Great Power Compet in Lat Am

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Juris Doctor, Undergraduate

In 2018 then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis that the US sees “Latin America as our neighbor. Some people say we don’t pay much attention to it. That is certainly not the case in the military.” Six months prior, then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had remarked at an event that “Latin America does not need new imperial powers that seek only to benefit their own people,” a reference to the growing influence of Russia and China in the region. These comments highlight how the growing influence of extra-hemispheric actors, particularly China and Russia, have renewed US interest in Latin America and inspired a wide range of calls for renewed engagement with the countries in the region. Whereas counternarcotics was the main focus of US national security policy towards the western hemisphere in the previous two decades, the changing environment has shifted this focus towards competition for influence. This course will examine the influence of extra-hemispheric actors in the western hemisphere, with a focus on great power competition. The course begins by exploring the security and defense environment in the region before moving on to an examination of a number of extra-hemispheric actors vying for power and influence in Latin America. A final section analyzes the influence of these actors across two sectors.