Mexico’s Foreign Policy under Salinas: The Search for Friends in the First World (original) (raw)

Mexico's Foreign Policy under President Salinas: Searching for Friends Abroad

Mexico"s official foreign policy under Carlos Salinas (1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994) was defined as a search for economic modernization and diversification in its external relations. Traditional elements of Mexican foreign affairs were largely turned upside down, even if the Salinas diplomatic team maintained its traditional discourse in multilateral fora. The new Mexico became pragmatic, internationalist, pro-American and economistic. However, attempts to diversify economic relations and build economic bridges with Europe and Asia did not bear fruit. When the dust settled, Mexico had devoted most of its political capital on cultivating its relations with the United States, and largely distanced itself from Latin America. NAFTA, the crowning achievement of the sexenio, did not necessarily render Mexico more politically vulnerable, as common wisdom has it and, paradoxically, it may yet prove the key to enhanced diversification. But however one judges Salinas" term in office, it is clear that the political economy orientation his administration gave Mexico has become institutionalized. Therefore, making sense of current Mexican foreign policy requires an understanding of the Salinas era.

Mexico: A leader in search of like-minded peers

Over the last decade Mexico has chosen and has been forced to practice a sort of ''stand alone'' foreign policy, in part due to its marginalization in Latin America, in part due to the growing bilateralization of relations in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) context. The national narrative of acting as a bridge in economic terms for accessing the NAFTA market proved not very attractive to international partners. As a result, Mexico has become the classical ''leader without followers.'' Joining the MIKTA initiative, a grouping formed by Mexico, Indonesia, South Corea, Turkey and Australia, is a highly welcomed option for regaining international presence without the Brazilian shadow, so strong in the region, and for defining a specific intermediary role. Mexico clearly embraced a ''Southern'' identity only in very limited moments of its foreign policy history and always tried to maintain a middle way, as an agreeable voice and a helpful fixer for international conferences and meetings. The old/new formula that seems to feed Mexico's new international MIKTA presence is that of ''multiple memberships'' following a rationale of ''like-mindedness,'' a rationale that allows for promoting its presence in a great variety of institutions and regional integration schemes, but without compromising too much of its national economic development priorities. This article analyzes these half-way/soft doctrinal foundations of Mexican foreign policy with respect to Mexico's identification with and outreach to the MIKTA group, both in terms of collective action and of bilateral efforts to establish viable relations with its members.

MEXICO’S FOREIGN POLICY: MULTIPLE IDENTITIES IN A SHIFTING WORLD

"The Road Ahead: the 21st Century World Order in the Eyes of Policy Planners". In an ever-changing and interconnected global context, foreign affairs ministries have become neuralgic centers for every State. Globalization, technological change, and increasing economic interdependence have given way to shared challenges that make cooperation more necessary and urgent than ever. We are living in an era of profound and fast-paced changes in the international system, marked by uncertainty and shared risks. The world faces a redistribution of economic, political, and social power. Terrorism, climate change, human displacement, and nuclear weapons stand out as some of the most alarming phenomena that call on globally coordinated solutions. Mexico is no stranger to this collective task.

Mexican Policy and Its Implications for United States-Mexico Relations

Mexican Policy and Its Implications for United States -Mexico Relations, in Sucesión Presidencial, 1991

Hacia principios de los años 90 del siglo XX, en México emergieron dos tendencias políticas con posiciones distintas frente a la apertura de la economía mexicana al exterior y ante el ¨cambio estructural¨ que además implicana un repliegue sustancial del Estado como actor económico directo. Se trata de la coyuntura preliminar a la firma del Tratado de Libre Comercio entre Estados Unidos, Canadá y México. La disputa por la apertura política y transición democrática -encabezada en aquél momento por el Frente Democrático Nacional (FDN) transcurría paralela a fundamentales reformas económicas.

MIKTA: Expanding the Scope of Mexican Foreign Policy

The article examines the objectives of Mexico as a member of MIKTA, a group that also involves Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Turkey and Australia. Achievements in the first three years since the group was created are reviewed. The main challenges and opportunities for the consolidation of MIKTA and the potential that it bears for Mexican foreign policy are also pointed out.

Foreign Policy and Governance in Mexico A Conceptual and Operational Dilemma

2008

(CISAN). 1 I thank Bernadette Vega, my research assistant, for her valuable support in the final editing of this text, originally presented at the Advanced Seminar Lecture Series on U.S.-Mexico Relations, sponsored by the UNAM's Center for Research on North America (CISAN) and MSU's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, held in July 2008. 2 This concept has recently been coined to replace the term "globalization" in order to explain today's economic process, in which the aim is to improve macroeconomic indicators regardless of growing dependency and the widening gap between rich and poor. It is a neoliberal globalization emphasizing privatization, liberalization, free trade and widespread democratization, but using for these goals existing widespread technological innovations and generally disregarding the population's welfare.

Mexico: Economic Reform and Political Change

Latin American Research Review, 1996

Mexico's ongoing economic and political crises, set off in 1981-1982 by falling petroleum prices and rising international interest rates, have resulted in a flood of scholarly studies attempting to chart the direction and nature of change in that country. At the same time, the vagaries of 252

A Critique of Mexico—US Relations: Beyond the Contemporary Impasse

2012

Though the preceding two articles on intergovernmental relations provide instructive insights, they share a crucial limitation that reflects a widespread tendency: the assumption that Mexico can be treated comparatively — without strong qualifications — as a 'consolidated' liberal democratic state in the sense that is valid for the US and Canada. Tom Keating does not need to deal with this question because o f his focus on a comparison o f Canada and the US. The discussion of Mexican—Canadian relations, on the other hand, for rather different reasons does not adequately address the profound significance of the fact that as a form of society or social formation Mexico is qualitatively different, with profound implications for the nature o f its politics. Nevertheless, in focusing on security issues, Athanasios Hristoulas can justifiably focus on intergovernmental relations relatively independently of the question of deeper differences. The precariousness of the assumption tha...

Resistance from Within: Why Mexico's Attempt to Advance an Active Foreign Policy Failed

Review of Policy Research, 2005

After becoming the first opposition candidate to win since 1910, President Vicente Fox kindled expectations at both national and international levels. He claimed he would enhance significantly the scope of the Mexico's foreign policy and engage the country in international politics in a way more befitting of its newly acquired democratic status. Nevertheless, little consideration was given to the fact that for many decades foreign policy in Mexico had been deployed to create an area screened-off from domestic politics where conflicting factions were brought together and a policy consensus worked out. That consensus was sufficiently ample for the authoritarian elite, given its foreign policy goals and principles. It would, however, fail to suffice for any political leader willing to step outside the box of tradition. Fox did just that. In consequence, widespread reactions of disapproval from key political actors and the media led the president to settle for a more modest international agenda in 2002. This article explores the key processes that triggered so much internal resistance to Fox's foreign policy designs. I argue that these processes underpin what continues to be the essentially autarchic nature and scope of the Mexican foreign policy tradition. Such an autarchic approach is glorified in Mexican political rhetoric, yet has led to many lost opportunities for Mexico. Most importantly, I stress that the Mexican foreign policy tradition discourages and forecloses the kind of engagement in the international arena that seeks to share in rather than to free-ride the collective efforts of the international community to procure security and peace. So despite its new democratic status, Mexico remains more of a spectator than an actor on the international stage.