Introduction: New Histories of Latin America at the League of Nations / Yannick Wehrli -- Part One. Sovereignty and Conflict Resolution -- Anti-Imperialism and the Failure of the League of Nations / Alan McPherson -- A Dangerous League of Nations : The Abyssinian War and Latin American Proposals for the Regionalization of Collective Security / Yannick Wehrli -- Mexico and its "Defense" of Ethiopia at the League of Nations / Fabián Herrera León -- Non-Intervention through Intervention : Mexican Diplomacy in the League of Nations during the Spanish Civil War / Abdiel Oñate -- Part Two. Labor -- Europe-Geneva-America : The First International Conference of American States Affiliated to the International Labour Organization / Norberto Osvaldo Ferreras -- "To Raise Awareness of Difficulties and to Assert their Opinion" : The International Labour Office and the Regionalization of International Cooperation in the 1930s / Véronique Plata-Stenger -- Beyond Social Legislation : Worker Unity in Latin America and its Links to the International Labour Organization, 1936-1939 / Patricio Herrera González -- Part Three. Intellectual and Scientific Cooperation -- "The Spirit of Harmony" and the Politics of (Latin American) History at the League of Nations / Corinne Pernet -- Latin America at the Crossroads : The Inter-American Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, the League of Nations, and the Pan-American Union / Juliette Dumont -- Between National and International Science and Education : Miguel Ozório de Almeida and the League of Nations's Intellectual Cooperation Project / Letícia Pumar -- Rudolf Kraus, South America, and the League of Nations's Permanent Commission on Biological Standardization / Juliana Manzoni -- Part Four. Economic and Social Activities -- Discovering Underdevelopment : Argentina and Double Taxation at the League of Nations / José Antonio Sánchez Román -- Latin America and International Nutrition : Integrative Channels in the Interwar Period / Maria Leticia Galluzzi Bizzo -- Separating the Political from the Technical : The 1938 League of Nations Mission to Latin America / Amelia Kiddle -- Conclusion: The Distinct Integration of Latin America / Alan McPherson

Japan’s decision to attack the United States in 1941 is widely regarded as irrational to the point of suicidal. How could Japan hope to survive a war with, much less defeat, an enemy possessing an invulnerable homeland and an industrial base 10 times that of Japan? The Pacific War was one that Japan was always going to lose, so how does one explain Tokyo’s decision? Did the Japanese recognize the odds against them? Did they have a concept of victory, or at least of avoiding defeat? Or did the Japanese prefer a lost war to an unacceptable peace? Dr. Jeffrey Record takes a fresh look at Japan’s decision for war, and concludes that it was dictated by Japanese pride and the threatened economic destruction of Japan by the United States. He believes that Japanese aggression in East Asia was the root cause of the Pacific War, but argues that the road to war in 1941 was built on American as well as Japanese miscalculations and that both sides suffered from cultural ignorance and racial arrogance. Record finds that the Americans underestimated the role of fear and honor in Japanese calculations and overestimated the effectiveness of economic sanctions as a deterrent to war, whereas the Japanese underestimated the cohesion and resolve of an aroused American society and overestimated their own martial prowess as a means of defeating U.S. material superiority. He believes that the failure of deterrence was mutual, and that the descent of the United States and Japan into war contains lessons of great and continuing relevance to American foreign policy and defense decision-makers.

The primary thrust of the monograph is to explain the linkage of contemporary criminal street gangs (that is, the gang phenomenon or third generation gangs) to insurgency in terms f the instability it wreaks upon government and the concomitant challenge to state sovereignty. Although there are differences between gangs and insurgents regarding motives and modes of operations, this linkage infers that gang phenomena are mutated forms of urban insurgency. In these terms, these "new" nonstate actors must eventually seize political power in order to guarantee the freedom of action and the commercial environment they want. The common denominator that clearly links the gang phenomenon to insurgency is that the third generation gangs' and insurgents' ultimate objective is to depose or control the governments of targeted countries. As a consequence, the "Duck Analogy" applies. Third generation gangs look like ducks, walk like ducks, and act like ducks - a peculiar breed, but ducks nevertheless! This monograph concludes with recommendations for the United States and other countries to focus security and assistance responses at the strategic level. The intent is to help leaders achieve strategic clarity and operate more effectively in the complex politically dominated, contemporary global security arena.

This volume examines drug policies and the role of cooperation in the Americas. Many current and former politicians have discussed the failures of the war on drugs and the need for alternative approaches. Uruguay as well as Colorado and Washington have legalized marijuana. The Organization of American states produced a report in 2013 which discussed alternative policy options to the drug war. This work examines the nature of cooperation and drug policies in the twenty-first century in the Americas, highlighting the major challenges and obstacles. The argument is that one country cannot solve drug trafficking as it is a transnational problem. Therefore, the producing, consuming, and transit countries must work together and cooperate.

In this edited volume, scholars from Latin America and the United States will analyze how US foreign policy making circles have applied the concepts to the creation of new US security initiatives in the Latin American region during the post September 11, 2001 era.

The Obama administration inherits a daunting set of domestic and international policy challenges. It would be tempting to put Latin America and the Caribbean on the back burner, for their nations pose no imminent security threat nor do they seem at first blush critical to the most pressing problems of U.S. foreign policy. The Obama Administration and the Americas, however, argues that the new administration should focus early and strategically on Latin America. Our neighbors to the south impact daily on the lives of U.S. citizens, on issues such as energy, narcotics, immigration, trade, and jobs. And these are the countries most likely to partner with Washington on the basis of shared values, culture, and interests. Recognized experts from Latin America, the United States, and Europe suggest in this timely volume that the United States should seize an early opportunity to engage Latin America, recognizing the region's diversity but also its shared concerns and aspirations. The consolidation of stable democracies and rule of law in Latin America has long been an expressed goal of both parties in Washington, but the backlash from Iraq, the global financial crisis, and other recent experiences may discourage the use of U.S. influence and assistance to nurture democratic governance. The authors emphasize case-by-case, sophisticated, and multilateral approaches to dealing with such hard cases as Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Haiti, Mexico, and Venezuela.