Heraldo Munoz is the Chilean ambassador to Brazil. Joseph S. Tulchin is director of the Latin American Program of the Woodrow Wilson International centre for Scholars, Washington, D.C.

• The Dominant Themes in Latin American Foreign Relations: An Introduction -- Collective Action for Democracy in the Americas -- Understanding Latin American Foreign Policies -- Politics, Bureaucracy, and Foreign Policy in Chile -- Cuba Adapts to a Brave New World -- Central America and the United States -- The Fate of a Small State -- Mexican Foreign Policy in the 1990s -- Continuity and Change in Argentine Foreign Policy -- The Foreign Policy of Brazil: From the Democratic Transition to Its Consolidation -- Postplantation Societies and World Order: Some Reflections on the Caribbean Predicament -- Soviet Union-Latin American Relations: A Historical Perspective -- About the Contributors -- About the Book