Latin America has weathered the worldwide recession admirably, and trade and investment ties are becoming stronger, OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza said in a recap of last week's Summit of the Americas.

Canada is a state blessed with the world’s largest supplies of fresh water. While other natural resources (oil, grain, timber) figure largely in Canada’s economic and international profile, water is rapidly becoming recognized as a core of these other resource-based industries, and a resource that is increasingly challenged both in terms of supply and quality.

China has recently been a major force in political games in the Asia-Pacific. For example, it has succeeded in partly disengaging the United States from the trade framework in Southeast Asia by promoting “low quality” Free Trade Agreements in the region. China has also viewed the ASEAN Regional Forum and East Asia Summit as convenient non-binding and consensus-based arenas that allow Beijing to avoid dealing with hard issues such as maritime disputes in the South China Sea. The Obama administration’s much-discussed “Asia Pivot” is an attempt to reinsert the United States into regional political games and is perhaps most evident in the administration’s focus on the Trans-Pacific Partnership multilateral FTA. How is the United States’ reemergence as a regional player changing the existing components of the political game? What trade and strategic initiatives is Washington undertaking? How will other regional players, such as Japan and India, respond to American and Chinese moves?

On March 12, the Brazil Institute will host a seminar to assess the state of U.S.-Brazil relations and preview President Dilma Rousseff's visit.