The book edited by M.Defort and B.Bagley is the first comprehensive integral analysis of ALBA and its results are exhaustive and excellent. The editors have assembled an impressive array of international scholars to examine thoroughly ALBA’s national and geopolitical dimensions. This regional alliance is seen within the context of regional and global challenges. The authors managed splendidly to trace historical and ideological roots of ALBA and to present a whole picture of its successes and failures. It is a well written, well-organized and highly detailed vision of different aspects of ALBA’s history and contemporaneity, and it would be an invaluable source for readers interested in international relations, the development of the New Left in Latin America and integration issues.