Mexico and Its Relations with the United States

Mexico and its Relations with the United States

IR 366, Fall 2012

University of Southern California

Dr. Pamela K. Starr

Office: STO 99Phone: 213-740-4122

Office Hours: WTh 2-4, and by appt.Email:

Scope and Objectives

Few countries matter as much to one another as the United States and Mexico yet understand one another so weakly. Mexico and the United States have grown increasingly reliant on one another over the past 25 years. Beyond trade integration and the headline-grabbing challenges of migration and organized crime, each country is pivotal to the other’s capacity to protect public health, provide environmental protection, promote growth and create jobs, and enhance global economic competitiveness. Their futures are thus bound together, yet each country approaches this relationship from very different perspectives born of different cultures, historical experiences, political and economic structures, and perceptions of the other. As a consequence, the bilateral relationship has long been characterized by misunderstandings, tensions, and dashed hopes instead of the effective communication, understanding, and collaboration needed to resolve common challenges.

Thepurpose of this course is three-fold: to help students understand Mexico better and become familiar with the history of U.S.-Mexico relations, to illuminate the international and domestic drivers of this peculiar bilateral relationship, and to consider current challenges and how they are apt to shape the future relationship between these two North American neighbors. To achieve these aims, elements of the course will be shared with a similar course being taught at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in Mexico City. This will include several lectures shared via videoconference and a group-based term project that students from ITAM and USC will together research, write, and present orally.

The content of the course is divided into three sections. The first is introductory and consists of two class sessions that introduce students to Mexico and its relationship with the United States, and two that review the main theories of foreign policy we will use throughout the course. The second section of the course looks at history to illuminate Mexico’s distinct national experience (economic, political, and international) and how this has shaped modern Mexico and its relationship with the United States. This will be followed by a mid-term examination before turning to the central issues in U.S.-Mexico relations – economics, migration, security, and the border.

Requirements

"Eighty percent of success is showing up". Woody Allen

The learning in this course relies heavily on class participation – learning takes place not merely as a consequence of the instructor’s lectures but also through the associated group conversations about the assigned readings. It will therefore be very difficult for you to perform well in the course without good attendance. I therefore strongly encourage you to heed Woody Allen's words of wisdom.

The course readings average about 100-120 pages a week, but some sessions carry a somewhat heavier reading load. Students should thus plan ahead. Students must be prepared to discuss the required readings on the days for which they are assigned. The instructor will provide questions to guide the students’ reading each week. It is highly recommended that students outline the answers to these questions based on the information contained in the assigned readings. If it appears that students are not effectively preparing for each class session, the instructor reserves the right to begin requiring students to turn in their outlines or to give an unannounced quiz. As further incentive, 10 percent of the course grade is based on participation in class discussions.

The course includes two mid-term examinations and a term project. The mid-terms consist of two parts: an “in-class” portion on the date indicated below and a “take-home” essay of 1500-1700 words (the equivalent of about 6-7 pages) due 48 hours later. These examinations will emphasize analysis rather than memorizing facts, so both will be open book and taken on line.

The term project includes two elements – a paper and an oral presentation – both of which will be undertaken as group projects by teams of students from USC and ITAM. A full description of the project will be distributed early in the course and the videoconferencing software required for the needed cross-border group communication will be provided by the instructor/USC.

The term paper will be written by teams of about four students – two each from USC and ITAM – analyzing an aspect of one of four central issues in the bilateral relationship – economic ties (including energy), migration, security, and border issues. The paper must be 5000-6000 words (about 20-30 pages) in length and must draw on at least ten distinct sources (books, articles, research reports, etc.), five of which must be scholarly and only two of which may be drawn from the course readings. Students will select their topic and form their binational teams early in the course and are encouraged to follow their topics in the media and on recommended web sites throughout the semester.

