Thomas C. Field Jr. - Latin America and the Global Cold War

This project is the fruit of a multinational, multilingual effort by fifteen scholars whose nationalities and transnational institutional affiliations include ties to sixteen countries throughout Europe and the Americas. Its seed was planted in Bern, Switzerland, where Stella Krepp co-hosted a 2014 workshop on Latin America in a Global Context, jointly sponsored by the University of Bern and the Brazil-based Gtulio Vargas Foundation. Also funded in part by the Swiss National Science Foundation, this workshop brought Krepp together with Thomas Field Jr. and Vanni Pettin, all three of whom would be co-editors of this volume, along with two dozen other emerging and established scholars of Latin American history. Workshop participants from countries throughout Europe and the Americas all shared the intellectual goal of analyzing and writing contemporary Latin American history from a more global perspective.

The project germinated at the 2015 conference of the Latin American Studies Association in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where the books three co-editors presented papers on a panel entitled Imperial, Transnational, and National Perspectives on Development in Cold War Latin America. The panel led to discussion of a plan to launch a collaborative project to bring Latin American history out of its Western Hemisphere ghetto, to which panel commentator Robert Karl responded that the proposal sounded like an endeavor to globalize Latin American history while provincializing the study of superpowers like the United States. Bien dicho!

Later that year, the editors put out a worldwide call for abstracts, which resulted in thirty-nine submissions from scholars across the globe; of these we ultimately selected fourteen proposals covering a diverse array of themes and countries. For the final product, we are grateful for helpful conversations with Chuck Grench, Senior Editor at the University of North Carolina Press, copyediting and formatting support from Embry-Riddle graduate students Kara Brennion and Taylor Alvarez, excellent suggestions that helped clarify the volumes argument and scope from two anonymous peer reviewers, additional masterful multilingual copyediting by Didier Coste, and generous critical comments from Julia Sarreal, Alan McPherson, Aaron Moulton, and Eugenia Palieraki. Embry-Riddles Interim Dean of Security and Intelligence, Jon Haass, stepped in at the last-minute to provide critical funding for these efforts. Indeed, without support from all three of the editors home institutionsEmbry-Riddle, the University of Bern, and El Colegio de Mxicothis project would have been impossible. We would also like to recognize the institutional and financial support of our contributors universities: Indiana University, Georgetown University, the U.S. Naval War College, Temple University, the University of Cergy-Pontoise, the University of Exeter, the European University Institute, Trent University, Johns Hopkins University, the London School of Economics and Political Science, Texas Christian University, and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

On a personal note, the editors would like to acknowledge the support of their loved ones for tolerating periods of absence and mental distraction that inevitably accompany projects of this magnitude. Thomas would like to mention Milena, Eleanor, and Edmund, who never quite understood why dad was taking time away from the family, and his second monograph, to co-lead an edited book project on Third Worldism. Stella would like to thank Andrej for his support. Vanni would like to acknowledge Ana, Arianna, and Giulio for their patience and love and El Colegio de Mxico for being an incredibly supportive academic institution. All three co-editors benefited from the inspiration and encouragement of the late Marilyn Young, Professor of History at New York University and great scholar of U.S.-Asian relations. To the memory of Marilyns vision and generosity, this book is dedicated.

Latin America and the Global Cold War