Venezuelan Politics and Foreign Policy

Through most of its existence, Venezuela’s place in international relations has exceeded what might be expected from a mid-sized state on the global periphery. Simón Bolívar’s continental independence drives began in Venezuela and this regional leadership has long been a central element of Venezuelan national sentiment. Venezuela’s location at the northern edge of South America and the southern edge of the Caribbean gave it strategic importance to the powers of the Global North in the nineteenth century. Venezuela’s vast oil reserves made its geopolitical importance soar in the middle of the twentieth century. And Venezuela’s 1958 democracy resisted the collapse of other second-wave democracies and became a reference point for the region, as a Cold War counterpoint to Cuba. These elements: regional leadership, location, oil, and democracy have run through Venezuelan politics and foreign policy throughout its existence as a country, despite dramatic shifts in policies and allies in recent decades. This bibliography focuses not on foreign policy toward Venezuela but on Venezuela’s foreign policy, dipping into Venezuela’s politics to the degree that it is necessary for understanding its foreign policy.