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Toward a North American Community: Lessons from the Old World for the New
 
 
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Toward a North American Community: Lessons from the Old World for the New [Paperback]

Robert A. Pastor (Author), C. Fred Bergsten (Preface)
1.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Book Description

August 2001
"The United States, Canada, and Mexico need to modernize our relationship if we want the 21St Century to improve on the past. The three countries of North America already have a larger market than the European Union, but we have not begun to explore our potential as a diverse community. Robert Pastor's book offers a wealth of new ideas and proposals for constructing a North American Community and lifting all of the people of the entire continent"
--Vicente Fox, President of Mexico.

The Mexican peso crisis struck in late December 1994, coinciding with a new Mexican administration and the end of the first year of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The crisis poignantly highlighted the success and the inadequacy of the treaty-success in the expansion of trade and capital flows, and inadequacy in institutional capacity. The Canadian, Mexican, and US governments defined the agreement so narrowly that they failed to devise a mechanism that could monitor, anticipate, plan, or even respond to such a serious problem. The new president of Mexico, Vicente Fox Quesada, has boldly proposed transforming the free trade area into a common market like Europe's. This has evoked lukewarm responses from the Bush and Chrétien administrations, which have not yet developed ways to cope with the new problems stemming from accelerated social and economic integration or to take advantage of North America's opportunities.

In this visionary study, Robert A. Pastor seizes Fox's idea and maps out the paths toward making it a reality. He analyzes NAFTA's success and shortcomings, extracts lessons from the European Union's 40 years of reducing disparities between rich and poor countries, and proposes ways that NAFTA can adapt and incorporate those lessons. The centerpiece of the book is a detailed proposal and specific recommendations for new institutions and "North American policies," including plans for infrastructure and transportation, immigration and customs, a unified currency, and projects aimed to lift the poorer regions. The author addresses issues of sovereignty and national interest and concludes with a look ahead toward a Free Trade Area of the Americas.

This book is the first of its kind to propose a detailed approach to a North American Community - different from the European Common Market but drawing lessons from its experience. It will be of considerable interest for policymakers in the region as well as researchers and students of international political economy, world trade, and foreign affairs.


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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert Pastor is the Goodrich C. White Professor of Political Science at Emory University. From 1985-98, he was a fellow at the Carter Center and founding director of the Latin American and Caribbean Program, the Democracy Program, and the China Elections Project. Combining a career of scholarship and policymaking in government and nongovernmental organizations, Dr. Pastor served as national security advisor on Latin America (1977-81) and organized international delegations to mediate elections in 20 countries, including Mexico. Dr. Pastor was a Fulbright Professor in Mexico and the Straus Visiting Professor at Harvard University. He has written 13 books, including Exiting the Whirlpool: U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Latin America and the Caribbean (Westview Press, 2001).

Product Details

  • Paperback: 207 pages
  • Publisher: Peterson Institute (August 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0881323284
  • ISBN-13: 978-0881323283
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 1.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,136,044 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert A. Pastor is Professor of International Relations and Founder and Director of the Center for North American Studies at American University. He served on the National Security Council and as a Consultant to the State and Defense Departments. He is the author of sixteen other books, including Exiting the Whirlpool: U.S. Foreign Policy to Latin America and A Century's Journey: How the Great Powers Shape the World.

 

Customer Reviews

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars The Plan for a North American Union., May 1, 2010
This review is from: Toward a North American Community: Lessons from the Old World for the New (Paperback)
While Robert Pastor does not use the term "North American Union" in this book, it is the subject matter. He calls it a "North American Community". Same thing.

The poor rating I give this book is based on the subject of the book and the author's opinion that I find objectionable. He may be a good writer as far as the way this book was written.

The most positive aspect of this book is that it proves that contrary to some, there is indeed a coherent and organized plan to incorporate Mexico, Canada, and the United States of America into one government entity. NAFTA is viewed as the starting point.

