The book analyses present Latin American issues in their historical course since independence (beginning 1810) and its aftermath, up to the contemporary period. The authors focus on political, economic, social, environmental and cultural developments.It examines the legacies of the past and the multiple changes that have taken place in the last two centuries. Today's situation suggests that modernization is well under way and will continue. Offering broad insight into present and future concerns, the book enables readers to evaluate potential areas of economic and social growth, as well as assess risks stemming from past events.
Transnational solidarity movements often play an important role in reshaping structures of global power. Jessica Stites Mor looks at four in-depth case studies in the Global South, which act as a much-needed road map to navigate our current political climate and show us how solidarity movements might approach future struggles.
During the Second World War, the United States built over two hundred defense installations on sovereign soil in Latin America in the name of cooperation in hemisphere defense. Predictably, it proved to be a fraught affair. Despite widespread acclaim for Pan-American unity with the Allied cause, defense construction incited local conflicts that belied the wartime rhetoric of fraternity and equality. Cooperating with the Colossus reconstructs the history of US basing in World War II Latin America, from the elegant chambers of the American foreign ministries to the cantinas, courtrooms, plazas, and brothels surrounding US defense sites. Foregrounding the wartime experiences of Brazil, Cuba, and Panama, the book considers how Latin American leaders and diplomats used basing rights as bargaining chips to advance their nation-building agendas with US resources, while limiting overreach by the "Colossus of the North" as best they could. Yet conflicts on the ground over labor rights, discrimination, sex, and criminal jurisdiction routinely threatened the peace. Steeped in conflict, the story of wartime basing certainly departs from the celebratory triumphalism commonly associated with this period in US-Latin American relations, but this book does not wholly upend the conventional account of wartime cooperation. Rather, the history of basing distills a central tension that has infused regional affairs since a wave of independence movements first transformed the Americas into a society of nations: national sovereignty and international cooperation may seem like harmonious concepts in principle, but they are difficult to reconcile in practice. Drawing on archival research in five countries, Cooperating with the Colossus is a revealing history told at the local, national, and international levels of how World War II transformed power and politics in the Americas in enduring ways.
Combining an analysis of regionalism from a systemic view with a domestic political-economy analysis, this book sheds light on the new dynamics and emerging configurations of regionalisms and interregionalisms in the post-Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Donald Trump’s presidency has transformed trans-Pacific economic and political relations, contrasting sharply with President Obama’s ‘pivot to Asia’ strategy. Unilateralism and bilateralism have returned to the center stage, at the cost of regionalism, interregionalism, and multilateralism. Understanding these new dynamics requires closer examination of the underlying domestic political economies. Examining ten country case studies of multi-actor agency at the national level, expert contributors argue that trans-Pacific relations should not only be explained in terms of the behavior of the major powers, but that medium powers, and even small countries, can exert influence and occupy strategic nodes and contribute to shaping a new international relations network. Their findings will be of interest to scholars of international relations, international political economy, regionalism, and international economics.
Even though it failed to prevent World War II, the League of Nations left a lasting legacy. This precedent-setting international organization created important institutions and initiatives in labor, economics, culture, science, and more, from the International Labor Organization to initiatives targeting education, taxation, nutrition, and other issues. Otherwise marginalized in global diplomacy, Latin Americans were involved, and often acted as leaders, in many League-related activities and made a number of positive contributions to the League. In this book foremost scholars from Europe and the Americas consider Latin American leadership and experiences in the League of Nations. Using research in frequently overlooked collections, Beyond Geopolitics makes groundbreaking contributions to the study of Latin American international relations, the history of the League of Nations, and the broader story of cooperation across borders.
In Regime Accommodation in International Law: Human Rights in International Economic Law and Policy, Heejin Kim analyses the ways in which international human rights and economic law interact and conflict across a range of complex issues. These sub-branches of international law are not entirely autonomous; as the author shows, they have been developed in a close relation to each other. International law – imperfect as it is – provides means to resolve the antinomies arising from conflicting rights and obligations under these sub-fields. Against the difficulties of addressing non-economic concerns including human rights in the practice of WTO and foreign investment regime, Kim examines how decision-makers at different stages of international economic policy-making can accommodate, invoke, or reflect human rights in a better way.
