The complex nature of Mexican diplomacy calls for a new analysis of the process of foreign policy formulation. This book analyzes Mexico's initiatives in Central America during the Porfirian and Revolutionary periods and pays particular attention to Mexico's persistent challenge to U.S. influence in Central America. As both instrument and object of political discourse, foreign policy helps a country's governing elite negotiate its share of power. On the basis of archival research in Europe, the United States, and Latin America, Buchenau's work contributes to the "new international history" that seeks to integrate the study of diplomacy into the mainstream of historical writing.