CIAO DATE: 04/2015
Volume: 3, Issue: 6
April 2015
EDITOR'S NOTE: THE ECONOMIC WAR AND THE SILENCE OF THE ACADEMY (PDF)
Paulo Visentini
The last several years have been characterized by a growing acceleration of International Relations. With the end of the Cold War, amidst the Gorbachev government, the fall of the Eastern European socialist regimes in 1989 and the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, there was room for a reordering of forces in the world-system. When the vacuum started to be occupied by old and new international players, the situation turned into a War of Positions. China and the other emerging nations, especially the members of BRICS, were able to gain more leverage. But this precarious balance was significantly affected by the economic crisis of OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries since 2008-09.
THE BRAZIL-UNITED STATES BILATERAL RELATIONS IN THE DILMA ROUSSEFF ADMINISTRATION, 2011-2014 (PDF)
Cristina Soreanu Pecequilo
The Brazil - U.S. bilateral relations are structural in the evolution of the Brazilian international relations because o f the political, economic, strategic and ideological weight that the U.S. holds on the country's agenda. This weight results from a complex combination of factors that involves the nature of the U.S. power resources, its projection capacity and Brazil's pe rception of itself and about such partner. This trend of the debate ideologization and internal polarization that breaks down into currents which are in favor or against an autonomous foreign policy, in opposition to the alignment with the U.S., has remain ed until the twenty - first century, going through the administration of Luis Inácio Lula da Silva (2003/2010) and reaching that of Dilma Rousseff (2011/2014).
THE RETURN OF GEOPOLITICS: THE ASCENSION OF BRICS (PDF)
Ronaldo Carmona
The sixth BRICS Summit, which took place in the Brazilian city of Fortaleza last July, by starting the second cycle of annual M eetings of Heads of State of five major developing nation s of the world 3 , marked a qualitative leap of the alliance, which enters a new phase, strengthening the trend to a polycentric world.
FROM CONTAINMENT POLICY TO REEMERGENCE: RUSSIA IS BACK ON THE CHESSBOARD (PDF)
Diego Pautasso
The US government became used to face the world, especially after the Cold War end, as a chessboard. But a chessboard in which it was the only chess player to play – the others were just p ieces . This practice reflected the disintegration of the USSR and the North - American perception that the world had turned unipolar. During the 1990s, China prioritized modernization and the overcoming of the vulnerabilities resulting from the socialist camp‟s c ollapse; Brazil, with great economic hardships (unemployment, foreign debt with the IMF, stagnation), had a foreign policy with a high degree of alignment towards the decision - making centers of the international system; India initiated reforms and sought t o overcome the constraints related to the stressed tensions with Pakistan and due to the effects of going nuclear; and Russia faced a unique disorganization during a peace scenario. Naturally, such scenario reduced the scope of peripheral countries which s eek an autonomous and/or non - aligned international insertion.
CHINA ALSO LOOKS TOWARDS THE ARCTIC (PDF)
Alexandre Pereira da Silva
The increasing defrost in Arctic ice layer has been causing great concern among environmentalists. On the other hand, the actual possibility of decreasing the amount of ice in the Arctic opens up a set of new perspectives for the region, both for countries bordering the area and for the ones elsewhere. Within the second list, a certain state deserves particular attention: China.
APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAMME AND ITS IMPACT ON SOUTHERN AFRICA (PDF)
Jo-Ansie van Wyk
Apartheid South Africa‟s nuclear related activities in Southern Africa have a long history. Apart from, inter alia, the development and existence of at least six nuclear devices (which was denied for decades), South Africa operated a nuclear test site in the Kalahari Desert on the border of Botswana, utilised uranium from Southwest Africa (now independent Namibia), and employed a nuclear deterrent stra tegy in response to Soviet support for Angola and liberation movements in the region. This elicited responses from the so - called Frontline States (FLS) as well as the members of the Southern African Development Community (SADCC). Therefore, the purpose of this contribution is to determine the extent of South Africa‟s nuclear activities as well as its impact on the region from the mid - 1970s until 1991. This period covers the period since the Portuguese regime‟s collapse in 1974 and its domino effect in South ern Africa, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the termination of the Cold War.
Luciano Anzelini, Iván Poczynok
The national defense policy of Argentina has experienced advances and regressions since t he democratic return in 1983. This result has been connected to the dynamics that civil - military relations have inherited from the dictatorial period. The necessity to subordinate the Armed Forces dominated the defense agenda during most part of the democr atic period, constituting the core problem of this jurisdiction.
COOPERATIVE SECURITY: CONFIDENCE-BUILDING MEASURES WITH BRAZIL IN TIMES OF ARGENTINIAN DEMOCRACY (PDF)
Gisela Pereyra Doval, Miguela Varela
T he overcome of the bipolar dynamic s between the Soviet and the American bloc has led to a n increas ing concern about the study of security in regional geopolitical environment. Thus, the Copenhagen School 3 proposed new tools to analyze and understand the relations between states within the framework of European security itself, which distinguishes it fr om the traditional theories of international relations, most of them from North America. The Copenhagen School believes that the phenomena produced by the end of the Cold War and the globalization process are not included or covered by the dominant models on security and there is a need to redefine some of the concepts used so far.
Mitchell Belfer
Any evaluation of 20 th century international political and socio - economic engage ments inevitably draws heavily on the literature depicting the relations between and within the Cold War blocs. Such cognitive benchmarking has become so extensive that even the earth - shattering World Wars, which preceded US - Soviet brinkmanship, have been sewn together to the Cold War so as to produce a meta - narrative as a means of understanding the dynamics of international relations themselves. For instance, WWI has not merely entered the history books for what it produced; it has also come to be seen as producing the right conditions for Russia’s communist revolution and the US’s rise to inherit the position of Western leadership — two necessary prequels to the half century of Cold War. But not before these two ideologically opposed blocs join forces to rid the world of fascism and the German pivot in European affairs. WWII has come to represent three chapters in the story of civilisation: the story of genocide (re: Nazi Germany’s quest to exterminate world Jewry), the story of non - nationalistic secular ideo logical struggles and the story of power beyond the pale of power (re: the nuclearisation of power). In other words, WWII has also, largely, been included as a necessary chapter to the Cold War. And certainly it was. Without WWII it is difficult to imagine how, or if, the USSR would have driven west and occupied Central Europe, whether the West European states would not have deployed East, if the US would have deepened its engagements to Europe or any number of dynamics would have unfolded. It is clear that the Cold War is a defining period of international relations history.
INNOVATION AND THE WARLIKE PHENOMENON (PDF)
Rafael Ávila, Lucas Pereira Rezende
War is a human activity responsible for social, political and economic changes. Also, much of our history is meddled with the history of war (Ávila and Rangel 2009 ). Although it is understood that war is not solely responsible for these changes, it is, nevertheless, one of the phenomena that most directly generate ruptures in these spheres. War is also responsible for several technical and technological changes, and it has generated some significant innovation processes with great impact on the way of life of societies throughout history.
Ornela Fabani
Different actors and even geographical areas with which Argentina has prioritized its ties can be traced overtime. However, the Middle East has never had a special place in the agenda of external relations of the country. On the contrary, it has been a marginal area with regard to its relations both in political and economic terms. This can be explain ed by the geographical gap between those territories; also, by the lack of shared idiosyncrasies, such as religion , and social and cultural terms, since the South American country is markedly different from the states comprising the space that has been cal led the Middle East – an area in which, moreover, coexist different ethnic and religious groups, as well as different political regimes, and which has become internationally notorious internationally for its high number of conflicts.