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Introduction: the interplay between domestic affairs and foreign relations -- Domestic origins of an international conflict -- The roots of the agrarian dispute -- El asalto a las tierras y la huelga de los sentados: how local agency shaped agrarian reform in the Mexicali Valley -- The economic, social, and cultural forces behind the federal expropriation of American-owned land in Baja California -- Domestic politics and the expropriation of American-owned land in the Yaqui Valley -- The Sonoran reparto: where domestic and international forces meet diplomatic resolution of an international conflict -- The end of u.s. intervention in Mexico: Roosevelt's administration accommodates its southern neighbor -- Diplomatic weapons of the weak: Cárdenas's administration outmaneuvers Washington -- The 1941 global settlement: the end of the agrarian dispute and the start of a new era in U.S.-Mexican relations -- Conclusion: moving away from Balkanized history -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

Details how President Lazaro Cardenas used diplomatic "weapons of the weak" to resolve a US-Mexican agrarian dispute, 1934-1941, & highlights the domestic forces that shaped Mexican foreign affairs & the manner in which weak states manipulate more powerful ones. Evasive tactics such as deception, noncompliance, & stalling allowed Mexico to gain leverage over the US in this dispute over land. A more balanced interpretation of US foreign affairs is gained though the use of multiarchival research. J. Moses