Latin American Policy

There is a new policy-oriented academic journal called Latin American Policy, published by Wiley Blackwell.  Its editorial team comes from Latin America (particularly Mexico and Brazil).  From its initial editorial:

So, why a new journal, and why on Latina America? More information to the Web? More data and signs into the flow of the hypertextual message? Indeed, the birth of this journal will add more buzz to the information stream, but this time the buzz comes from a region that traditionally has spoken through the language of literature and music. Although Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries have articulated a sort of modern discourse in the realm of social sciences, most of this discourse remains fragmented in local or national debates, in spite of the fact that many of these countries share Spanish as a common language. Furthermore, the social sciences debate within LAC countries traditionally has been a dialogue with or a criticism of scientific Western thought but rarely among the LAC community of academics and practitioners. In the informational and global age, it is time for LAC academic and policy communities to talk to the world and among themselves. A lot is being written and debated in this region of the world, but it remains fragmented and confined to local or national debates, in Spanish or Portuguese, with few possibilities for building an interconnected, networked community.

To build that transnational community, the Policy Studies Organization—a society of the American, Midwest, Southern and International Political Sciences Associations and the International Studies Association—joined efforts with the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM)—a leading university in Mexico and Latin America—to launch this new journal: Latin American Policy (LAP): A Journal of Politics and Governance in a Changing Region. Marketed and distributed by the famous editorial house Wiley-Blackwell, its main field of research, discussion, or diffusion will be any crosscutting issue situated in the interface between the policy and political domains concerning or affecting any LAC country or group of countries, but LAP's primary focus is intended to be in the policy arena (any issue or field involving authority, although not necessarily clustered on governments), agency (governmental, from civil society or both), and the pursuit or achievement of convenient or specific outcomes.

Very interesting--it does fill a niche.