MIKTA: Expanding the Scope of Mexican Foreign Policy (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.
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.
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.
Th is article analyses the international relations of Mexican sub-state governments. It aims to answer four questions: 1) What explains the recent and dramatic increase in their international activities?; 2) Do these federal units have an independent foreign policy?; 3) What are their levels or degrees of sub-state diplomacy?; and 4) Which variables explain the variation in their degree of sub-state diplomacy? Th e fi rst section argues that the growth in international activities is generated by the combination of two sets of variables: a) the growing interdependence and globalization of the international system; and b) the democratization, decentralization and structural reform processes in the domestic arena. Th e second section sustains that Mexican sub-national units do not have a foreign policy of their own. Th e third section shows that there is a wide variation in the states' degree of international participation. In order to characterize this variation, a typology is constructed and the 32 Mexican federal units are classifi ed in two moments in time (2004 and 2009) and a comparative analysis between these two periods is presented. Th e fourth section argues that the degree of sub-state diplomacy depends on three variables: economic (gross state product); political (juxtaposed government); and geographic (border location). Each of these variables is tested to determine its impact, providing evidence to sustain the relevance of the economic variable, arguing that juxtaposed government functions as a trigger variable for initiating or increasing external activities, and that the border is a necessary, but not suffi cient, variable to explain the degree of international projection.
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.
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...
This dissertation asserts that bilateral cooperation can be possible when specific perceptions and identities -socially constructed- converge between two states, creating subsequently rational incentives to cooperate strategically. Both states can derive domestic and international benefits from mutual cooperation materialized through a specific bilateral policy. However, the evaluation of such cooperative program requires, as another stage of analysis, different analytical tools based on materialist and constructivist criteria opening then the possibility to find successes and failures simultaneously in the same bilateral policy. Taking the Merida Initiative as a case study of security cooperation, this research engages in the analysis of the Mexico-U.S. relationship from 2006 to 2012, finding some theoretical and political lessons about bilateral cooperation and regional security affairs.
Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies, 2016
This paper argues that MIKTA (Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey, and Australia) are middle, regional, and constructive powers that can serve as providers of global governance in the international system. In order to support this idea, the paper first reviews the literature on these concepts, arguing that they can be complementary. Then, it explains why the MIKTA countries can be defined as middle, regional and constructive powers. To do so, it describes what MIKTA is, as well the common characteristics, objectives, and strategies that the countries that compose this mechanism share. Finally, it argues that in order for MIKTA countries to serve as middle, regional, and constructive powers, they need to consolidate the support of all relevant State and non-State actors in their countries, allowing MIKTA to become a relevant mechanism to promote and generate public goods in the international system, specially global governance.
This paper analyses the autonomous streak that marked Mexico's foreign policy during the presidency of Adolfo López Mateos (1958–64). Throughout this period, Mexico showed reluctance to participate fully in the flagship Kennedy programme for Latin America, the Alliance for Progress. At the same time, the López Mateos government adopted a position of defence for Cuba's right to self-determination in spite of Washington's attempts to eradicate the Cuban Revolution from the Western Hemisphere. During López Mateos's term, Mexico tried for the first time in its history to elaborate a foreign policy with broader international outreach, an effort highlighted by the Mexican presidential trips to Latin America and Asia as well as other countries that belonged to the Non-Aligned Movement. While historiography has explored Mexico's attitude towards the Alliance for Progress and, more consistently, the country's Cuban policy, much less attention has been dedicated to López Mateos's engagement with the Non-Aligned Movement. Focusing on Mexico's failed participation at the First Conference of Heads of State of Non-Aligned Countries celebrated in Belgrade in 1961, this article aims to fill this research gap. Indeed, even if Mexico did not ultimately participate in the conference, Mexican diplomacy did show great interest in the gathering. For a country that had formally sided with the United States after the beginning of the cold war, Mexico's flirtation with the Non-Aligned Movement represented a detour from the diplomatic path it had adopted at the end of the Second World War. This work argues that Mexico's engagement with the Non-Aligned Movement presents a different dimension of the country's international strategy during the 1960s, reflecting Mexico's desire to loosen the bipolar constraints that limited its economic development and increase its leverage with Washington.