Hispanic American Historical Review · 1955 · 29 citations · 0 references
ColonialismLatin American StudyLatin AmericaPower RelationSocial SciencesDiplomacyCaribbean StudiesLatin American DiasporaNineteenth-century South AmericaLatin American SocietyLatin American HistoryInternational PoliticsLatin American CultureN Umerous ArticlesPerfect BalanceInternational RelationsLatin American StudiesWorld PoliticsHumanitiesExploratory EssayLatin American ReligionSpanishPolitical ScienceInter-american Relation
N UMEROUS ARTICLES, monographs and books have been written about the foreign relations of Latin America during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.1 The bulk of this work has been concerned with the relations of the Great Powers with Latin America, or with the legal aspects of boundary disputes among the Latin Am-erican nations or with topics related to international cooperation. Relatively few of these writings have attempted to define the changing national interests of individual Latin American nations or to relate these interests to internal economic and social conditions. Few, if any, writers have sought to provide an integrated pattern for the relations of the Latin Amnerican nations among themselves. Both of these deficiencies might be lessened by an investigation into the operation of the balance-of-power principle in Latin America. A balance of power may be defined as an equilibrium in power among a group of sovereign nations. Individual nations may follow a policy of maintaining a balance of power within a group to prevent any nation from becoming sufficiently strong to enforce its will upon the others or to threaten their independence. It would appear that a perfect balance of power has never for long existed within any group of nations. The desired equilibrium is continuously being dis-