Heine’s “Active Non-Alignment and Latin America” Reviewed in Foreign Affairs
Active Non-Alignment and Latin America: A Doctrine for the New Century, the latest book by Ambassador Jorge Heine, Research Professor at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was the subject of a Foreign Affairs article on Latin American foreign policy and the book’s proposed strategy of active non-alignment.
The article, titled “Latin America Looks East,” discusses Latin America’s increased dealings with China and outlines a future in which the region will be forced to choose a side in the increasingly escalating conflict between China and the United States. Latin American countries have been bolstering economic ties with China, something that has not sat well in Washington; however, this is a result of decreased U.S. economic and political interest in the region in recent years, which has driven the region to seek other foreign investment to fuel its economic recovery.
The article extensively details a strategy of active non-alignment, which Heine and his coauthors propose in their book, which involves a foreign policy that is “equidistant” between Washington and Beijing, neither subservient to nor hostile toward either. Adopting such a policy would allow Latin American countries to focus inward and avoid taking sides in the ongoing U.S.-China competition.
The full article can be read on Foreign Affairs’ website.
Ambassador Jorge Heine is a Research Professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. He has served as ambassador of Chile to China (2014-2017), to India (2003-2007) and to South Africa (1994-1999), and as a Cabinet Minister in the Chilean Government. Read more on him here.