Nuevas perspectivas en las relaciones entre estados unidos y América Latina

In this study, the author analyses the new relations between the United States and Latin America in the frame of the post-cold war era. The difference between power and sense, the threat to democracy and the challenge to global security on behalf of the transnational groups, are the dynamics of the post-cold war that provide a general frame for these relations. The agenda includes topics such as the fight against poverty and economic development, the regional security and the migration, seen from the point of view of the North American foreign relations, which include the multilateralism, and demilitarization of foreign affairs. A period of hemispheric relations where the consensus will mark the tone and the cooperation will be the main mechanism in order to advance in the economic development and the institutional strengthening is expected. A new tone in relations but not a new model. But, although, an attempt to find meeting places without neglecting the big strategic guidelines developed since September 11 2001.

Colombia. Conflicto irregular, desplazamiento interno y seguridad humana

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze forced internal displacement as a consequence of modern domestic irregular war. The first part contains a historical description of the Colombian irregular internal conflict. It continues with a challenge that implies the distinction between insurgent elements and the civilian population. Finally, from Kaldor´s human security perspective, the article analyzes forced internal displacement in Colombia.

Gaza. Reflexiones sobre la intervención humanitaria

The end of the ceasefire between Hamas and the Government of Ehud Olmert in late 2008 created a war caused by the continued launching of rockets by Hamas onto neighbouring Israeli territory and the consequential response of that nation by occupying the Gaza Strip. The strong attacks which repetitively affected the civilian population and the international missions generated an environment of extreme and intolerable humanitarian conditions in the most densely populated area worldwide. This situation forces a reflection about the instrument of Humanitarian Intervention. The world understands this instrument as a means to intervene by force in those states where excesses are committed by the government against certain sectors of the population, or sub national groups, generating supreme humanitarian emergencies. What Gaza demonstrates is the necessity to begin thinking about the possibility of conceiving such intervention not as exclusive of purely internal scenarios, but also when the clash between one or more states generates the same conditions of unacceptable humanitarian degradation. However, the interest of world powers and their alliances, together with the possibility of escalating the conflict instead of controlling the situation, opposes such understanding.

Geschichtswissenschaft für den Ostseeraum?Der Conventus primus historicorum Balticorum 1937 in Riga

Im August 1937 fand unter dem Titel Conventus primus historicorum Balticorum zum ersten Mal ein Treffen von Ostseeraumhistorikern statt. Tagungsort war Riga, die Hauptstadt Lettlands, das seit 1935 von einem autokratischem Regime unter Präsident Kārlis Ulmanis geprägt war. Vor diesem Hintergrund untersucht der Artikel erstens, welche Versuche unternommen wurden, die Forschungen über die Geschichte des Ostseeraums transnational zu institutionalisieren. Zweitens wird analysiert, welche Vorstellungen die Gastgeber von einer Geschichte des Ostseeraumes hatten und inwiefern die Instrumentalisierung von Geschichte in der Politik Ulmanis’ dabei eine Rolle spielte. Die zentrale Frage ist, ob tatsächlich von einer Geschichtswissenschaft für den Osteeraum gesprochen werden kann, wie der Tagungstitel andeutet, oder ob nationale Ansätze dominieren.

Trauma, Cinema and the Algerian War

This article analyses the depiction of the Algerian War in French and Algerian cinema, making use of trauma theory. In particular, Cathy Caruth’s assertions that trauma involves an “inherent latency” and that the most powerful lmic representations of trauma display “a seeing and a listening from the site of trauma” will be used to explore the ways in which Algerian cinema has engaged with the impact of the conict on the indigenous people. Among the lms addressed are  The Battle of Algiers (Pontecorvo, 1965),  Youcef (Chouikh, 1993), and  La Maison jaune (Hakkar, 2007). Conclusions are also drawn about the role of cinema in providing images of the recent civil war in Algeria.

'Becoming a Different Me': Simone de Beauvoir on Freedom and Transatlantic Sexual Stereotypes

Europe’s relationship to America in general, and France’s in particular, centers around questions of freedom and dependency. This paper compares Europe’s search for independence with America’s ideology of freedom as articulated through today’s sexualised transatlantic rhetoric. I examine Simone de Beauvoir’s observations that differences in sexual relations and gender constructions are crucially linked to constitutional and cultural notions of liberty. Her portrayal of male disempowerment in the novel  The Mandarins contrasts an intimidating American masculinity with its counterpart in Europe. European masculinity has been constructed as soft and peace loving, while its American counterpart is perceived as emboldened and tough. The ‘War on Terror’, as noted by Timothy Garton Ash and others, has reintroduced the sexual imagery into the verbal abuse hurled over the Atlantic. Europe’s tendency to dene itself against America lends itself to revealing conclusions regarding de Beauvoir’s inability to dismantle cultural stereotypes about the ‘New World’ of possibility and abundance.

The Influence of War on the Dynamics of Unemployment in Banovina (Croatia)

Counterblast: How the Atlanta Temple Bombing Strengthened the Civil Rights Cause

Social Science and the Afghan War: Canadian Perspectives

Lenin's Aggressive Unoriginality, 1914-1916

Lenin received a severe shock in 1914 when the main parties of the socialist Second International supported the war effort of their respective governments. But the shock did not lead to his rejection of the prewar Marxist orthodoxy but rather to an outraged affirmation of this orthodoxy against those who (in Lenin’s view) had betrayed it. Lenin’s rhetorical stance can therefore be described as ‘aggressive unoriginality’. Lenin insisted that the key themes of ‘Left Zimmerwald’—the name given to the socialist current of which he was the principal spokesman from 1914 to 1916—were based squarely on the prewar consensus of ‘revolutionary Marxists’, particularly as expressed by Karl Kautsky. Among these themes are the underlying idea of a revolutionary situation, the assumption that the war had created a revolutionary situation, and the claim that ‘socialist patriotism’ during the war represented the triumph of prewar opportunism. Lenine a recu un choc severe en 1914 quand les principaux partis de la Deuxieme Internationale socialiste ont soutenu l’effort de guerre de leurs gouvernements respectifs. Toutefois, le choc ne l’a pas amene a rejeter l’orthodoxie marxiste de l’avant-guerre mais plutot a affirmer outrageusement cette orthodoxie contre ceux qui, de son point de vue, l’avaient trahie. La posture rhetorique de Lenine peut ainsi etre decrite comme ‘banalement agressive.’ Lenine soutenait que les themes cles de la ‘Gauche de Zimmerwald’ – le nom donne au courant socialiste dont il etait le principal porte-parole entre 1914 et 1916 – etaient fondamentalement bases sur le consensus d’avant-guerre des ‘Marxistes revolutionnaires,’ comme pouvait l’exprimer en particulier Karl Kautsky. Parmi ces themes figurent l’idee sous-jacente d’une situation revolutionnaire, l’hypothese que cette situation revolutionnaire a ete creee par la guerre, et l’argument selon lequel le ‘patriotisme socialiste’ d’alors correspondait au triomphe de l’opportunisme de l’avant-guerre.