Argentina And The Southern Cone, On

Currently, Argentina is one of the most closely watched nations in the world, largely because it has failed to live up to grand expectations and has been experiencing a financial and social meltdown. In this book, Alejandro Grimson and Gabriel Kessler offer an overview of Argentina's recent history that will contextualize the country's position within the currents of globalization. The authors then consider how globalization is impacting contemporary Argentina-via regional trading blocs, through migrations across its borders, and through the emerging transnational border regions that it shares with other Latin American nations. Overshadowing all of these trends is the current crisis brought on by both international financial institutions possessing an increasing say over how the country is run and internal elites trying to use Argentina's integration into the world financial system to their own advantage. Argentina has long imagined itself as a European nation, qualitatively different from its Latin American neighbors. But recent events are forcing it to change its perception of itself. As the size of Argentina's transnational community continues to swell, and as the nation continues its financial and social implosion, Argentinians are being forced to re-imagine the nation as being Latin American, replete with the histories and problems of that part of the world.