Latin America and the End of the Cold War

Abstract

Whatever ultimately happens in China, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe, the end of the Cold War has already affected the rest of the world in extraordinary ways. Eastern Europe has obviously felt the impact of the radical transformation of international relations more than most regions, but the long-term consequences for other areas of the globe are not necessarily less meaningful. This is particularly true of the so-called Third World. If anyone has borne the brunt of the Cold War's destructive nature, it has been the poor and backward nations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, which for nearly half a century have served as the battlefield where cold or tepid superpower confrontation has systematically heated up. The list of East-West conflicts in the southern hemisphere since the end of World War II is endless. It extends from the decolonization wars of the 1950s and 1960s to the ideological struggles of the early 1980s. It ranges from the rice fields of Southeast Asia to the hills and jungles of Central America, from the freezing passes of Afghanistan to the sweltering tropics of Southwest Africa. Thus if for Americans, Soviets, or even Europeans the dramatic curtailment of superpower tensions entails the virtual elimination of the risk of nuclear war, for the inhabitants of the poorer regions of the globe it implies the same relief from the threat of extinction plus a bonus: the hope that one of the main factors that has exacerbated conflict on their soil for almost a half century will also disappear. For Latin America, the effect of the Cold War's conclusion is mixed; there is an obvious plus side as well as negative implications. The most evidently favorable effect concerns U.S. policy toward the region. Notwithstanding the recent U.S. invasion of Panama, there is every reason to believe that the current international situation will decisively influence the way