The Woodrow Wilson Center Press
Dependent America?: How Canada and Mexico Construct U.S. Power
Stephen Clarkson and Matto Mildenberger
Related Topics: Latin America, Mexico, North America, Canada, United States
Following the acclaimed Uncle Sam and Us and the influential Does North America Exist?Stephen Clarkson — the preeminent analyst of North America's political economy — and Matto Mildenberger turn continental scholarship on its head by showing how Canada and Mexico contribute to the United States' wealth, security, and global power.
This provocative work documents how Canada and Mexico offer the United States open markets for its investments and exports, massive flows of skilled and unskilled labour, and vast resource inputs— all of which boost its size and competitiveness — more than does any other U.S. partner. They are also Uncle Sam's most important allies in supporting its anti-terrorist and anti-narcotics security. Clarkson and Mildenberger explain the paradox of these two countries' simultaneous importance and powerlessness by showing how the U.S. government has systematically neutralized their potential influence.
Detailing the dynamics of North America's power relations, Dependent America? is a fitting conclusion to Clarkson's celebrated trilogy on the contradictory qualities of its regionalism — asymmetrical economic integration, thickened borders, and emasculated governance.
What People are Saying
"Dependent America? is an engaging bookend to a remarkable trilogy on the elusive North American community. Clarkson and Mildenberger provide a refreshing challenge to the conventional wisdom of the U.S. as a self-determined power, and encourage especially Canadians to reflect more profoundly on their role in both constructing and limiting North America's interdependencies. The book also will certainly be welcomed as a unique contribution to broader debates on the hegemonic decline of the U.S."
Jeffrey Ayres, Department of Political Science, Saint Michael's College.
Chapter List
Introduction: Is America "Dependent"?
Part I: Growing the United States' Economy
1. Making the U.S. Economy Bigger and More Competitive
2. Supporting and Impeding U.S. Energy Security
3. Constructing the U.S. Labour Market
Part II: Building U.S. Security
4. Continental Defence: Extending the United States' Military Perimeter
5. Building U.S. Homeland Security against the Terrorist Threat
6. Constructing and Constraining U.S. Narcotics Security
Part III: Constructing and Constraining the Reach of U.S. Power
7. Supporting the Governance Base for U.S. International Economic Power
8. Thwarting the United States in International Criminal Law
9.Offsetting the U.S. Embargo of Revolutionary Cuba
Conclusion: Peripheral Visions