CIAO DATE: 08/2014
Volume: 3, Issue: 5
June 2014
EDITOR'S NOTE (PDF)
Paolo Visentini
In a short period, the African continent became, from a situation of
lesser relevance for the analysts, a region of higher strategic value. The complex
academic understanding of this evolution is made difficult, in Brazil, for
unfamiliarity towards the region and, in Europe, for the prejudiced vision. But,
as a Brazilian diplomat stationed in the old continent once argued, "ignorance is
more easily overcome than prejudice". Thus, as a contribution to the debate,
AUSTRAL dedicates this issue to the international relations of Africa.
STRUCTURAL POWER TOWARD WEAK STATES: FRANCE, NOT CHINA, MATTERS IN FRANCOPHONE AFRICA (PDF)
Olivier Mbabia
The magnitude of assignment of the People’s Republic of China in Africa has recently ignited a tide of ‘speedy’ literature ranking the latter as the main actor to the detriment of traditional ones. A close look at this issue, however, shows that this deduction seems all the less simplistic. By deliberately limiting the present analysis to the so-called Francophone Africa2, where Chinese engagement is as considerable as elsewhere on the continent, it appears that this conclusion is shaky when submitted to a rigorous analysis. Can a causal relation be established between the progression of this presence and Beijing’s actual influence? Can power or influence be subsumed to an ever-growing presence and an economic vitality? Are these parameters enough to unseat old colonial powers, especially France in its original and natural area of influence?
AFRICA AND THE EMERGING POWERS: THE SOUTH AND THE UNHOLY COOPERATION (PDF)
Paulo Visentini
One of the most remarkable phenomena of Contemporary International Relations is the fact that Africa became object of a new global race, like in the end of the 19th Century. In the beginning of the 21st Century, however, the most dynamic protagonists of such movement are the emerging powers, and not the European metropolises. Such process occurs in a frame of economic and social development in Africa, besides a diplomatic protagonism, which represented an unexpected feature for many. Africa, in marks of globalization and the end of the Cold War, experienced a second “lost decade”, with bloody internationalized civil wars, epidemics (HIV/AIDS, cholera and the Ebola virus, among others) and economic marginalization
THE ROLE OF COMMERCIALLY PROVIDED SECURITY IN AFRICA'S PATRIMONIAL SECURITY COMPLEX (PDF)
Andreas Krieg, Christopher Kinsey
Applying Western liberal models of civil-security sector relations to the highly complex and factionalized security sector on the African continent is difficult. Unlike the security sector in Western liberal states whose control is widely monopolized by the institutions of the state and society3, the security sector in Africa has never been structured around the concept of security as a public good provided by the state on behalf of or for the protection of a societal public sphere as a whole. On a continent where ethnic, tribal or religious groups have been assigned to artificial territorial entities by colonial powers, the Western notion of an integral nation state built around a public consciousness of togetherness has been widely alien to most of the African states and societies4. Consequently, post-colonial states and its civilian leaderships have rarely created a security sector, which is inclusive, representative of domestic social, ethnic, religious or tribal fault lines and undisputed in regulating violence. Instead, African security sectors, whether public or private, have been built
ASSYMETRIC WARFARE: EXPERIENCES, PERSPECTIVES, INKLING AND CHALLENGES WITH A FOCUS ON ZIMBABWE (PDF)
Raymond Mharapara, Lucky Bassie Bangidza, Steven Gwekwere
This article offers an asymmetric warfare analytic conception through suggesting that asymmetric threats should be viewed in terms of the battle of the minds. With reference to the knowledge of asymmetric struggle, its patterns, conflict between civilisation and its nature in torn countries, clash of civilisation and its challenges, terrorism and insurgents giving examples from the international level with the main thematic focus on Zimbabwe. The article suggests that there is a high level of asymmetric warfare ignorance among many and that asymmetric threats serve elite’s national economic interests. The article suggests possibilities to protect or plan against an asymmetrical attack because asymmetric warfare is a war of ideas where the centre of gravity lies in the hearts and minds of the people. Symmetric warfare entail different methods, technologies, values, time perspectives, or some combination. It can be short-term or long-term in approach.
