The Last Good Neighbor: Mexico in the Global Sixties

With The Last Good Neighbor Eric Zolov considers Mexican foreign policy at the broadest level during the “global sixties.” The book begins in 1958 with a push to reclaim geopolitical relevance and a “resurrection” of Lázaro Cárdenas. The ensuing seven chapters examine a foreign policy aimed at diminishing US power by diversifying global relationships, a foreign policy forged within and with influence over domestic politics that rose under Adolfo López Mateos and declined under Gustavo Díaz Ordaz. While Zolov finds this policy, as do other scholars, Janus-faced, he differs on the theme of Mexican diplomacy's efficacy and function. For Zolov, Mexican foreign policy was not primarily a mechanism for reconciling the opposing pressures of a domestic Left and a neighboring international Right. It was instead a “global pivot,” a “grand strategy aimed at counterbalancing—though not dislodging—the preponderant influence of the United States” (p. 3). This pivot worked, according to Zolov:...