January 16, 2024, 11:00-12:00 CST
Tom Long is Reader in International Relations at University of Warwick and Affiliated Professor in International Studies at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia in Mexico City. Tom is author of two books, Latin America Confronts the United States (Cambridge UP, 2015) and A Small State’s Guide to Influence in World Politics (Oxford UP, 2022), and also co-editor of North America: Stagnation, Decline, or Renewal (with Eric Hershberg, University of New Mexico Press, 2023) and North America 2.0: Forging a Continental Future (with Alan Bersin, Wilson Center, 2022). His articles appear in journals, including International Organization, International Security, and World Politics.
Speaker presentation
The North American Region: Its Past, Present and Potential Future
North America is a region of contradictions; it is bound by myriad connections, but few formal institutions. Despite its tremendous size, the North American region has a low profile on the global stage—leading some to question whether it is a world region at all. This talk reflects on the North American experience as the region completes three decades since the 1994 inauguration of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Thirty years later, what is North America’s place in the world? The regional project the pact’s architects sought to catalyze finds itself buffeted by global events and threatened by political polarization. At the same time, the region approaches the milestone with a deeply integrated economy, burgeoning transnational connections, and an increasingly salient geopolitical rationale. What’s next for North America?