About Us

ENGAGED IN A GLOBAL DIALOGUE

The countries of Latin America are undergoing rapid change. The ‘golden decade’ of high commodity prices, poverty reduction, and middle class growth has ended, creating new challenges for growth and governance. At the same time, innovative trade alliances, new technologies, and the region’s growing autonomy and independence have created opportunities for substantially greater global influence.

To understand these transformations and communicate them to an influential audience, the Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin American Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere.

The Latin American Program works to:

• Improve the quality of US-Latin American relations
• Encourage innovation
• Foster sustainable, inclusive growth and development
• Enhance governance and security

The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.

GIVING CONTEXT AND PROMINENCE TO THE ISSUES

The Latin American Program provides depth and context for fast-breaking events in the region while maintaining a longer-term perspective that tracks developments over time and anticipates issues of future significance. The Program has forged strong relationships with prominent institutions and individuals in the region to address critical issues of mutual concern, through joint research and events.

The Program issues authoritative publications, reports, and issue briefs that reach print and online audiences throughout the Hemisphere. An active social media presence, webcasts, and videoconferences extend this open dialogue to a global audience.

Program staff have decades of experience in the region. In addition, with residential scholars and a global network of experts, alumni, and partners, the Latin American Program is ideally situated to educate influential actors in the United States and around the world about the Hemisphere’s politics, economics, and foreign relations.

The Program’s prestigious Advisory Board is composed of business leaders, scholars, and former policy officials from throughout the Hemisphere who provide overall guidance and direction for our work.

CREATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR TOMORROW’S NEEDS

The Latin American Program and its partners in the Brazil Institute, Canada Institute, and Mexico Institute reflect the Wilson Center’s strong commitment to the Americas. With Center programs covering every region of the world, Americas@Wilson is uniquely situated to interpret the intersection of global and regional trends.

The Program aspires to keep pace with and anticipate the transformations of 21st-century Latin America. How governments and societies address the challenges of globalization, foster innovation and competitiveness, expand their energy matrix, build resilience to climate change, and meet citizen demands for quality services and effective institutions will determine the prospects for a prosperous, sustainable, and democratic future.