LASA2016
Apr 28, 2016
12:00 PM - 2:15 PM (GMT-5)
In 2009 and 2010, Wikileaks released over 250,000 classified cables from U.S. diplomatic missions worldwide. Initially, the cables received intense media coverage that often focused on revelations of potentially illegal or embarrassing conduct by foreign officials. Since then, few reporters or scholars have shown much interest in the cables. Over the past five years, only a tiny number of Wikileaks cable citations have appeared in leading U.S. academic journals.
Have the Wikileaks cables received the attention they deserve? Have we assimilated what the cables can teach us about U.S. foreign policy in action? Are the research opportunities offered by the Wikileaks cache of cables being fully exploited?
We will address these questions from a variety of perspectives, focusing on the Wikileaks trove of cables from Latin America.
First, we will offer a critical assessment of media coverage of the Latin America cables, in the U.S. and the rest of the region, and academia's use of these cables.
We will then look at how the cables shed new light on "soft" forms of U.S. political intervention in the region, based on research undertaken for the Latin America chapters in The WikiLeaks Files.
Finally, we will draw from recent research in the area of U.S.-Mexico relations to examine what the cables tell us about U.S. security assistance to Mexico and the human rights vetting of Mexican security agents by the U.S. State Department.
Panel chair:
Alexander Main, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Panelists:
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Keane Bhatt
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Dan Beeton, Center for Economic and Policy Research
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Jesse Franzblau
