ANALYSIS Beyond Neo-Extractivism: Challenges and Opportunities for Active International Insertion in Latin America Klaus Bodemer We are at present witnessing changes happening at breakneck speed in the inter­national arena, the contours of which are not yet clear. The global power center of gravity is moving from West to East. The lack of any alternative beyond the horizons of capitalism has brought to the fore the question as to which strain of capitalism is the best to guarantee welfare, political stability, security, and social harmony. Latin America’s position in this new order is ambivalent. Over the past 15 years, the region has, on the one hand, gained a foothold on the international stage, albeit with its growth capacity and insertion in the global economy subject to certain conditions; on the other, the region has been shaped by its longstanding role in the international division of labor, external constraints, limitations on financing investment, and recurring balance-of-payments crises. Understood as a springboard to the international market, Latin American integra­tion, starting in the 1980s, has shifted profoundly. Nowadays, it is more heteroge­neous than in the past, and the region more fragmented than ever before. Nor do Brazil and Mexico, as the key power brokers in the region, have at their disposal the political and economic resources they need to wield regional or subregional leadership or project themselves dynamically beyond the region. Looking at the avalanche of new trade agreements, it is increasingly obvious that they must be compatible and tied to other policy frameworks in the international sphere, first and foremost, to the broader debate on development strategies, as has been dis­cussed in a series of recent documents published by the United Nations. In order to implement a structural transformation approach with an eye to more sustainable and inclusive development, it is essential to overcome the extractivist model and the“raw materials curse,” diversify and upgrade productive struc­tures, and root them in productive development policies, helped along and sup­ported by much more active education, science, and innovation policies.