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2541. Touching the Void: Economic Collapse and Popular Protest in the Levant

Author:
Peter Bartu
Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
At the end of 2019, quasi-revolutionary popular protests forced the resigna- tion of two prime ministers in Lebanon and Iraq. With these protests came the opportunity for political and economic reforms that were as wide-ranging as those called for during the 2011 Arab uprisings. The challenge was to steer the public energy of city squares into policies that would affect genuine institutional change and improve the economies of both states. More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic and the oil price crash have had calamitous consequences for Iraq and Lebanon’s rank and file. Lebanon faces hyperinflation, increasing food insecurity, and the collapse of its middle class. Meanwhile, Iraq’s government cannot meet its monthly payroll, has not fostered an active private sector, and has failed to create robust financial institutions—Iraq’s banking sector has been described as a “monetary dystopia.”1 Although economic prospects look bleak in the Levant, there is still a way out of this. It is time to bring in forensic auditors, apply cur- rency controls, and consider a regional approach to recovery. Those who benefit from the status quo will fiercely resist reform, but they can be circumvented by taking reform plans directly to the people by way of referendum. The future lies in going back to those marching in the squares.
Topic:
Economy, Protests, Inflation, COVID-19, and Economic Recovery
Political Geography:
Iraq, Middle East, and Lebanon

2542. Devolution of Informality: Legacies of State-Engineered Hybridity in Libya

Author:
Emadeddin Badi
Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
In contemporary Libya, a panoply of state and non-state actors forms an unconventional security apparatus. The emergence of the state’s hybrid security architecture features prominently in the discussions surrounding the collapse of the Libyan state post–2011, as well as the fragmentation of its political and social orders.1 In recent years, the policies of Libya’s transitional authorities have contributed to institutionalizing “hybridity” as a defining feature of the country’s security architecture. Since the revolution, security actors have become increasingly entrenched as Libya’s weakening central government relinquishes its power to them, often bestowing upon select groups official affiliations by means of recognition and broad mandates.2 They have, in effect, blurred the lines between what is formal and informal, official and unofficial.
Topic:
Security, Non State Actors, Governance, State Actors, and Informal Institutions
Political Geography:
Libya and North Africa

2543. Addressing Challenges Facing NATO Using Lessons Learned From Canada

Author:
Erika Simpson
Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IS YET another international crisis that necessitates nations learn more from each other about how to solve challenges faced by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The 30 allies within NATO value strategic stability, a rules-based system, and trans-Atlanticism. These nations can learn valuable lessons from Canada on how to work together to promote cooperation and policy coordination that protects liberal-democratic internationalism, multilateral institutionalism, and time-tested methods of solid interaction. After the United States stepped back from its long-time role as the leader of the Western world and retreated into isolationism, President-elect Joseph R. Biden’s administration enters office with an approach that is more typical of liberal-internationalism and distinct from the Trump administration’s populist nationalism.1
Topic:
Foreign Policy, NATO, Crisis Management, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Canada and North America

2544. Unveiling the causes of the lack of antinuclear movements in India during the Cold War

Author:
Joao Paulo Nicolini Gabriel and Andre Luiz Cancado Motta
Publication Date:
12-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Conjuntura Austral: Journal of the Global South
Institution:
Conjuntura Austral: Journal of the Global South
Abstract:
This article aims to explain the lack of robust antinuclear movements in India during a period that ranges from the 1950s to the 1970s. Such movements arose throughout the world. During the 1960s, people rallied for this agenda in the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and even in New Zealand. India, conversely, tested a nuclear device in 1974, at the known Pokhran-I test (or “Smiling Buddha”), but did not face such grassroots uprisings. In this sense, this research design applied a deductive congruence analysis built on a bibliographical review. A cas e study on the Indian context tested previously elaborated the main hypotheses. It was inferred that this phenomenon was causedby four elements: (a) few possibilities to public participation; (b) scant available information on nuclear policy; (c) lack of a political schism between national elites and civil society on this topic; and at last (d) geopolitical dynamics.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Cold War, Nuclear Weapons, and Social Movement
Political Geography:
South Asia and India

2545. “Stranger Things”: the future of Latin American regionalism

Author:
Maria Victoria Alvarez
Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Conjuntura Austral: Journal of the Global South
Institution:
Conjuntura Austral: Journal of the Global South
Abstract:
Latin American attempts at regionalism have been pursued through different waves. The last wave, post-liberal or post-hegemonic regionalism, is fading. Building on contributions from International Political Economy, European Studies and International Relations, the paper aims at answering two main questions: how can we characterize the current paths of regional integration in Latin America considering the trends of the last ten years? What can we expect of Latin American regionalism over the next decade? Grounded on a qualitative content analysis, we address three premises based on the past trajectory of Latin American regionalism in order to grasp some of the present and (possible) futures trends: membership of regional organizations, institutional design of regional organizations and the role of the United States. After contrasting these elements with recent Latin American regionalist developments, the paper engages in a creative exercise of forecasting. The purpose is not to pretend to know the future nor to predict it but to present two imaginable scenarios: a short-term scenario and a longer-term scenario. Maybe we are about to witness some “stranger things” in the future of Latin American regionalism, opening up to different realities, different explanations and alternatives.
Topic:
Political Economy, Regional Integration, Regionalism, and Future
Political Geography:
Latin America and United States of America

