Window of Opportunity Will a Post-Cold War Democratic Administration in the United States Make a Difference in Latin America?
Somewhere in the confluence of ambition, inertia, perceived interests and ideology, the Clinton Administration will spend the next few years crafting-and maintaining-a relationship with Latin...
...domination...
...The new Administration comes to power in a reconstructed world order, with a political agenda somewhat at odds with that of the previous two administrations...
...As the political leader of the home country of a great deal of the world's transnational capital, Clinton is not likely to do anything to upset either the solidarity among the leading economic powers, or the country's position of dominance in the hemisphere...
...And above all, the structures of the U.S...
...hemispheric policy that may be in the offing...
...Any change in policy will be severely constrained by these continuing interests, by the bureaucratic legacy of past U.S...
...Somewhere in the confluence of ambition, inertia, perceived interests and ideology, the Clinton Administration will spend the next few years crafting-and maintaining-a relationship with Latin America and the Caribbean...
...U.S...
...Today, as Burbach and Henwood both argue, "free trade" is becoming the new tool of U.S...
...Some forces, says Henwood, are larger than personnel and political party...
...economic policy...
...Doug Henwood argues that the globalization of U.S.- based capital is doing just that in the case of U.S...
...By focusing on these areas of concern in this Report, we hope to develop some insight into the constrained transformation of U.S...
...Yet, the Administration must also stake out positions on other facets of hemispheric policy-development, drugs, immigration, and that thorn in the side of nine U.S...
...And as that relationship is crafted, new opportunities may emerge for progressive forces in the hemisphere...
...economy and social order often dictate policies of their own...
...Despite the replacement of the Reagan-Bush team with a Democratic administration, and despite the end of Cold-War politics, the United States continues to have powerful long-term interests in the region...
...policies, and by the dynamics set in motion by past events and the policies of previous U.S...
...The following pages examine some of Clinton's key appointments, the ways in which specific policies might mesh with overall objectives, the pressures on policymakers, and the consequences of all this for Latin America...
...administrations...
...But administrations don't make policy precisely as they please...
...And, as Cecilia Mufioz argues, an inherited dynamic exists that prevents the Administration from devising its own immigration policy without dealing with the expectations and contradictions created by former refugee and asylum policies, and by recently passed immigration restrictions and employer sanctions...
...dominance in the hemisphere, established and reestablished many times over in two centuries of declaration and practice, has given rise to a long series of interventions-both overt and covert-from Santo Domingo to Santiago de Chile...
...As Kate Doyle explains, whatever the Clinton people finally decide to do about the hemispheric drug trade, they will have to deal with the plethora of federal agencies with a stake in continuing the "drug war...
...The new Administration, for example, inherits government bureaucracies with agendas of their own...
...presidents: Cuba...
Vol. 26 • May 1993 • No. 5
