California.
4. 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?
LONG ESSAY (1/2 or 3 = 30 points)
1. Has U.S. influence over Latin America been rising or
declining since the early twentieth century? Why and in
what ways?
2. What has promoted U.S. military action in Latin America
since the end of World War II? What have been the results?
3. 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.
4. Evaluate U.S. efforts to promote democracy in Latin
America. On balance, have they succeeded or failed? Why?
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?
Course Design
Conceptual Approaches
•Power: “hard” and “soft”
•Asymmetry
•Rules of the game (“regimes”)
•Grand strategy
Historical Trends
•The Imperial Era
•The Cold War
•Post-Cold War Era: Geoeconomics
and the 1990s
•9/11and New Geopolitics
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 Latin America
Toward a New U.S. Policy?
Principal Sources
• Lectures (including guest lectures!)
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Adela Navarro
Jeffrey Davidow
David Shirk
Tom Wong and Kathy Kopinak
Charles Shapiro
• Readings:
– Smith, Talons of the Eagle
– Domínguez and Fernández de Castro, Contemporary U.S.-Latin
American Relations, chs. 1-5, 9 <+ skim 11>
• Videos:
– Missing
– Reportero
– The Latin American and Caribbean Presence in the U.S.
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.
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.