A Regional View on the Summit of the Americas

The upcoming Summit of the Americas ought to be an important venue for the United States and the region to align responses to shared challenges and strengthen hemispheric cooperation. Nevertheless, the summit is already struggling to live up to this potential, facing criticism that the current agenda downplays the concerns voiced by the region, as well as recent threats by several countries including Mexico, Bolivia, and Honduras to boycott the event. In this episode, Juan Cruz, Senior Adviser and Director of the CSIS Argentina-U.S. Strategic Forum, sits down with Dr. Francisco de Santibañes, Vice President of the Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI), one of the most prominent Argentine foreign policy think tanks. Together, the two discuss prospects for the summit and share a south-to-north perspective on the key issues that should be on the table, but have not received sufficient attention in summit coverage. These include the importance of infrastructure investments for the region, the growth of the digital economy, and the role educational and scientific exchanges play in bonding the hemisphere together.