TOWARDS REDEFINING THE NEWS AGENDA IN THE NIGERIAN MEDIA FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (PDF)
Osakue Stevenson Omoera
Employing the historical-analytic methodology, this study focuses on the news agenda in the Nigerian media. It sues that there is the need for news reporting and coverage activities of Nigerian media professionals to be redefined in order for them to be able to effectively contribute to sustainable peace in Nigeria, which is a sine qua non for development. In this context, this study examines the crucial role the media have been playing/ought to be playing/should be playing in the sustenance of peace and the galvanization of sustainable development in Nigeria as a microcosm of Africa. It specifically posits that the culture of peace can ensure the security of lives and properties in the Nigerian society and the society, in turn, stands a greater chance of being economically, socially, politically as well as culturally developed, if the agents of development such as the media and their operators/professionals diligently and dispassionately carry out their responsibilities. Towards this end, the media in Nigeria, both print and broadcast are encouraged to engage in more interpretational and investigative reportage of issues for national development.
Igor Castellano de SIlva, Jose Miguel Quedi Martins
This article argues how Brazil can contribute for the formation of the National Army and construction of the African states by means of an embryonic particular model of international insertion, based on a specific concept of human rights and on the International Technical Cooperation. This possibility can be extended in the case of the Congo.
FOREIGN POLICY OF NEW SOUTH AFRICA: REINSERTION AND REGIONAL AFFIRMATION (PDF)
Kamilla Raquel Rizzi, Nathaly Xavier Schutz
South Africa is a country of singular importance for the understanding of contemporary International Relations. Situated at the Southernmost region of the African continent, coasted by the Indian and Atlantic oceans, South Africa occupies a geopolitical and geoeconomic strategic position. In the beginning of the 1990s, with the end of the Apartheid regime, the country starts a period of international reinsertion that presents as a fundamental feature the stabilization of the relations with the other African countries, especially its neighbors of Southern Africa. The objective of this article is to analyze the foreign policy of the New South Africa (from Nelson Mandela to Jacob Zuma), presenting as a central thread the role played by regional insertion for the South African ambitions in the international system.
COOPERATION AND CONFLICT: THE DYNAMICS OF OIL AND GAS IN CENTRAL ASIA (PDF)
Paolo Duarte
This article analyzes some paradigmatic cases of tension between conflict and cooperation, limited cooperation and difficulties in initiating processes of cooperation in Central Asia, particularly in terms of oil and gas, often generating rivalries that prevent significant advances in regional integration.
THE POLITICAL ROLE OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE DEFAULT OF ARGENTINA (PDF)
Roberto Miranda
In December of 2001, due to the financial crisis, Argentina had to suspend external payments. The country started a frantic process of abandonment of default thereafter. Research about the causes, processes, and mechanisms of the crisis has been focused on economic issues. The present work instead considers international politics. The aim of the paper is to analyze the role of the United Sates in the restructuring of Argentina’s debt. We consider the reasons, conditions, and actions developed by the hegemonic power in the relationship between Argentina and its creditors. We specially emphasize the political role played by the US government, a position that the US administration had no intention to assume neither before the debacle nor after the crisis started. We conclude that, despite the fact that Argentina has overcome the most difficult part of its default, the episode made evident, once more, the strong Argentine dependence towards the United States.
NEW INDEPENDENT FOREIGN POLICY, A MATTER OF EMPHASIS (PDF)
Eduardo Brigidi de Mello
The New Foreign Independent Foreign Policy (IFP) of the Lula Administration is compared to the IFP because of the emphases and the democratic legitimacy. It recovered the internal-external correlation and added protagonism to the globalist strategy through four axes: political and economic multilateralism, South-South Cooperation and equality. The first and the second, objectives; the cooperation, an instrument; the equality, the value that grounds them.