Latin America Challenged: Legacies of the Past and Implications for the Future

February 20, 2004 - 5:00 pm

The objective of Latin America Challenged is to identify positive policy responses to hemispheric problems derived from an analysis of past crises. For example, in spite of expectations raised in the region in the 1980s and 1990s problems of governance, economic instability, poverty, corruption and personal insecurity continue to afflict Latin America and hence the hemisphere as a whole. The series will examine, in a comparative fashion, how past developments affect current problems and what policy responses have been most effective. Topics include issues of good governance, a comparison of strategies to deal with economic crises from the 1990s to the present, the balancing of national and international pressures in undertaking socioeconomic change, effective national economic policy approaches from the Great Depression to the FTAA, programs to diminish corruption as well as political and criminal violence, together with means to fortify judicial systems.

Schedule:

Spring 2004

2/20/04 Corruption in High Places: How to Combat It
4:30-6:30 -Room 9207
Jo-Marie Burt, George Mason University
Susan Rose-Ackerman, Yale University

3/5/04 The Challenge of Personal Security
4:30-6:30 -Room 9206
Desmond Arias, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Lesley Gill, American University
John Gitlitz, State University of New York at Purchase
Mark Ungar, Brooklyn College, CUNY

3/26/04 Is Justice Delayed Justice Denied?
4:30-6:30 -Room 9207
Eduardo Gonzalez, International Center for Transitional Justice
Fall 2003

9/10/03 Legacies of Authoritarianism: The Case of Chile in Comparative Perspective
4:30-6:30 -Room 9205
Chile, September 1973: Two Days of Infamy
Peter Winn, Tufts University
Politicking Among Painful Memories: The Governing Chilean Left through Victory, Defeat, and Return
Katherine Hite, Vassar College
Operation Condor: The Still – Festering Legacy of U.S. Alliances during the First War on Terrorism
John Dinges, Columbia University

10/3/03 Economic Crises Then and Now: A Comparison of Responses to the Mexican Crisis of 1994 and the Argentine Crisis of 2001
4:30-6:30 -Room 9206
Joyce Chang, JP Morgan
Lacey Gallagher, Credit Suisse First Boston
Shari Spiegel, Director Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University

10/17/03 From Goulart to Lula: Balancing National and International Pressures in Undertaking Socioeconomic Change
4:30-6:30 -Room 9206
Albert Fishlow, Columbia University
Mauricio Font, Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies
James Green, California State University, Long Beach

11/25/03 Current Issues in Politics and Economics in Latin America
4:30-6:30 -Room 9206
Sue Cronin, Brazil and the Southern Cone, Office for the Western Hemisphere of the US Trade Representative
Graciana del Castillo, Managing Director, Macroeconomic Advisory Group
Mike Esterl, Special Writer for Emerging Markets, Dow Jones Newswire
*To be Confirmed