Unequal Partners

Since Mexico's defeat in the Mexican-American War of the 1840s, the United States has dominated Mexico economically, militarily, and politically. This long history of asymmetry has created a Mexican distaste for "American arrogance" and an American vision of Mexico as its "backyard," and has damaged political negotiations, trade pacts, and capital flows, as suspicions and protectionism have undermined diplomacy. Despite this, the two nations remain joined at the hip: more than 80 percent of Mexi