Problems of Hemispheric Defense

Problems of Hemispheric Defense brings together a series of lectures delivered at the University of California, Berkeley, in the autumn of 1941, under the auspices of the Committee on International Relations. Addressing the urgent geopolitical and military issues facing the Western Hemisphere during the Second World War, the volume situates the United States, Canada, and Latin America within a framework of interdependence and vulnerability. Contributors include leading scholars of economics, political science, history, and engineering, who collectively probe how trade, ideology, and strategic geography shaped the defense of the Americas at a moment of global crisis. Through analyses ranging from John B. Condliffe on inter-American trade and solidarity to Russell H. Fitzgibbon on Axis infiltration in Latin America, William H. Alexander on Canada’s role, Baldwin M. Woods on the imperatives of air power, and Herbert I. Priestley on the future of Pan-Americanism, the book underscores both the promise and the fragility of hemispheric cooperation. It offers a snapshot of wartime thought at a pivotal historical juncture: the recognition that hemispheric defense could not be sustained by isolationism or nationalism alone, but demanded broad coordination of economic, political, and military resources. At once a historical document and a work of political analysis, Problems of Hemispheric Defense illuminates the intellectual debates that helped define America’s place in a rapidly changing world order. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1942.