Peter H. Smith

Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science at UC San Diego. Director of the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies (CILAS), 1989–2001. Former president of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). Lifetime Achievement Award from LASA (2013). PhD from Columbia University, previously at Dartmouth, Wisconsin-Madison, and MIT.

Specialized in both Argentina and Mexico: his two biggest bodies of work cover the political systems of both countries, plus broader US-Latin American relations.

Key publications

• Politics and Beef in Argentina: Patterns of Conflict and Change (1969)
• Argentina and the Failure of Democracy: Conflict among Political Elites, 1904–1955 (1974)
• Labyrinths of Power: Political Recruitment in Twentieth-Century Mexico (1979)
• Modern Latin America (co-authored, 1984; now in 9th edition, widely used textbook)
• Talons of the Eagle: Dynamics of U.S.-Latin American Relations (1996; 5th ed. 2021)
• Democracy in Latin America: Political Change in Comparative Perspective (2005)