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Nations in the region, and their respective decision makers, face a different set of existing conditions and have a unique set of policy concerns and priorities that do not fit well into these preexisting molds. Many scholars agree that mechanistically applying existing US-oriented theories is inappropriate and would not help overcome the perceived shortfall.
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While the surge in the study of Latin American foreign policy that began in the 1960s (Drekonja-Kornat 1986) and has continued ever since expanded the field and contributed to a greater understanding of foreign policy behavior in the region, a coherent mid-range theory of Latin American foreign policy has yet to mature. While theories designed to explain US and European foreign policy, for example, are plentiful and have been empirically tested time and again, the same cannot be said for Latin American foreign policy. Future research should therefore focus on the development of a theory that incorporates the multiple explanatory variables that influence foreign policy formulation and takes into account their relative importance and the effects on each other. Despite the substantial amount of scholarship that has accumulated over the years, a unified theory of Latin American foreign policy remains elusive. Furthermore, scholars have analyzed different regions/countries that have become new and/or expanded targets of Latin American foreign policy, including the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. This role was also explored in a considerably larger body of research, along with the decision of Latin American nations to diversify their foreign relations in the post–Cold War era. During and after the Cold War, Latin America played a strategic foreign policy role as it became the object of a rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union hoping to expand their power and/or contain that of the other. In addition to foreign aid, two of the most prevalent topics discussed in the literature are trade/economic liberalization and regional economic integration (for example, Mercosur and NAFTA). As development in the region lagged behind that of its northern neighbors, Latin American had to rely on foreign aid, largely from the United States. Foreign policy–related literature began to surge in the 1980s and 1990s, with a focus on both economic and political development. Latin American foreign policy has drawn the attention of scholars since the 1960s.