The United States, Regional Integration, and the Reshaping of the International Order

Abstract

This chapter begins with an overview of alterations in the international system, including relationships within the Western Hemisphere; outlines recent US policy toward Latin America, and deals with reflections on potentially emergent world scenarios. It provides an effort to explore hypothetical linkages between processes of regional integration in the Americas and in the rest of the world. There were special exceptions for certain “highly sensitive” products in agriculture, typically one of the sectors most resistant to economic integration; phaseouts on tariffs for corn and dry beans in Mexico and orange juice and sugar in the United States would extend to the year 2009. US promotion of regional economic integration in the Western Hemisphere was bound to exert significant influence on the post–Cold War international order. With colorful and able leadership, the Zapatista National Liberation Army captured national and international attention during the course of highly publicized negotiations with governmental authorities.