2546. The domestic risk of Chinese partnerships: cross-conditionality and coalition building

Author:
Alejandro Angel
Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Conjuntura Austral: Journal of the Global South
Institution:
Conjuntura Austral: Journal of the Global South
Abstract:
Chinese credits became a viable, and preferred, alternative during the pink tide in part because it lacked traditional conditionality clauses. However, these financial operations, as well as others, often imply the existence of cross-conditionality. In opposition to traditional variants of conditionality, cross-conditionality implies that operations in the realms of trade, finance, or aid for development can be jeopardized as a response to decisions taken by national authorities that change previously agreed conditions in parallel projects. The main objective of this study is to explore the possible consequences of cross-conditionality, particularly the political consequences, in the Brazilian government’s coalition building. The hypothesis is that cross-conditionality represents a similar risk than the one that traditional conditionality represented in terms of national autonomy insofar as national governments would still have their hands tied, although for different reasons. We find that cross-conditionality affects the coalition-building efforts of national governments since it can be used to affect key government partners. In Brazil, agribusiness, a key partner of Bolsonaro’s government, is the sector that could be potentially affected if the Chinese government decides to implement cross-conditionality as a retaliatory measure to hostile policies or declarations of the Brazilian government vis-à-vis Chinese interests.
Topic:
Development, Partnerships, Trade, Coalition, and Cross-conditionality
Political Geography:
China, Asia, Brazil, and South America

2547. The new Latin American neo-patriotic far-right: reactionary internationalism and its challenge to the international liberal order

Author:
Jose Antonio Sanahuja
Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Conjuntura Austral: Journal of the Global South
Institution:
Conjuntura Austral: Journal of the Global South
Abstract:
This work argues that the new far-right, which we characterise as neo-patriotic, emerges through a combination of agency and structural factors amid a crisis of globalisation, understanding it as a crisis in the hegemonic order. The crisis of globalisation opens opportunities for the rise of a new far-right which redefines the popular, the national, and the international based on Schmittian friend-enemy distinctions, as an autonomous categorisation, which gives political meaning to their identity as a political actor. A key element of this identity is a reactionary internationalism based on the defence of tradition against cosmopolitan globalism. Thus, the reinstatement of a traditionalist “Arcadia” gives meaning to the process of re-politization and challenges to the liberal international order, its national, regional, and global dimensions, universalist and globalist discourse, and its teleologies of progress. In sum, these actors do not merely question globalisation as an established order but fight for the construction of an alternative international order of a reactionary type.
Topic:
Globalization, Liberal Order, Far Right, International Order, and Reactionary Internationalism
Political Geography:
Latin America

2548. Foreign Policy in the real world: the Obama years

Author:
Joseph Marques
Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Conjuntura Austral: Journal of the Global South
Institution:
Conjuntura Austral: Journal of the Global South
Abstract:
This review essay examines three books written by senior former Obama administration members - Susan Rice, Samantha Power, and Ben Rhodes. It highlights how the authors manage to present many of the Obama administration's internal debates, as well as reveal the limitations of its foreign policy. RICE, Susan. Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2019, 544p., ISBN: 978-1-50118-997-5. POWER, Samantha. The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir. London: Dey Street Books, 2019, 592p., ISBN: 978-0-06282-069-3. RHODES, Ben. The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House. New York: Random House, 2018, 428p. ISBN: 978-0-52550-935-6
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Book Review, Memoir, and Barack Obama
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

2549. DIPLOMATIC NARRATIVES ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION: POWER, COOPERATION AND PERSPECTIVES FROM BRAZIL AS A DEVELOPING COUNTRY

Author:
Iara Costa Leite, Júlia Mascarello, and Nicole Aguilar Gayard
Publication Date:
04-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Conjuntura Austral: Journal of the Global South
Institution:
Conjuntura Austral: Journal of the Global South
Abstract:
This article adopts a different stance towards materials on science diplomacy produced by its practitioners, broadly understood here as those individuals or organizations involved in the practice of science diplomacy (including, for instance, scientists and diplomats): it sees such materials as composed by narratives, rather than scientific categories that describe and analyze social phenomena.6 Our focus is on frames and causal perceptions related to STI and international relations as elaborated by diplomats in Brazil, where the authors are based. Together with China, India, Russia and the United States, Brazil has become a central stage for competition between developed countries' science diplomacy initiatives (FLINK; SCHREITERER, 2010). Our aim is to map and systematize narratives on STI authored by Brazilian diplomats and their connections with international relations. We understand narratives broadly, related to how diplomats perceive STI and associate it with power, development, competition and cooperation in multiple geometries (bilateral, multilateral, North-South, South-South) and sectors (nuclear, economic, environmental etc.).
Topic:
Diplomacy, Science and Technology, Power, and Cooperation
Political Geography:
Brazil and South America

2550. FROM SCIENCE DIPLOMACY TO EDUCATION DIPLOMACY: THE BRAZILIAN CASE

Author:
Gabriela Gomes Coelho Ferreira and Amacio Jorge Silva Nunes de Oliveira
Publication Date:
04-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Conjuntura Austral: Journal of the Global South
Institution:
Conjuntura Austral: Journal of the Global South
Abstract:
Actions of science diplomacy are typically described in literature as related to developed countries. This is due to a perspective in which science is a hard power resource or, even when it is perceived as a soft power resource, it is an extension of a country’s hard power. Because of that, science diplomacy has been normally related with developed countries, especially during the last century. Therefore, it seems quite unusual to picture a developing country like Brazil pursuing such an elaborate strategy. Nevertheless, Brazil has been signing Cultural Agreements since 1930’s, using science as a diplomatic tool to overcome regional frictions. We also briefly show its development into a complex education diplomacy strategy that lasts until today. We intend to demonstrate the smart strategy deployed by Brazil, a developing country, in using the soft power of science since the 1930’s not only despite its lack of hard power, but as an alternative to it. The Brazilian diplomatic body used the legitimacy given by science to establish important dialogues with key countries, starting from those in Latin America—therefore, using science diplomacy to overcome regional frictions since the beginning of the last century.
Topic:
Diplomacy, Education, Science and Technology, and Soft Power
Political Geography:
Brazil and South America