LEFT-LEANING DIPLOMACY HELPS TO MAINTAIN MEXICO'S POLITICAL STABILITY. IT STRENGTHENS THE GOVERNMENT'S HAND IN DEALING WITH THE COUNTRY'S LEFT-WING OPPOSITION, WHOSE DEMANDS ARE OCCASIONALLY PRE-EMPTED BY GOVERNMENT ACTION. IN DISPLAYING INDEPENDENCE FROM THE US, MEXICAN FOREIGN POLICY HAS TENDED TO OBSCURE THE GROWING INTERDEPENDENCE OF MEXICAN-US ECONOMIES.
The international political situation in the second half of the first decade of the 21st century offered greater opportunities than in the past for middle powers to have an impact on multilateral policy. With this in mind, the paper reviews three multilateral experiences Mexico was involved in over the 2006-2013 period: the initiative to create the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), its role on the UN Security Council, and hosting the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP 16). Analysis of these cases casts light on the potential and limitations of Mexico's foreign policy. Moreover, it enables evaluation of the significance of its multilateral action on the consolidation of its role as a middle power. Adapted from the source document.
In: Canada watch: practical and authoritative analysis of key national issues ; a publication of the York University Centre for Public Law and Public Policy and the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies of York University
The UN Security Council has focused recently on conflicts occurring within, rather than between, national boundaries. Controversy exists over this change in intervention policy, because it calls into question fundamental principles of international law, eg, sovereign equality & nonintervention in internal affairs. Two recent examples of UN interventions are analyzed. Mediation in the El Salvador peace process in the early 1990s was successful because the UN accepted the role & was effective; in addition, peace-keeping activities interacted with peace-making activities. The UN's intervention to provide humanitarian aid to the Kurds in northern Iraq was disputed, because the conditions for intervention were mistrusted. Overall, however, there seems to be no opposition in principle to UN intervention in the internal affairs of state. It is only with wide support of the international community that the UN can achieve the legitimacy it needs to move into the twenty-first century. 2 Photographs. Adapted from the source document.