American Interest Pre-Publication Copy Winter (Jan./Feb.) 2008 (Vol

American Interest Pre-Publication Copy Winter (Jan./Feb.) 2008 (Vol. III, No. 3) The following article, in whole or in part, may not be copied, downloaded, stored, further transmitted, transfered, distributed, altered or otherwise used, in any form or by any means, except: • one stored electronic and one paper copy of any article solely for your personal, non-commercial use; or • with prior written permission of The American Interest LLC. To subscribe to our online version, visit www.The-American-Interest.com To subscribe to our print version, call 1-800-767-5273 or mail the form below to: THE AMERICAN INTEREST PO BOX 338 MOUNT MORRIS, IL 61054-7521 J BEST OFFER! Yes, send me two years (12 issues) of J Yes, send me one year (6 issues) for only $39*. I’ll The American InteresT for only $69*. save $5.75 off the cover price. I’ll save 23% off the cover price! Name Address 1 Address 2 City State Zip Country E-mail Credit Card Exp. Name on Card Tel. No. Signature Date *Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery of first issue. Add $14 per year J Payment enclosed for shipping & handling to addresses outside the U.S. and Canada. J Bill me later A81PPC CONTENTS THE AMERICAN INTEREST • VOLUME III, NUMBER 3, WINTER (JANUARY/FEBRUARY) 2008 The Americas, Together at Last? 7 The Paradoxes of Latin America by Mario Vargas Llosa Political truths reflect well in art and literature. 12 Left Behind? by Miguel Angel Centeno Vital U.S. interests will suffer if Latin American reform stalls. 7 21 Blow Hard by Russell Crandall Evo Morales’ cocaine problem—and ours. 26 Toolbox: A U.S.-Brazil Agenda by Luiz Felipe Lampreia A five-point proposal to advance a key hemispheric relationship. American Commonweal 29 A Call to National Service 29 A bold proposal to reverse America’s decline in civic participation. 42 Bowling with Robert Putnam A conversation with the author of Bowling Alone. Crisis Alert 52 Averting the Third Kosovo War by Alan J. Kuperman An 11th-hour proposal to prevent another Balkan train wreck. Trouble with the Law 98 59 The Vanishing Jury Sources and solutions to save our Seventh Amendment rights. A Lawyer’s Lament by Neal Ellis Hung Juries by William Tucker 70 The Price of Overlawyering by Cameron Stracher The travails of young associates and the roots of our legal woes. WINTER (JANUARY/FEBRUARY) 2008 3 76 Toolbox: Medical Malpractice Law Reform by David Kendall Some legal first aid for our health care woes. After Bush, Cont’d Adam Garfinkle, editor 81 Law Abiding Daniel Kennelly, senior managing editor by Nicholas Rostow Thomas Rickers, managing editor Healing America’s international legal black eye. Noelle Daly, assistant editor 88 Ban the Bomb. Really. Executive Committee Francis Fukuyama, chair by Michael Krepon Charles Davidson Nuclear abolition is an idea whose time has finally come. Josef Joffe Walter Russell Mead 94 Restraining Order by Barry R. Posen Editorial Board Anne Applebaum, Peter Berger, The author of “The Case for Restraint” responds to his critics. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Niall Ferguson, Bronislaw Geremek, Owen Harries, Samuel Huntington, G. John Ikenberry, Reviews Stephen D. Krasner, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Glenn C. Loury, C. Raja Mohan, 98 Self-Made Man? Douglass North, Ana Palacio (on leave), Itamar Rabinovich, Ali Salem, by Richard Hayes Lilia Shevtsova, Takashi Shiraishi, Meet the visionaries of the new eugenics. Mario Vargas Llosa, Wang Jisi, Ruth Wedgwood, James Q. Wilson 104 Capitalism and Democracy Erica Brown, Michelle High, by Hilton L. Root editorial consultants Markets, democracy and global carpet-bagging. Simon Monroe, R. Jay Magill, Jr., illustrators cover art by Tim Gabor 108 The Road to Pakistan’s Bomb cover design by Damir Marusic by Phyllis E. Oakley and Robert B. Oakley Was America complicit in Islamabad’s nukes? Hardly. Charles Davidson, publisher & CEO Noelle Daly, subscriber services 111 Semper Fidel Damir Marusic, associate publisher by Irving Louis Horowitz Jamie Pierson, circulation & operations As Castro’s life ebbs, books about him continue to flow. ADVERTISING SALES 117 Retroview: In His Proper Place Damir Marusic [email protected] by Thomas Hughes (202) 223-08 Samuel Smiles, the quintessential Victorian, is back. Perry Janoski publishing representative Allston-Cherry Ltd. Notes & Letters (212) 665-9885 122 Adventures of a Strip Mall Gourmet SYNDICATION by Brendan Conway Damir Marusic The art and science of hunting for good ethnic restaurants. [email protected] (202) 223-08 128 Winter Note: Tribunalations by Damir Marusic website History misunderstood leads to justice denied. www.the-american-interest.com 132 Yankee Doodle THE AMERICAN INTEREST THE AMERIC AS Left Behind? Latin America in a Globalized World Miguel Angel Centeno mmediate disasters like Iraq and the pros- have been nil. In a world of many problems and pect of $100-per-barrel oil have