During an August 9 and 10 summit in Guadalajara, North American leaders forged consensus on issues ranging from climate-change policy to security, writes Canadian Senator Pamela Wallin.

"If the United States is going to be a partner with Latin America—a healthy and laudable goal—the aspiring powers of the hemisphere need to shake off their timidity and worn-out rhetoric," write AS/COA's Senior Director of Policy Christopher Sabatini and Kissinger Associates' Stephanie Junger-Moat.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper travels to Mexico and Panama in the coming days. Canadian Senator Pamela Wallin writes about the probable inking of a trade deal during the prime minister's Panama visit as well as the successful conclusion of Ottawa's trade deal with Peru.

The Wilson Center’s Andrew Selee writes in the Houston Chronicle on U.S.-Mexican collaboration to combat drug violence and trafficking. “[W]hile stepped-up enforcement on the border is certainly welcome, it can hardly be the primary solution,” he writes. Excerpted from an Americas Quarterly essay.

"Concrete policy proposals and actions are required in order to keep the momentum and show the hemisphere, through deeds as well as words, that we really have embarked upon a new path in hemispheric affairs," writes COA's Eric Farnsworth in an article for Poder.

Writing for openDemocracy, Dartmouth's John M. Carey looks at the Latin American trend of holding referendums to pave the way reelection. "[P]residents themselves tend to lack judgment as to when enough is enough," he writes. Adapted from an essay published in the Summer 2009 Americas Quarterly.

On the fiftieth anniversary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, former President of Peru Alejandro Toledo discusses the role the Commission has played in helping reconcile the region's complex past and safeguard its democratic institutions. Adapted from an article originally published in Americas Quarterly.