Abstract
The puzzle that this chapter seeks to address can be stated quite succinctly: if we accept that the United States possesses a preponderant (and, for some, unprecedented) degree of structural power in both the global and the regional political economies, and by extension in the arena of trade, why does it prove consistently to be unable to secure outcomes consistent with its interests and preferences? This puzzle reveals itself across the arenas of the contemporary global and regional engagement of the United States: the profound difficulty with which the United States is able to exercise the raw material and institutional power capabilities it possesses is evident in its negotiations in multilateral and international organizations, its military strategies and attempts to maintain political and social order, the war on drugs in the Americas, recent strategies to address the political inconveniences posed by Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, and an array of other instances associated with strategies relating to energy, China, the construction of global or regional coalitions around various issue areas, and so on. The question acquires considerable perti-
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bergsten, C. F. (2002) “A Renaissance for U.S. Trade Policy?” Foreign Affairs, 81 (6): 86–98.
Bhagwati, J. (2004) “Don’t Cry for Cancun,” Foreign Affairs, 83 (1).
Cerny, P. G. (1989) “Political Entropy and American Decline,” Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 18 (1): 47–63.
Cox, R. W. (2004) “Beyond Empire and Terror: Critical Reflections on the Political Economy of World Order,” New Political Economy, 9 (3): 307–324.
Feinberg, R. E. (2003) “The Political Economy of United States’ Free Trade Arrangements,” The World Economy, 26 (7): 1019–1040.
Goldstein, J. (1986) “The Political Economy of Trade: Institutions of Protection,” American Political Science Review, 80 (1): 161–184.
Gowa, J. (1988) “Public Goods and Political Institutions: Trade and Monetary Policy Processes in the United States,” International Organization, 42 (1): 15–32.
Heunemann, J. E. (2002) “On the Trade Policy-Making Process in the United States,” in Inter-American Development Bank (ed.) The Trade Policy-Making Process: Level One of the Two Level Game: Country Studies in the Western Hemisphere, INTAL-ITD-STA Occasional Paper 13, March.
Ikenberry, J. (1998/1999) “Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Persistence of American Postwar Order,” International Security 23 (3): 43–78.
Ikenberry, J., D. A. Lake, and M. Mastanduno (eds.) (1988) The State and American Foreign Policy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Jenkins, R., E. D. Peters, and M. M. Moreira (January 18–19, 2006) “The Economic Impact of China on Latin America—An Agenda for Research,” paper presented at the Seventh Annual Global Development Conference, pre-conference workshop on Asian and Other Drivers of Global Change, St Petersburg.
Katzenstein, P. J., ed. (1978) Between Power and Plenty: Foreign Economic Policies of Advanced Industrialized States. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Krasner, S. D. (1977) “US Commercial and Monetary Policy: Unravelling the Paradox of External Strength and Internal Weakness,” International Organization, 31 (4): 635–671.
Lieven, A. (2004) America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism. London: Harper Collins, 2004.
Luck, E. C. (1999) Mixed Messages: American Politics and International Organization, 1919–1999. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Munoz, H. (2001) “Good-Bye USA?” in Joseph S. lulchin and Ralph H. Espach (eds.) Latin America in the New International System. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
Office of the United States Trade Representative (2004) 2003 Annual Report and 2004 Trade Policy Agenda of the President of the United States on the Trade Agreements Program. Washington, DC: USTR.
Phillips, N. (2005) “US Power and the Politics of Economic Governance in the Americas,” Latin American Politics and Society, 44 (4): 1–25.
Phillips, N. (2007a) “Consequences of an Emerging China: Is Development Space Disappearing for Latin America and the Caribbean?” Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), working paper no. 14, January.
— (2007b) “The Limits of ‘Securitization’: Power, Politics and Process in US Foreign Economic Policy,” Government and Opposition, 42 (2): 181–212.
Strange, S. (1987) States and Markets. London: Pinter.
Tussie, D. (1998) “Multilateralism Revisited in a Globalizing World Economy,” Mershon International Studies Review, 42: 183–193.
U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Ways and Means (March 29, 2001) Free Trade Deals: Is the United States Losing Ground as Its Trade Partners Move Ahead?, Hearing before the Subcommittee on Trade of the House Committee on Ways and Means, 107th Congress, first session (transcript).
U.S. Senate, Committee on Finance (March 9, 2004) The Administration’s International Trade Agenda, Hearing before the Committee on Finance of the United States Senate, 108th Congress, second session, (transcript).
VanGrasstek, C. (2000) “US Plans for a New WTO Round: Negotiating More Agreements with Less Authority,” The World Economy, 23 (5): 673–700.
Zoellick, R. B. (September 24, 2001) “American Trade Leadership: What Is at Stake?” Speech to the Institute for International Economics, Washington, DC.
— (2002) “Trading in Freedom: The New Endeavour of the Americas,” Economic Perspectives: An Electronic Journal of the U.S. Department of State, 7 (3).
— (September 22, 2003a) “America Will Not Wait for the Won’t-Do Countries,” Financial Times.
— (July 10, 2003b) “Our Credo: Free Trade and Competition,” Wall Street Journal.
Zysman, J. (1983) Governments, Markets, and Growth: Financial Systems and the Politics of Industrial Change. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2008 Diego Sánchez-Ancochea and Kenneth C. Shadlen
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Phillips, N. (2008). The Politics of Trade and the Limits to U.S. Power in the Americas. In: Sánchez-Ancochea, D., Shadlen, K.C. (eds) The Political Economy of Hemispheric Integration. Studies of the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230612945_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230612945_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-37389-5
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-61294-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)