Keller in InSight Crime: Cold War Parallels
Renata Keller, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, said that there were parallels in the U. S. experience fighting the drug war in Mexico and the Cold War.
Keller made the argument in an exclusive interview published Jan. 29 on the news outlet InSight Crime entitled “Cold War Expert Sees Parallels in Mexico’s Drug War Struggles.”
From the text of the article:
I think a similar process happened with both the Cold War and the War on Drugs, where the United States pressured Latin American countries into pursuing certain policies. But it is also important to keep in mind that in both cases, some of our allies experimented or are experimenting with different policies. There’s a push and pull. The United States can’t always dictate what it wants, and other countries can negotiate their own positions even within those unequal power relations.
I see them all as following a similar paradigm. In all cases the focus [from Latin American nations] is on combatting internal enemies rather than confronting state-to-state problems. All of these so-called “wars” focus on individuals and groups, rather than states, being the problems. I see each new “war” as growing out of the previous one rather than there being a huge shift.
You can read the entire article here.
Keller’s research and teaching interests focus on Latin American history, particularly the connections between foreign and domestic politics, the dynamics of the Cold War, and U.S. relations with Latin America. She has special expertise in Mexican, Cuban, Chilean, and Argentine history. Learn more about her here.