Latin America and the Caribbean in global context : why care about the Americas? / Betty Horwitz and Bruce M. Bagley.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-260) and index.

Part I. Why Latin America and the Caribbean matter -- Why care about what happens in Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC)? -- The insertion of Latin America and the Caribbean in world history -- A theoretical framework to understand world affairs -- Part II. Latin America and the Caribbean: power and political economy -- Economic power: commodity booms and busts -- Latin America and the Caribbean: political economy in the twenty first century -- Part III. Security and democracy -- Power: political institutions and democracy -- Electoral democracies in Latin America and the Caribbean -- Challenges to democracy: drug trafficking, organized crime and terrorist networks in LAC -- Part IV. Latin America and the Caribbean in the world stage -- Latin America and the Caribbean and the development of the inter-American system -- We should care about Latin America and the Caribbean.