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For the first time since the Cold War, an extra-hemispheric power is challenging U.S. influence in the region and, implicitly or explicitly- depending on who you talk to-its geostrategic position.
The growing economic and diplomatic relationships between China and Latin America have received a lot of attention recently. And with good reason. Between 2009 and 2010 alone, exports from Latin America and the Caribbean to China jumped by almost $30 billion. In the past six years, the topic has been addressed in monographs, edited volumes and books-most significantly in the Inter-American Dialogue's 2006 report by Jorge Dominguez; in the book The Dragon in the Room by Roberto Porzecanski and Kevin Gallagher; and in the book edited by Adrian Hearn and José Luis León-Manríquez, China Engages Latin America (reviewed in the Fall 2011 issue of AQ). All have added considerably to the discussion. And all raised a question: what else was leftto say?
This issue of Americas Quarterly attempts to add a number of new perspectives and details. First, departing from the traditional approach of asking Latin Americans...