Each group will also design and deliver an oral presentationthat summarizes the main findings of their paper. In this process, all the groups writing on the same issue in the bilateral relationship must communicate with one another to determine the order in which they will present and to ensure that there is no significant overlap in the material presented. The result should be a seamless set of presentations on migration, security, the border, or energy and the environment. Each group presentation will be 15- 20 minutes in length followed by 10-15 minutes of question and answer.

Grading

MidTerm 125%

(October 2)

Mid-Term 225%

(November 8)

Oral Presentation10%

(December 4-6)

Term Paper30%

(Due December 10)

Class Participation10%

Books Recommended for Purchase

Jaime Suchlicki, Mexico: From Montezuma to the Rise of the PAN, 3rd ed. Washington, DC: Brassey’s, Inc., 2008.

Nora Hamilton, Mexico: Political, Social and Economic Evolution, Oxford University Press, 2011.

Jorge I. Dominguez and Rafael Fernandez de Castro, The United States and Mexico: Between Partnership and Conflict. Routledge, 2009.

Sidney Weintraub, Unequal Partners: The United States and MexicoPittsburgh University Press, 2010.

Stephen Haber, et al., Mexico Since 1980, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Roberto Suro, Strangers Among Us: Latino Lives in a Changing America, Vintage, 1999.

Academic Integrity

Dornsife College is committed to upholding the University’s Academic Integrity Code as detailed in the campus guide. It is the policy of the College to report all violations of the code. Any serious violations of the Academic Integrity Code will result in the student’s expulsion from the University.

Disabilities

Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to the instructor as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776.

Schedule of topics and readings

Part I: Introduction to Mexico and U.S.-Mexico Relations

August 28: Mutual Introductions and Presentation of the Course

August 30: Introduction to Mexico

Jaime Suchlicki, Mexico: From Montezuma to the Rise of the PAN. Washington, DC: Brassey’s, Inc., 2008, chapter 1, “Understanding Mexico”.

Roderic Ai Camp, Politics in Mexico, 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 2007. Chapter 2, “Political-Historical Roots: The Impact of Time and Place”, pp. 25-55.

Octavio Paz, “Mexico and the United States”, in The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other Writings, Grove Press, 1991 (first published 1979).

Nora Hamilton, Mexico: Political, Social and Economic Evolution, Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 1-24.

September 4: Introduction to Mexico’s Relations with the United States

Jorge I. Dominguez and Refael Fernandez de Castro. The United States and Mexico: Between Partnership and Conflict, Routledge, 2001, pp. 7-15.

Jeffrey Davidow, The U.S. and Mexico: The Bear and the Porcupine, prologue, introduction, and chapter 2.

Sidney Weintraub, Unequal Partners, chapter 1 (pp. 1-24).

September 6: Thinking about Foreign Policy

Brian Schmidt, "Theories of U.S. Foreign Policy," in Michael Cox and Doug Stokes, eds., U.S. Foreign Policy (Oxford University Press, 2008), Chapter 1.

Jack Snyder, “One World, Rival Theories”, Foreign Policy (Nov/Dec 2004): 52-62.

September 11: Foreign Policy Making and US-Mexico Relations

Lorenzo Meyer, “Mexico and the United States: The Historical Structure of their Conflict” Journal of International Affairs, 43:2 (Winter 1990): 251-271.

Alan Knight, “Dealing with the American Political System: An Historical Overview 1910-1995”, in Rodolfo de la Garza and Jesus Velasco, eds., Bridging the Border, Roman & Littlefield, 1997: 1-31.

Part II: The History of Mexican Development and its Relations with the United States

September 13: The 19th Century: The U.S.-Mexico War

Hamilton, pp. 25-32.

Suchlicki, chapters 7-9 (pp. 50-73).

Josefina Zoraida Vazquez, “The Most Difficult Decades”, in Josefina Zoraida Vazquez and Lorenzo Meyer, The United States and Mexico, University of Chicago Press, 1985: chapter 3 (pp. 25-50).

Timothy J. Henderson, A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and its War with the United States, Hill and Wang, 2007: pp. xvii-xxi & 179-191.

September 18: The 19th Century: From War and Stagnation to Stability and Growth

Suchlicki, chapters 10-12 (pp. 74-100).

