Understanding Alba ─ The Progress, Problems, and Prospects of Alternative Regionalism in Latin America and the Caribbean

This edited collection is only the second academic publication dedicated solely to Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), the ?Left Turn” regional project founded by Venezuela and Cuba in 2004 and since expanded to Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and much of the Anglophone Caribbean. As ALBA celebrates its first decade, this book offers a considered, critical, and comprehensive account of the project. This work provides insights into all manner of unanswered questions: among others, the roles and involvement of member-states both central and peripheral; the nature of ALBA governance; the sustainability of the project; its effect on domestic politics; and the true nature and extent of specific initiatives. Bringing together scholars from across ideological divides, the book provides a comprehensive analysis of ALBA’s successes and failures, evaluating the project’s viability and mapping possible future trajectories. The opacity of ALBA and its member-states, and the perplexing lack of research into ALBA despite its significance, makes the contribution of this edited volume a particularly valuable one.

Asa Cusack's research focuses on the latest wave of regionalism in Latin America and the Caribbean, often characterized as ?post (neo)liberal,” with a specific focus on the implementation of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA). He has been awarded the Andrew Gamble Prize for an Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis (2013?14), with nominations for PSA Lord Bryce Prize for Best Ph.D. (2014) and BISA Michael Nicholson Thesis Prize (2014). He was also awarded the Round Table Commonwealth Award for Young Scholars in July 2009. He is currently a research fellow at the Institute of Latin American Studies.