a way of limited time, why worry about the apparently Imaking us pay attention to the short term. unimportant or the clearly insignificant? If we think about it a bit, however, we see that Despite its apparent marginality, however, the major challenges ahead for American foreign Latin America could become central to the stra- policy derive from the longer-term vicissitudes tegic global goals of the United States in the 21st of what we call in shorthand “globalization.” A century. In a globalized world of competitive mar- much-abused term, globalization refers to the kets and unexpected catastrophes, Latin Ameri- accelerating integration of global production, ca may be as important to long-term American commerce and finance, and to the social and interests as even its Pacific and Atlantic alliances. cultural changes that inevitably accompany it. Latin America constitutes a very valuable long- In barely two decades of its contemporary form, term asset for the United States; treating the con- globalization has already shifted the social and tinent as an afterthought would be irresponsible political power bases within and among nations not only for often-cited moral reasons, but for in unpredictable ways. quite self-interested ones, as well. Clearly, the rules of global power are chang- Obviously, some old rules still apply. Met- ing, but we cling to the old habits of classical di- ternichian strategies will never be superfluous, plomacy: We still define foreign policy in state yet as successful as Metternich himself was in power-centric terms that focus on regime lead- managing the Concert of Europe, in the end erships in capital cities; still measure the impor- he was deposed by a Viennese mob whose hab- tance of any society to American interests in its of mind and manner he both disdained and terms of GDP and nuclear megatonnage; still ignored. U.S. leaders need not worry over cob- see the world as driven by Westphalian units blestone barricades and bloody red flags, but a and dynamics. The maps in our heads are still globalizing 21st century is bound to produce of nations within borders, not of societies inter- changes as subversive to traditional concepts acting on a worldwide scale faster than we can of power as did a nationalist and revolutionist understand. 19th. It is already doing so with alacrity in much Within this classic diplomatic perspec- of Latin America. tive, the current U.S. neglect of Latin America Globalization, in essence, is writing new makes perfect sense. The asymmetry of wealth chapters in that nationalist and revolutionist and power makes it difficult for Washington saga, albeit with some unpredictable twists. to take Latin American concerns seriously. So Globalization democratizes human ambition far, the costs to the United States of this policy and efficacy, and by so doing it erodes the control of legacy institutions of all kinds. By Miguel Angel Centeno is professor of sociology creating complex interdependencies, globaliza- and international studies at Princeton University. tion allows the weak to stymie the strong. Until 12 THE AMERICAN INTEREST fairly recently, major powers could safely disre- To paraphrase Henry Kissinger’s famous quip gard global pigmies; as Richard Nixon once so about Chile, Latin America is a “dagger point- concisely put it, nobody needed to “give a shit ed at the heart of Antarctica.” about the lira.” Today, however, we have to give True, Latin America has been the (often un- a shit about even rudimentary WMD capabili- welcome) object of North American attentions ties in states as weak as North Korea and Syria, at various times, but now it has been relegated and about outbreaks of serious disease, market to something of an afterthought. There is still fluctuations and waves of refugees in any of the ritualistic discourse about Cuba, of course, over a hundred countries. As globalization de- but the very fact that a small island with a col- mocratizes it binds us together; we increasingly lapsed economy is at the heart of U.S. foreign share each other’s afflictions, whether we like policy toward the entire region itself says a great it or not. deal. Even occasional denunciations of Hugo Ethical considerations aside, the vital na- Chávez have something of a half-hearted air tional interests of the United States, understood about them; we may not like him, but he’s re- in the most cold-blooded of terms, require us to ally too silly to worry about. pay more attention to the apparently marginal How is Latin America likely to become an countries and peoples of the world. Political asset to the United States? First, its mere quies- and economic causality no longer flows over- cence will spare the United States the burdens whelmingly from core to periphery, from “us” of contiguous instability; Latin America’s de- to “them”: Globalization is making the process scent into chaos, should that occur, could not much more symmetrical.

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