The Contested Politics of Resource Nationalism in Inter-American Relations
Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations 1
Conference on Latin American History 10
Session Abstract
This panel focuses on contests over the ownership, production, and consumption of petroleum and other resources in order to investigate the international repercussions of three of the great Latin American revolutions of the twentieth century, in Mexico, Bolivia, and Cuba. Resource nationalism, and oil nationalism in particular, have been recognized as central to each revolution. How and why was the assertion of national control of hydrocarbon and other resources an inherently international problem, shaping and being shaped by regional and indeed global political dynamics and economic processes? How did Latin American and North American actors respond and contribute to each revolution's conflicts with multinational oil companies and mining interests? How were national contests over control of resources contested also in the international arena? How, in short, were the political economy of natural resources and the national and hemispheric politics of nationalism and revolution mutually intertwined? What do we learn about each by examining them in light of the other? The panel should be of interest to scholars of international history, Latin American history, political economy, nationalism, and revolution.