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Content: Many governments south of the U.S./Mexican border have traditionally defined their foreign policies by opposition to the United States, and virtually all the citizens of the region harbor some resentment for past meddling and interventions of "the ugly Americans" in Latin American internal affairs. Since the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the strategic context of international affairs has been dramatically transformed. Changes in Latin America contributing to this new environment include transitions to democratic governance in virtually all the nations of the region and the growing acceptance of the free market economic model. Latin American protectionism and overt resentment of the United States are giving way to privatization, lowered tariffs, and expectations of a positive future relationship with the United States embodied in former President George Bush's "Enterprise for the Americas Initiative." The greatest risk faced by the United States in the post-cold war era is that the U.S. will declare victory against communism and fail to fundamentally reassess its foreign policy toward Latin America and the rest of the globe. It appears that a historic characteristic of international relations, during and before the cold war, was the United States' consistent support of third world regimes presiding over unjust economic orders. The U.S. government has historically supported the status quo in foreign countries to promote political stability and thereby protect U.S. economic interests. In the current period of dramatic change in the global balance of power, it is imperative for the United States to consider whether or not this historic trend must inevitably continue, or whether the U.S. can become a more active agent for positive change and reform in the Third World. Following the victory of the West over the Soviet communism, policymakers should not ignore the viable lessons Marxism and socialist critiques of international relations offer. As Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari has observed, "Experience has taught us that a state without a market leads to inefficiency, but present reality proves that a market without a state leads to injustice."