This book addresses problems and puzzles associated with identifying international norms and the influence of these norms on the behavior of different states in international relations in a regional context. Arie M. Kacowicz's research traces several international norms of peace and security and examines their impact in Latin America between 1881 and 2001. He offers an original synthesis of positivist and constructivist approaches and links international relations, international law, international ethics, and Latin American diplomatic history.

Kacowicz's primary argument is that a body of international norms of peace and security can be considered an independent and dynamic factor that affects the quality of international society generally and also plays a significant role in regional contexts. In developing his argument, he analyzes the origin of international norms, the impact of norms on the domestic and foreign behavior of states, and the conditions under which regional norms affect the political behavior of states.

The book contains eleven empirical case-studies of the ways that international norms have affected the actions of Latin American states, ranging from the neutralization of the Magellan Straits in 1881, to the recent incorporation of Argentina, Chile, and Brazil into the Tlatelolco regime of a nuclear-weapons-free-zone in 1994, and the nuclear cooperation between Argentina and Brazil beginning in the late 1990s. These case-studies include stories of success through peaceful resolutions of conflict between states, of failure, and mixtures of both. Scholars and students of international relations and Latin America will find this book to be both a valuable analysis of international norms and a compelling diplomatic history