President Obama

In terms of cost and scope, the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative isn't exactly another NATO. But as a new approach to shared threats in the Americas, CBSI has a greater significance than its diminutive footprint might suggest.

The cooperative security agreement was designed to help 15 of the smallest countries in the hemisphere clamp down on illicit drug trafficking and the gun smuggling, money laundering, addiction, violence and corruption that come with it. The United States and the nations of the Caribbean are expected to officially launch CBSI early next year.

Finally, President Obama's Latin America team has its leader. Six months after his nomination, Arturo Valenzuela was sworn in on Nov. 10 as the top U.S. diplomat in the region: head of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the State Department. Now Obama's "new chapter of engagement" between the United States and its southern neighbors can begin in earnest.