British and American Studies
Essay 2
11/22/2012
“Critically evaluate the priorities of US policies of regional integration during the last decades”
Word count: 932
Solitude at the top
Over the course of my relatively short lifetime (thus far), I have been a spectator to great changes in our society. The list include economic booms, riots, terror attacks, global financial recession a black president and much more. But most defining was/is the USA’s place in a unipolar world with them at the top. In this essay I will critically evaluate the priorities of US policies of regional integration in Latin America during the last decades, more specifically how has the policies been prioritized since the end of the cold war and why?
The point of departure for the United States of America’s policies of regional integration following their ascent to lone superpower was their need to capitalize on their power and use their influence in dealing with other nations. For the United States of America, the end of the cold war meant a new course for its foreign policy prioritizing. A transition from policies focused on national security to policies with an economic agenda was underway and this was reflected in the country’s increased prioritizing of foreign policy regarding regional integration. Most predominantly, the Latin American countries were the focus of these as made evident by the FTAA and NAFTA agreements.
The North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA) which included USA, Canada and Mexico was signed in 1993 by former president Bill Clinton. The ambitions and goals were very clear:
“will promote more growth, more equality, better preservation of the environment, and a greater possibility of world order”
* Bill Clinton on the prospects of NAFTA
Big words for a promising agreement, and tied in with the big expectations were predictions of NAFTA generating $7 to $9 billion dollars surplus which in turn would secure the creation of 170,000 jobs in...