On the balances of trade, job creation or loss, and capital flow you will read on page 2 where the author's priorities lie-
"These are important issues, but they are hardly sufficient to take the pulse of such a complex, dynamic phenomenon."
I would rate these issues as priority issues myself. But then I am working class.

An emphasized goal of the plan is to boost the middle class of the developing world. At whose expense we are not told.
Despite the rosy picture of NAFTA in this book, it obviously adversely affected American jobs. Ross Perot was right.

On page 39 Mr. Pastor mentions an obstacle to North American integration he calls "sovereignty". Another term for it is "patriotism". Put more bluntly, we are American citizens-as in United States of America- not North America or any other name the author would care to give a trilateral integration.
Sovereignty is a Constitutional concept that should not be so easily dismissed. It's a virtue not an "obstacle".

In this book you can read a little bit about a continental "Trade Corridor" aka NAFTA Super Highway(the author doesn't specifically name it) that Lou Dobbs has brought attention to in recent years. This corridor idea was studied in 1998.

A disturbing suggestion found on page 101 is the formation of a "North American Commission" that would develop a plan for the integration and development of North America. Another stated objective is to "educate the public on the existence and potential of the region and to instill a sense of regional identity."

On page 114 the subject is the "amero" currency and financial policy.
"The mandate of the Central Bank of North America would be similar to that of the European Central Bank- to maintain price stability rather than full employment- but it would respond to the economy of the continent rather than just of one nation."

There are admissions in the book that the United Sates has less to gain in this scheme than Canada or Mexico. Mexico has by far the most to gain, clearly evidenced by Vincente Fox's formulating and pushing this plan first.

This is just another book promoting globalism and mythical "free trade". "Free trade" seldom translates into fair trade.

Read this book for two reasons- to verify that yes, Lou Dobbs is right about a North American Union plan and also to read about the ideology behind the proposed selling out of American sovereignty.

I'm not suggesting to buy it though, see if it is in a local library.
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33 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars This makes me sick!!!, July 12, 2006
By 
This review is from: Toward a North American Community: Lessons from the Old World for the New (Paperback)
I cannot believe what this guy is proposing!! I am going to pass this around as further ammunition that the federal government is not a government for, of, and by the People. The New American Century has only just begun.

But opposition is mounting. Perhaps the most blistering criticism has come from Lou Dobbs of CNN - a frequent critic of Bush's immigration policies.

"A regional prosperity and security program?" he asked rhetorically in a recent cablecast. "This is absolute ignorance. And the fact that we are -- we reported this, we should point out, when it was signed. But, as we watch this thing progress, these working groups are continuing. They're intensifying. What in the world are these people thinking about? You know, I was asked the other day about whether or not I really thought the American people had the stomach to stand up and stop this nonsense, this direction from a group of elites, an absolute contravention of our law, of our Constitution, every national value. And I hope, I pray that I'm right when I said yes. But this is -- I mean, this is beyond belief."

AMEN.

Recently, the Pittsburgh Tribune Review questioned the unchallenged momentum toward merger.

"Will Americans trade their dead presidents for Ameros?" the newspaper asked in an editorial last month.

The paper chided efforts at replacing the U.S. and Canadian dollars and Mexican peso with "the amero" - a knockoff of the euro - along with the building of "a looming NAFTA-like superstate." Citing the meeting between the three national leaders at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, in March 2005, the editorial warned: "Canadians, Mexicans and Americans who value the sovereignty of their respective countries should be concerned."

The Tribune Review editorial saw synergy between the plans of the national leaders and the ambitious agenda of the Council on Foreign Relations - seen by many as a kind of secretive, shadow government of the elite. The CFR issued a bold report in the spring of 2005, shortly after the joint announcements in Waco by Bush and his counterparts.

"The Council on Foreign Relations published a report in May -- "Building a North American Community" -- calling for, among other things, redefining the borders of the three nations, creating a super-regional governance board and the North American Paramilitary Group to ensure that Congress does not interfere with whatever the trilateral union feels like doing," said the paper. "Must the Bush administration happily sacrifice every shred of American sovereignty for the greater good of the New World Order?"