Octavio Paz, “Independence to Revolution” (1st section only), in The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other Writings, Grove Press, 1991, pp. 117-128.

John Coatsworth, "Obstacles to Economic Growth in NineteenthCentury Mexico", in Jeffry Frieden, Manuel Pastor Jr., and Michael Tomz, eds. Modern Political Economy and Latin America: Theory and Policy. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000: 95-121.

Stephen Haber, “The Commitment Problem and Mexican Economic History”. In Jeffrey L. Bortz and Stephen Haber, eds., The Mexican Economy 1870-1930, Stanford University Press, 2002: 324-336.

September 20: The Mexican Revolution

Robert Freeman Smith, The United States and Revolutionary Nationalism in Mexico, 1916-1932. University of Chicago Press, 1972. Chapter 1, “Mexico and Revolution”, pp. 1-22.

Suchlicki, chapters 13 (pp. 101-112).

Lorenzo Meyer, “The Civil War and American Intervention in Josefina Zoraida Vazquez and Lorenzo Meyer, The United States and Mexico, University of Chicago Press, 1985: chapters 7 (pp. 103-125).

Octavio Paz, “Independence to Revolution” (2nd section only), in The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other Writings, Grove Press, 1991, pp. 129-149.

September 25-27: Building Post-Revolutionary Stability

Hamilton, pp. 32-61.

Suchlicki, chapter 14 (pp. 113-123).

Stephen Haber, et al., Mexico Since 1980, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2008: pp. 1-26/7.

Lorenzo Meyer, “Revolutionary Nationalism and Imperialism” in Josefina Zoraida Vazquez and Lorenzo Meyer, The United States and Mexico, University of Chicago Press, 1985: chapter 8 (pp. 126-152).

Josephus Daniels, “The Oil Expropriation” in Joseph and Henderson, eds., The Mexico Reader, Duke University Press, 2002: 452-455.

October 2: First Mid-Term Examination

October 4-9: ThePRI System

Hamilton, pp. 62-106.

Suchlicki, chapter 15 (pp. 124-147).

Stephen Haber, et al., Mexico Since 1980, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2008: pp. 27-65.

Reading on the role of foreign policy in Mexican domestic politics to be added.

October 11-16: Mexico’s Political and Economic Transformation

Suchlicki, chapters 16-17 (pp. 148-171).

Hamilton, chapter 4 & 5 (pp. 107-173).

Haber, et al., chapters 3 & 5 (pp. 66-94 & 123-160).

Andrew Selee and Jacqueline Peschard, “Mexico’s Democratic Challenges”, in Andrew Selee and Jacqueline Peschard, eds., Mexico’s Democratic Challenges: Politics, Government, and Society, Stanford University Press, 2010: 1-26.

October 18: Transforming U.S.-Mexico Relations

Pamela K. Starr, “Mexican Foreign Policy”, in Laura Randall, ed. The Changing Structure of Mexico, 2005: 49-57.

Jorge Chabat, “Mexico’s Foreign Policy after NAFTA: The Tools of Interdependence” in Rodolfo de la Garza and Jesus Velasco, eds., Bridging the Border, Roman & Littlefield, 1997: 33-48.

Jorge I. Dominguez and Rafael Fernandez de Castro, The United States and Mexico, introduction and chapters 2 & 5 (pp. 1-6, 17-34, & 75-104).

Pamela K. Starr, “U.S.-Mexico Relations and Mexican Domestic Politics”, Oxford Handbook on Mexican Politics (2012): 649-670.

Part III: Issues in U.S.-Mexico Relations

October 23-25: Economic Ties: Post-NAFTA Challenges

Sidney Weintraub, Unequal Partners, chapters 2, 3, & 5 (pp. 25-63 & 82-97).

Christopher Wilson, “Working Together: Economic Ties between the United States and Mexico”, Washington, DC: Mexico Institute, WWICS, 2012.

October 30: Migration: History and Drivers

Hamilton, chapter 7 (pp. 218-254).

