The Free Trade Area of the Americas : can regional economic integration lead to greater cooperation on security?
Authors
Sandoval, Thomas M.
Subjects
FTAA
Economics
Integration
Cooperation
Security
Spillover
Economics
Integration
Cooperation
Security
Spillover
Advisors
Trinkunas, Harold
Lavoy, Peter
Date of Issue
2002-12
Date
Publisher
Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School
Language
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to assess the U.S. policies favoring the passing and implementing the Free Trade Area of the Americas and its impact on cooperative security in the Western Hemisphere. Similar to the 1990s, when the U.S. government debated the pros and cons of the NAFTA, the United States now faces a debate over passage and implementation of the FTAA. With many U.S. and Latin American citizens' focus on economic domestic issues, FTAA talks have been widely contested among non-governmental organizations, governmental organizations, labor and social groups, and the legislative and executive branches of the United States and Latin American governments. This thesis argues that economic policies can influence security policies for economically integrated countries and lead to greater cooperation on regional security. The increasing level of transnational threats, pressure from new actors for stability, and the weakening state role stemming from the free market environment and democratic reform leads to a spillover effect in establishing more coordinated security strategies for the threats associated with economic integration. Therefore, economic integration can lead to greater cooperation on security and I argue that the United States and Latin America should pass and implement the FTAA as one means to improve collective security.
Type
Thesis
Description
Series/Report No
Department
National Security Affairs
Organization
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
xii, 69 p. ;
Citation
Distribution Statement
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.