In fact, the CFR report is a five-year plan for the "establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community" with a common "outer security perimeter."

Some see it as the blueprint for merger of the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It calls for "a common economic space ... for all people in the region, a space in which trade, capital and people flow freely."

The CFR's strategy calls specifically for "a more open border for the movement of goods and people." It calls for laying "the groundwork for the freer flow of people within North America." It calls for efforts to "harmonize visa and asylum regulations." It calls for efforts to "harmonize entry screening."

In "Building a North American Community," the report states that Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin "committed their governments" to this goal March 23, 2005, at that meeting in Waco, Texas.

Alan Burkhart, who describes himself as a free-lance political writer, cross-country trucker "and proud citizen of one of the reddest of the Red States - Mississippi," is another critic seething over these plans that seem to have a life of their own - with little or no real public debate.

"As time passes, American corporations will find it unnecessary to move their facilities out of the country," writes Burkhart. "Our already stagnant wages will be just as low as those of Mexico. The cultures of three great nations will be diluted. Our currency will be replaced with the 'Amero.' And, we'll be one giant step closer to the U.N.'s perverse dream of a one-world government."

Pastor also was vice chairman of the May 2005 Council on Foreign Relations task force entitled "Building a North American Community" that presents itself as a blueprint for using bureaucratic action within the executive branches of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada to transform the current trilateral Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America into a North American union regional government.

THATS RIGHT PEOPLE.. THE GOVERNMENT IS PLANNING THIS AND ISN'T EVEN TELLING US ABOUT IT. APPARENTLY WE ARE NOT WORTH NOTIFYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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28 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Traitor to US Sovereignty, Constitution, Supreme Court, July 12, 2006
This review is from: Toward a North American Community: Lessons from the Old World for the New (Paperback)
It may be the biggest story of the 21st century, but few press outlets are telling it. In fact, until very recently, few in the U.S. were aware of the plans and even fewer denouncing what appears to be the implementation of an effort some have characterized as "NAFTA on steroids."

All American people should be very concerned at the prospect of a North American Union - and the end of hope for the free country our Founding Fathers laid before us. We must resist to the bitter end of need be and fight the push bu multinational corporations and elite bankers' push for a new world order combining elements of fascism/corporatism and and end-run around our sovereignty by unsurping the powers of Congress and the American Legal System.

Is President Bush's reluctance to control the border and enforce laws requiring deportation of foreigners who enter the country illegally part of a master plan to all but eliminate borders between the U.S., Canada and Mexico? You bet.

If President Bush's agenda is to establish a new North American union government to supersede the sovereignty of the United States, then the president has an obligation to tell this to the American people directly. The American public has a right to know.

Phyllis Schlafly, the woman best known for nearly single-handedly leading the opposition that killed the Equal Rights Amendment, sees a sinister and sweeping agenda behind the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.

"Is the real push behind guest-worker proposals the Bush goal to expand NAFTA into the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, which he signed at Waco, Texas, last year and reaffirmed at Cancun, Mexico, this year?" she asks. "Bush is a globalist at heart and wants to carry out his father's oft-repeated ambition of a 'new world order.'"

She accuses the president and others behind the effort of wanting to obliterate U.S. borders in an effort to increase the Mexican population transfer and lower wages for the benefit of U.S. corporate interests.

America: From Freedom To Fascism. (Unless we oppose it by any means necessary).
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
two northern neighbors, trilateral approach, sectoral plans, cohesion countries, global trade talks, illegal migration, intraregional trade, three governments
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
North America, European Union, New York, World Bank, Latin America, European Commission, United Kingdom, East Asia, Free Trade Area of the Americas, European Community, Inter-American Development Bank, Mexico City, United Nations, President Clinton, President Fox, Caribbean Basin, Federal Reserve, South America, World Development Indicators, World Trade Organization, Cold War, International Monetary Fund, President Bush, Second World War, Sixth Periodic Report
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