Visiting Fellow  Roger F. Noriega

The United States' foreign policy and strategic interests in the Americas have been unchanged: it has sought economic and political stability through the promotion of trade and democracy; tended to its sometimes troubled border with Mexico; and sought to suppress the production and transit of illicit narcotics. Since the end of the Cold War (during which Soviet proxies sowed instability in the region), the promising strides made by democratic, free-market governments lulled U.S. policy makers who were distracted by events in post-Soviet-dominated Europe and an emerging Asia. U.S. engagement in the last decade has been "workmanlike," with President George W. Bush showing innate interest in the Americas. But it took the provocations of Hugo Chávez to stir the public consciousness in a new appraisal of U.S. foreign policy and strategic interests in play in the Americas. . . .

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Roger F. Noriega is a visiting fellow at AEI. His law and advocacy firm, Tew Cardenas, LLP, represents U.S. and foreign governments and companies.