Role Theory and Mexico's Foreign Policy: Making Sense of Mexico's Place in World Politics

In Role Theory and Mexico's Foreign Policy, Omar Loera examines why Mexico has an unusual foreign policy for a middle power country and demonstrates how conflicting expectations from domestic and external actors have led to foreign policy contradictions.

Using a series of case studies to show how role conflict has operated in Mexico's foreign policy, Loera studies three specific settings where Mexico could have displayed middle-power behaviour. First, he analyses Mexico's controversial membership and performance in the Iraq crisis within the Security Council of the United Nations from 2002-2003. The second case study examines Mexico's ambition to display a regional leadership role in regional multilateral bodies like the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the Pacific Alliance (PA). In the third and final case study, Loera focuses on Mexico's engagement in human rights and democracy promotion.

Role Theory and Mexico's Foreign Policy will be of interest to graduate students and researchers who work on and with foreign policy analysis and role theory, or for those with a research interest on Mexico.