Introduction

...In an effort to cast off dependence on the United States, contain its power, and pursue economic development outside the Washington Consensus, they are joining with partners else­where in the Global South...

...Its massive domestic market and booming output notwithstanding, China has in recent years postured itself as a fellow developing country, deepening and intensifying links with Latin America...

...With this an­nouncement, Krauthammer did not have Latin American oil contracts in mind, but rather the “anti-hegemonic alliance” in the Middle East be­ing constructed by an Iran supposedly fixated on acquiring nuclear weapons...

...This trilateral core, together with China, then served as a “coalition magnet” within the WTO, contributing to, among other things, the successful coordination of positions on agricul­tural subsidies at the 2003 WTO ministerial...

...though these developments do not signify the end of U.S...

...Brazil’s assertive foreign policy in some ways parallels China’s...

...The January 2005 deal between Chinese state company Sinopec and its Cuban counterpart to explore for oil in the Gulf of Mexico is but one of many examples of new a “multipolar” trend in the hemisphere, indeed in the world...

...dominance in the hemisphere or the world, there is no indication that the momentum will slow anytime soon...

...These innovations,” he says, “might eventually show us the way to historically unprecedented forms that are appropriate for revolutions of the 21st century...

...In its symbols and rhetoric, chavista international­ism recalls the Third World project analyzed herein by Vijay Prashad...

...Trade with China has grown at least fivefold since 2000, and although the bulk of it seems to reproduce classic North-South asymmetries—with Latin America export­ing raw materials receiving finished goods in return—many governments believe China offers As the essays in this Report bear out, Latin America’s approach to building a new multipolar world order is decidedly in the soft power arena, even in its most militant version—Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez’s oil diplomacy...

...To this end, Brazil spearheaded an alliance with India and South Africa to form the IBSA Dialogue Forum...

...NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS report: the multipolar moment...

...P icture it: two flags, one chinese, the other cuban, flying on an oil rig just a few dozen miles off the U.S...

...But they remain rule “conditioners,” not makers...

...Building coalitions in institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO), Brazil seeks to constrain the North through international commitments to unify opposition to the Washington Consensus among undeveloped countries...

...The far less provocative diplomacy of Brazil, compared to Venezuela’s, follows less in the spirit of Bandung and more in that of 1970s South-South cooperation efforts...

...Introduction: The Multipolar Moment...

...strategy...

...dominance, their momentum has been established...

...No less than Charles Krauthammer—author of the influential 1990 article “The Unipolar Moment,” in which the neoconservative colum­nist hailed the post-Soviet era as one in which the United States alone would reign supreme— has declared unipolarity finished...

...coast...

...Although these de­velopments certainly do not signify the end of U.S...

...Successfully building effective coalitions and mu­tually beneficial trade, linking with extrahemispheric partners and presenting a coordinated position in global forums—these policy options were largely unavailable to Latin America even just recently...

...Although Cuba, because of the embargo, has pur­sued international partnerships for more than a decade, more nations in the hemisphere are following the same Charter to the Non-Aligned Movement, and including the remarkable history of Cuban internationalism...

...Venezuela’s strategy centers on diversi­fying its oil partners among Southern state companies, which are generally happy to transfer their technology, unlike their private-sector counterparts...

...The strategy also concentrates on building international solidarity through cooperation agreements with partners in vari­ous regions...

...Despite differences between Latin Amer­ica’s history of colonialism and imperialism and those of Africa and Asia, the region played a critical role in supporting decolonization, from the signing of the UN both an attractive alternative to the Washington Consensus and an intriguing development model...

...According to Aijaz Ahmad in this issue’s Anniversary Interview, Krauthammer’s “unipolar moment” was, for the left, the beginning of a “phase of experimentation with various forms of struggle, combining some older forms with newer ones...

...Whatever these claims, the definition of international “polarity” at work here rests on the balance of military might—on hard power...