Our Around the Region program focuses on political and democratic changes in the region. We examine developments in governance, constitutional reform, the role of women in leadership, and efforts by popular movements to change the political and economic arrangements in their nations through democratic processes.  

U.S. policy makers fail to appreciate how much Latin America has changed, and how the arc of American policy takes us further away from where the region is heading.   Latin America is striking an independent direction: the region welcomes international interests, it no longer accepts the U.S. as a patron (but welcomes the U.S. as a partner), and our nation can no longer afford to careen from neglect to intervention.  There is far too little dialogue between leaders in the region and their counterparts here, and very little fresh thinking in Washington about how we might bridge the gap between our nation and the nearly 600 million citizens of the region.

U.S. policy has to take a new and consistent course that reflects these new realities.

CDA has a track record of convening policy experts, introducing new ideas to the debate, and identifying fresh perspectives.   We bring policymakers to the region to promote dialogue and to nurture networks of bridge people to widen our understanding of the region’s politics and dynamics.  We also publish reports that reflect our research and recommendations, host colloquies on relevant issues, and disseminate our findings using traditional and new media.

In our Around the Region program, we have reported on constitutional reform in Ecuador and Venezuela; the election of Mauricio Funes of the FMLN in El Salvador; the coup in Honduras; and critiqued the Obama administration’s policies toward Latin America.

In coalition with thought leaders, policy experts, and allied organizations, CDA works to change how U.S. foreign policy engages with the Americas, by listening to and learning from the nations of the region.