The Tragedy of American Diplomacy Revisited

Several very clear and consistent scholarly messages come through from this selection of recent publications on the external relations of the countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. The first is that scholarly, cultural and political interest in U.S.-Latin American relations remains a thriving industry. A second is that, increasingly, scholars are appropriately seeking to move beyond the bilateral U.S.-Latin American relationship to explore more fully the role of European countries in this hemisphere, setting the U.S.-Latin American relationship into the larger context of international affairs. These scholars are also making the effective use of European archival sources that many in the field have long advocated. There are several excellent examples of that orientation among the volumes discussed in this review. A third message is that scholars are also making more effort to use Latin American archival sources, although the obstacles are frequently substantial, especially because of limited access to those sources. A fourth feature is that U.S.-based and largely North American-born and educated scholars continue to dominate the field, and there appears to be relatively little consideration given to, or evidence of familiarity with, scholarship published in Latin America and the Caribbean itself, although a number of the essays in both the Bouvier and Leonard volumes represent important exceptions to that tendency. A fifth observation is that there has only been marginal innovation in the conceptualization and methodology in the writing on inter-American relations. But, there are exceptions to this observation among the volumes under review—these make an important contribution not only to the study of inter-American relations but

Conceptualization · Context (archaeology) · Diplomacy · Latin American studies · Latin Americans · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Thriving · Tragedy (event) · History · International Relations in Latin America · Law

• Disciplinary Conquest

  Open Access•Sarah Amsler•Bulletin of Latin American Research•2018

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• Interamerican Relations in the Early Twenty-first Century

  Open Access•Ana Margheritis•Latin American Politics and Society•2010

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