With the bilingual volume International Investment Law in Latin America: Problems and Prospects, Attila Tanzi, Alessandra Asteriti, Rodrigo Polanco Lazo and Paolo Turrini provide a regional perspective on one of the liveliest branches of international law by situating it in one of the most dynamic areas of the world. Latin America has always had an ambivalent relationship with international investment law and, more recently, it has been the home of harsh and resolute criticisms, questioning the ultimate legitimacy of the regime. By bringing together distinguished scholars of this legal field, the volume analyses ongoing trends and draws lessons from the Continent’s past experiences while identifying possible solutions to the important challenges it faces. Con el volumen bilingüe Derecho Internacional de las Inversiones en América Latina: Problemas y Perspectivas, Attila Tanzi, Alessandra Asteriti, Rodrigo Polanco Lazo y Paolo Turrini tienen por objetivo proporcionar una perspectiva regional para una de las ramas más vigorosas del derecho internacional, situándola en una de las áreas más dinámicas del mundo. Latinoamérica siempre ha tenido una relación ambivalente con el derecho internacional de inversiones y, más recientemente, ha sido el hogar de duras y decididas críticas en su contra, cuestionando la legitimidad última del régimen. Al reunir a distinguidos estudiosos de este campo legal, tanto de América Latina como de fuera de la región, este volumen analiza esta actual tendencia, extrayendo lecciones de las experiencias pasadas del continente e identificando posibles soluciones a los desafíos importantes que ahora enfrenta.
This book offers an original analysis of global political economy by examining it through the ideas, agency and influence of Raúl Prebisch, one of the most important thinkers, leaders and personalities of the global political economy in the second half of the 20th century. This book offers an important corrective, reintroducing current and future generations of GPE scholars and students to this important body of work and allowing a richer understanding of past and ongoing political struggles.
This edited collection offers a timely and original perspective on the many upheavals and revolutions that broke out across the world during the earlytwentieth century. With previous research tending to confine revolutions within national borders, this book sets out to place them within a broader global sphere of thought and action. The authors explore the time phase between the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the Asturian Revolution of 1934, including cases from South Africa, Australia, China, the Middle East and Latin America. Providing insights from leading scholars in the field, this collection highlights the interconnectedness and transnationalism of upheavals and revolutions, offering a new approach which integrates political, social and cultural history. Chapter 8 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via Link.springer.com
On November 16, 2017, Pope Francis tweeted, "Poverty is not an accident. It has causes that must be recognized and removed for the good of so many of our brothers and sisters." With this statement and others like it, the first Latin American pope was associated, in the minds of many, with a stream of theology that swept the Western hemisphere in the 1960s and 70s, the movement known as liberation theology. Born of chaotic cultural crises in Latin America and the United States, liberation theology was a trans-American intellectual movement that sought to speak for those parts of society marginalized by modern politics and religion by virtue of race, class, or sex. Led by such revolutionaries as the Peruvian Catholic priest Gustavo Gutiérrez, the African American theologian James Cone, or the feminists Mary Daly and Rosemary Radford Ruether, the liberation theology movement sought to bridge the gulf between the religious values of justice and equality and political pragmatism. It combined theology with strands of radical politics, social theory, and the history and experience of subordinated groups to challenge the ideas that underwrite the hierarchical structures of an unjust society. Praised by some as a radical return to early Christian ethics and decried by others as a Marxist takeover, liberation theology has a wide-raging, cross-sectional history that has previously gone undocumented. In The World Come of Age, Lilian Calles Barger offers for the first time a systematic retelling of the history of liberation theology, demonstrating how a group of theologians set the stage for a torrent of new religious activism that challenged the religious and political status quo.
