ТЕМАТИЧЕСКОЕ ДОСЬЕ Латинская Америка в XXI в.: вызовы и перспективы ГЕОПОЛИТИКА ЛАТИНСКОЙ АМЕРИКИ LATIN AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT TRENDS AND BRAZIL’S ROLE IN THE REGION Paulo Roberto de Almeida Centro Universitario de Brasilia (UniCEUB) Asa Norte, SEPN 707/907, Brasilia, DF, Brazil, 70775-500 The article considers the main directions of development of Latin American countries in XX century, defines the features of the process of economic stabilization (the case of Argentina and Brazil), the resolution of debt crisis, the development of democratization and the influence of globalization. <...> The author reveals the main features of the integration processes in the region (Mercosur, UNASUR, the Pacific Alliance and the Venezuelan project of Alba), the consequences of the implosion of the FTAA. <...> The role of trade and economic policy of China in the region has changed and it turned into the main regional trade partner, taking the place previously held by the United States. <...> The analyses of the successes and failures in the implementation of economic reforms in Brazil is provided. <...> LATIN AMERICAN RECENT DEVELOPMENT TRENDS Since the implosion of socialism in the former Soviet Union — or perhaps even earlier, since the beginning of China’s transition to capitalism, under Deng Xiao-ping — the world economy has entered in what has been called the third wave of globalization; the two previous were, the global unification of the known world first started by the great navigations of the 16th century, soon afterwards closed by colonial exclusions, after which came the true constitution of a world economy under the second industrial revolution, during the short lived Belle йpoque (1870—1914). <...> Interrupted temporarily 7 Вестник РУДН, серия Международные отношения, декабрь 2015, том 15, № 4 by the First World War and effectively barred by the Bolshevik revolution in half of the Eurasia continent, globalization receded for at least three generations, as not only Russia (with some other satellites, conquered after the Second World War) but also newly independent countries from Latin America chose to partially retract from the world economy in order to start national development processes, characterized by introverted sectorial economic policies, trade protectionism, industrial nationalism and State intervention. <...> Notwithstanding the fact that the international economy was interrupted in 1914, it became for the first time in History a truly interdependent <...>