But when the march clashed with Chávez loyalists near the palace a bloody gun battled ensured, sparking a military revolt that led to the temporary ousting of Chávez. Over the next turbulent 72-hours, Venezuelans would confront the deep divisions within their society and ultimately decide the best course for their country – and its oil – in the new century.

Drawing on unprecedented access to government ministers, diplomats, and military leaders, Brian A. Nelson has woven a mesmerizing minute-by-minute account of the coup that reads like a thriller. An exemplary piece of narrative journalism, THE SILENCE AND THE SCORPION provides rich insight into the complexities of modern Venezuela.

Brian Nelson is a former COHA Research Associate and now teaches for Johns Hopkins University.

The Institute for the Study of the Americas
The Institute was founded in August 2004 through a merger of the Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS) with the Institute of United States Studies (IUSS), both of which had been founded in 1965 at 31 Tavistock Square. Like its predecessors, the new Institute forms part of the University of Londons School of Advanced Study. The Institute plays a national and international role as a coordinating and information centre for all sections of the hemisphere at the postgraduate level in the universities of the United Kingdom.
As well as serving and strengthening national networks of North Americanist, Latin Americanist and Caribbeanist scholars, the Institute actively maintains and builds ties with important academic, cultural, diplomatic and business organisations with interests in the region.
The Council of the University of London approved the establishment of ISA on the understanding that it would be dedicated to teaching and research, not just on the USA and Latin America, but to the Americas as a whole, with proper attention to Canada and the Caribbean. ISA will uphold the dedication to area studies and multi-disciplinarity that animated its predecessors. No other institution in Europe offers such a combination of approaches.
The Institute greatly values collaboration with colleagues in the Colleges of the federal University as well as those in Londons other universities. Such fellow scholars are encouraged to play an active part in the research and teaching programmes and so become Associate Fellows. At the same time, as an integral part of the School of Advanced Study, ISA has a mission to foster scholarly initiatives at a national level, ensuring an energetic and original British presence in the international, and especially trans-Atlantic, study of the western hemisphere.

Brazilian Foreign Policy

After the Cold War

Authored by Sean Burges and published by University Press of Florida

Since 1992 – the end of the Cold War – Brazil has been slowly and quietly craving a niche for itself in the international community: that of a regional leader in Latin America. How and why is the subject of Sean Burges ‘ investigations. Under President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Brazil embarked on a new direction vis-à-vis foreign policy. Brazilian diplomats set out to lead South America and the global south without actively claiming leadership or incurring the associated costs. They did so to protect Brazil’s national autonomy in an ever-changing political climate. Burges utilizes recently declassified documents and in-depth interviews with Brazilian leaders to track the adoption and implementation of Brazil’s South American foreign policy and to explain the origins of this trajectory. Leadership and desire to lead have, until recently, been a contentious and forcefully disavowed ambition for Brazilian diplomats. Burges dispels this illusion and provides a framework for understanding the conduct and ambitions of Brazilian foreign policy that can be applied to the wider global arena.
Sean W. Burges is an adjunct professor with the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa and a senior research fellow with the Washington, D.C. – based Council on Hemispheric Affairs. He has published on Brazilian foreign policy and inter-American affairs in the Miami Herald, The Washington Times, The Journal of Commerce, The National Post, The Washington Report on the Hemisphere, FOCAL Point, Brazzil Magazine, Analise Internacional, the Oxford Analytica Daily Brief, and in academic journals such as Third World Quarterly, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, International Journal, International Relations, and the Bulletin of Latin American Research.

Other Recent COHA-Related Works:

Hugo Chavez: Oil, Politics, and the Challenge to the U.S.

Authored by Nikolas Kozloff and published by Palgrave Macmillan

This is the riveting and frightening story of ambitious, tempestuous and avowed anti-American Hugo Chávez, who is making waves through South America and being widely compared to Fidel Castro. Ex-paratrooper, outspoken socialist, and brash personality, Chávez is known for his stance against big business, fearless threats to the Bush administration, social reforms that have violently polarized his country, and claims that he will soon unite South America. As gas prices rise to unprecedented highs, Venezuela’s importance surges as the fifth largest oil exporter in the world. Nikolas Kozloff’s access to top advisors, members of the opposition, and leaders of Chávez’s own political movement allow him to present a comprehensive portrait of Chávez as he runs for re-election and moves into the global spotlight.

Nikolas Kozloff received his Ph.D in Latin American History from Oxford University and is a Senior Research Fellow at COHA

Unfinished Business: America and Cuba after the Cold War, 1989-2001

Authored by Morris Morley and Chris McGillion, and published by Cambridge University Press

In this first comprehensive study of U.S. policy toward Cuba in the post-Cold War era, Morris Morley and Chris McGillion draw on interviews with Bush and Clinton policymakers, congressional participants in the policy debate, and leaders of the anti-sanctions business community to argue that Bush and Clinton operated within the same Cold War framework that shaped the Cuba policy of their predecessors. They also demonstrate that U.S. policy after 1989 was driven principally by domestic imperatives. The result was the pursuit of a policy that had nothing to do with its stated objectives of promoting reforms in Cuba and everything to do with dismantling Castro’s regime. This study also addresses the international consequences: the extraterritorial applications of national laws to America’s allies; and a willingness to put in danger the operations of the global free trade regime. Few issues more starkly revealed the degree to which U.S. policymakers exhibited a striking lack of realism about America’s capacity to impose its will globally.