Portes, Alejandro and Rubén G. Rumbaut, “Who they are and why they come”, chapter 2 of Immigrant America: A Portrait, 3rd ed., University of California Press, 2006. Available at USC libraries ebooks:

Aristide Zolberg, “Rethinking the Last 200 Years of US Immigration Policy”, Migration Information Source, 2006.

James Hollifield, Valerie F. Hunt, and Daniel J. Tichenor, “Immigrants, Markets, and Rights: The United States as an Emerging Migration State”, Journal of Law & Policy, 27:7 (2008): 7-44.

Ronald Reagan’s Farewell Address, watch from time stamp 18:37 to the end.

November 1-6: Finding Migration Policy Solutions

Roberto Suro, Strangers Among Us: Latino Lives in a Changing America, Vintage 1999:Chapter 1, 6, & 16-18.

Mark R. Rosenblum and Kate Brick, U.S. Immigration Policy and Mexican/Central American Migration Flows: Then and Now, The Regional Migration Study Group of the Migration Policy Institute and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, August 2011.

“Candidates Reagan & Bush-41 Discuss Illegal Immigration in 1980 Debate”,

NPR, “States Introduce Record Number of Immigration Bills”, All Things Considered, 16 August 2011.

Alexandra Delano, “From Limited to Active Engagement: Mexico’s Emigration Policies From a Foreign Policy Perspective”, International Migration Review, 43:4 (2009): 764-814.

Alexandra Delano, “From “Shared Responsibility” to a Migration Agreement? The Limits for Cooperation in the Mexico-United States Case (2000-2008)”, International Migration, 50:S1 (2009): e41-e59

November 8: Second Mid-Term Examination

November 13: Field Trip

November 15 & 20: Security and Drugs

Dominguez and Fernandez de Castro, The United States and Mexico, chapter 3 (pp. 35-52).

Eric Olsen, David Shirk, and Andrew Selee, eds., Shared Responsibility: U.S.-Mexico Policy Options for Confronting Organized Crime, Transborder Institute and WWICS, 2010.

Read the Introduction by the editors (pp. 1-30) and chapter 1, Drug Trafficking Organizations and Counter-Drug Strategies in the U.S.-Mexico Context,by Luis Astorga and David Shirk (pp. 31-62).

Andreas, Peter “The Paradox of Integration: Liberalizing and Criminalizing Flows across the U.S. Border” in Carol Wise, ed., The Post-NAFTA Political Economy: Mexico and the Western Hemisphere, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998, pp. 201-220.

David Luhnow and Jose de Cordoba, “The Perilous State of Mexico”, Wall Street Journal (21 February 2009).

Pamela K. Starr, “What Mexico’s Election Means for the Drug War”, Foreignaffairs.com, June 2012.

November 22: No Class. Thanksgiving

November 27: The Border

Dominguez and Fernandez de Castro, The United States and Mexico, chapter 7 (pp. 135-155).

Paul Ganster and David E. Lorey, “Introduction: Defining the Region” and “Border Issues in U.S.-Mexican Relations”, in The U.S. Mexican Border into the 21st Century, 2nd ed., Rowman & Littlefield. Chapters 1 & 7.

Andrew Rice, “Life on the Line”, New York Times Magazine, 31 July 2011.

Guillermo Gomez Pena, “The New World Border”, in Gilbert M. Joseph & Timothy J. Henderson, eds. The Mexico Reader, Duke University Press, 2002:750-755.

November 29: Looking to the Future

Agustin Barrios Gomez, “Mexamerica: Twenty Years of U.S.-Mexico Integration”, Center for Hemispheric Policy, August 2012.

Sidney Weintraub, Unequal Partners, chapter 8 (131-140).

A Stronger Future: Policy Recommendations for U.S.-Mexico Relations, Report of the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars meeting on Envisioning the Future of the U.S.-Mexico Relationship, 2012.

December 4: Binational student presentations 1

December 6: Binational student presentations 2

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