US Hegemony and the Americas
Power and Economic Statecraft in International Relations

In this book, Arturo Santa-Cruz advances an understanding of power as a social relationship and applies it consistently to the economic realm in United States relations with other countries of the Western Hemisphere. Following the academic and popular debate on the ebb and flow of US hegemony, this work centers the analysis in a critical case for the exercise of US power through its economic statecraft: the Americas?its historical zone of influence. The rationale for the regional focus is methodological: if it can be shown that Washington's sway has decreased in the area since the early 1970s, when the discussion about this matter started, it can be safely assumed that the same has occurred in other latitudes. The analysis focuses on three regions: North America, Central America and South America. Since each region contains countries that have at times maintained very different relationships with the United States, the findings contribute to a better understanding of the practice of US power in the sub-region in question, adding greater variability to the overall results.

US Hegemony and the Americas: Power and Economic Statecraft in International Relations is an invaluable resource for students and scholars interested in Latin American History and Politics, North American Regional Integration, International Relations, Economic Statecraft, Political Economy and Comparative Politics.

Introduction 1. Five Decades and Still Going: The Debate on the Decline of US Hegemony 2. Hierarchy and Authority in Regional Orders: The Western Hemisphere 3.On Power 4.Thick Economic Statecraft and the Political Economy of US Power 5.United States' Economic Statecraft toward Canada 6. United States' Economic Statecraft toward Mexico 7.United States' Economic Statecraft toward Central America 8. United States' Economic Statecraft toward South America Conclusions

Arturo Santa-Cruz (Ph D, Cornell University) is Professor at the Pacific Rim Department and Director of the North American Studies Center, at the University of Guadalajara, México. He is the author of Mexico-United States Relations: The Semantics of Sovereignty (2012) and International Election Monitoring, Sovereignty, and the Western Hemisphere Idea: The Emergence of an International Norm (2005); he is co-author of América del Norte, Volume 1 in the series "Historia de las relaciones internacionales de México, 1821–2010" (2011). He is editor or co-editor of, among other works, Introducción a las Relaciones Internacionales: América Latina y la Política Global (2013), The State and Security in Mexico: Transformation and Crisis in Regional Perspective (2012), La Política Sin Fronteras, O la Ubicuidad de lo Distintivo (2012), and El Constructivismo y las Relaciones Internacionales (2009). He has contributed many book chapters, and has published in specialized journals such as International Organization, Journal of Latin American Studies, Estudios Internacionales and Foro Internacional.