U.S.-Venezuela Relations since the 1990s: Coping with Midlevel Security Threats

Oil makes up one-third of Venezuela's entire GDP, and the United States is far and away Venezuela's largest trading partner. Relations between Venezuela and the United States, traditionally close for most of the last two centuries, began to fray as the end of the Cold War altered the international environment.

U.S.-Venezuela Relations since the 1990s explores relations between these two countries since 1999, when Hugo Chavez came to office and proceeded to change Venezuela's historical relation with the United States and other democracies. The authors analyze the reasons for rising bilateral conflict, the decision-making process in Venezuela, the role played by public and private actors in shaping foreign policy, the role of other powers such as China, Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia in shaping U.S.-Venezuelan relations, the role of Venezuela in Cuba and Colombia, and the impact of broader international dynamics in the bi-lateral relations.

Javier Corrales is Professor of Political Science at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, specializing in Comparative Politics and International Relations of Latin America and the Caribbean. His most recent book, Dragon in the Tropics: Hugo Chávez and the Political Economy of Revolution in Venezuela (Brookings Institution Press, 2011), co-authored with Michael Penfold, won the Foreign Affairs award for Best International Relations Book on the Western Hemisphere for 2011. His research has been published in numerous academic journals, and he is on the editorial board of Latin American Politics and Society and Americas Quarterly.

Carlos A. Romero is a Venezuelan political scientist specializing in International Relations and Venezuelan Foreign Policy. He is Professor Emeritus in the Institute of Political Studies at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. He has published five books and eight in collaboration. His articles have appeared in numerous Venezuelan and foreign journals. His most recent book is Venezuela y la Integración Regional (2008).