Mexico – U.S. Relations: History and Prospects

May 23, 2013 - 4:00 pm

Room 9207 (The Graduate Center, CUNY)

Based on her recent book Las relaciones exteriores de Mexico 1821 – 2000 (2012), Ambassador Roberta Lajous will lecture on the peaks and troughs of bilateral relations between Mexico and the United States. She will highlight on the issues that have been sources of conflict and cooperationi, trying to establish a patterns and trends, in the relationship between the two countries. Her main thesis is the Mexico’s foreign policy has alternated in cycles of closer contact to the U.S. while seeking to modernize its economy, and those of greater distance when trying to assert its identity.

Roberta Lajous has been Ambassador to Bolivia (2007-2009), Cuba (2002-2005) and Austria (1995-1999). Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in New York for Security Council affairs (2000-2002). Permanent Representative to the UN in Vienna (1995-1999). She joined the Mexican Foreign Service in 1979 and is scheduled to be posted as Ambassador in a European capital next fall.

Kenneth Erickson is a Professor of Political Science at Hunter College and the Graduate Center. His areas of specialization include comparative politics, Latin American politics, democratization, drugs and public policy, and environmental and energy policy.