North Korea, Tricontinentalism, and the Latin American Revolution, 1959–1970

In North Korea, Tricontinentalism, and the Latin American Revolution, 1959–1970, historian Moe Taylor relays the advent of Tricontinentalism as refracted through relations between North Korea and Latin America. He links histories of disparate regions by combining the anti-imperialist postures of the Latin American Left with developments in North Korean foreign policy prompted by ideological shifts in the Workers' Party of Korea. The author skillfully delineates doctrinal differences within the socialist world throughout the book. To wit, when defining Tricontinentalism as a political tendency, he emphasizes “proletarian internationalism” with a focus on “national liberation struggle before class struggle, and action over ideology” (p. 6). Throughout, Taylor emphasizes how both Cuba and North Korea pioneered a more militant Third Worldist posture within Tricontinentalism. The author argues that Tricontinentalism had a trajectory distinct from the legacies of the 1955 Bandung Conference and the resultant Non-Aligned Movement, noting that Tricontinentalism pursued violent struggle...