March 2003

Strategic Effects of the Conflict with Iraq: Latin America

The author analyzes four issues: the position that Latin American countries are taking on U.S. military action against Iraq; the role of the US in these countries after the war with Iraq; the nature of security partnerships with them after the war with Iraq; and the effect that war with Iraq will have on the war on terrorism in the region. He concludes Latin American countries maintain a strong bias against North American interventions. He also emphasizes that to concentrate all resources on Iraq and ignoring what is happening in Latin America, could lead to the expansion of general instability, which would destroy the economic and political achievements of the recent years. This would in turn mean a direct threat to the US national security.

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