Globalaffairs

Issue 20/April-June 2010
By Roseanna Elizabeth Cox

When you think about the ocean, you shouldn’t have images of bloated fish bobbing around on the surface, surrounded by greasy swirls of oil, tar balls washing up on shore lines or sea birds trapped in oil slicks, waiting to die.

Since late April 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig caught fire and exploded, the Mexican Gulf has changed, and not for the better. The corporation responsible for this, BP had estimated only 5,000 barrels of oil were pumping into the gulf a day. It was revealed, however, that the figures are significantly higher. Around 12,000-19,000 barrels a day are pumping out, according to a panel of government scientists known as the Flow Rate Technical Group. [1] If these figures are correct, then over 444,000 barrels (18.65 million gallons/70.59 million litres) have been released into the ocean, whereas the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster had only pumped out over 257,000 barrels of oil. Within the waters near the oil flow, the levels of Oxygen have already fallen by 30 percent, meaning it becomes a so-called “dead zone” as marine species simply can’t live there anymore.

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Issue 19/February-March 2010
by Erica L. Green

The scope of need has changed for the survivors a month after Haiti’s January earthquake. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that this new wave of need includes postoperative care, rehabilitation, and mental health services [1], only to name a few of the service needs.  Some sources on the ground recruiting personnel also note the high need for orthopedic and anesthesiology specialists. The United Nations Association of USA, Greater Chicago Chapter (UNA Chicago) is planning to be apart of this new wave of relief.

Coordinating a tactical relief effort at this stage can be quite complex.  The first waves call for military and trauma care for boulder removal and building collapse related injuries. The people with injuries are also centralized around the epicenter. Now, a month later health care workers are now confronted with infection, sanitation, and mental health issues on top of the chronic diseases that existed prior to the quake such as malaria and HIV. This means there are many more volunteers needed to pull off such an endeavor.  This writer, the coordinator of UNA Chicago’s relief effort finds the number of those willing to help encouraging. Whether is it military, government agencies, area hospitals or faith based organizations, support pledges have been steady. Assessments are currently being conducted to obtain a more accurate account of need but a challenge is the range of preexisting need. Access to health care was an issue long before the January quake.

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Issue 18/December-January 2010
By Juan Luis Dorado Merchán

What will the tensions between Columbia and Venezuela come to? Will the tensions brought on by international leaders make the violence escalate or even lead to an outright confrontation in the area? Is the new agreement between Bogota and Washington about military bases to blame for the reaction of Chavez?

There are many questions to be answered when analyzing the latest conflict between Columbia and Venezuela. The latest tension. One of many between neighbouring states that seem condemned to perpetual misunderstandings, at least while both leaders are in power. And at least one of them will most likely stay in office for many years to come.

The installation of seven North American bases on Columbian territory, a military agreement whose benefits for Columbia are questionable, is the latest battleground of Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarians. It is a renewed reason to resort to doctrines of fear for the enemy, and thus whip up its bases and allies. A new form of strengthening the Bolivarian Revolution.

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Issue 17/diciembre-enero 2010
By Sandra Azima

In recent weeks, Brazil has intriguingly become involved in diplomatic relations with key Middle Eastern leaders, as it has asserted its aspiration to readily engage and take a leading role in Middle East affairs. Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has warmly welcomed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad-the first Iranian president to visit Brazil. Furthermore, prior to Ahmadinejad visit, Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, had been hosted by Lula. Lula took this opportunity to hint at Brazil’s determination to launch a new beginning in the Middle East peace process. Brazil’s fresh diplomatic dynamics reflect Lula’s ambition and determination to project Brazil into Middle East affairs and to act as a mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as US-Iranian relations. Brazil’s expectations to engage in a more active diplomatic post in the peace process in the Middle East has been consolidated by President Lula who has stressed the importance of searching for peace in the Middle East. This paper attempts to determine why Brazil desires to assert its role in the Region, what such a position entails and how this approach may impact the diplomatic realm.

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Issue 16/August-September 2009
By Felien De Smedt

The adequate use of the natural resources of a country is important for the national economy. However the question arises: how does one define “adequate”.

72% of the Peruvian Amazon forest is divided in 64 blocks for the exploration and exploitation of gas and/or oil. Of those, 56 have been just formed since 2004. This intensive increase was an immediate answer to the reduction of costs for foreign investments in Peru (1). In 2007, the Peruvian President, Alán García, announces, in his article The Dog in the Manger Syndrome (El Síndrome del Perro Hortelano) that he doesn’t intend to stop, saying that “[...] reality shows us that we must develop the resources that we do not utilize and put greater effort into our work (2).” Even though the government still doesn’t have a management policy on natural resources in a long term basis, the hydrocarbon landscape keeps extending. But what’s the cost?

Oil extraction has a serious environmental and social impact (3). It violates some of the most fundamental human rights of the indigenous people of the Amazon such as the right to life, to health, to property and social peace. The government has the duty to protect the living space of its citizens and to prevent contamination of the enormous biodiversity of the Amazon forest. The environmental management policy of the Peruvian state is weak. The National Environmental Management System stands under supervision of the National Environment Council (CONAM), a state body disposing of few financial resources and without political clout. Moreover, the environmental impact studies, necessary to register the quality of the environment, are carried out by firms, and contracted by the oil companies themselves. The evaluation lacks objectivity.

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Issue 15/June-July 2009
By Juan Luis Dorado Merchán

When a USA President is appointed he knows that he will have an international agenda very full. He is aware that he will have to deal with the Arab-Israel conflict, meet duties with allies, and try to maintain good relations with Russia …

This could seem the foreign policy of any country in the planet, obviously to some degree. But the tenant of the White House will have to deal with something exceptional, an unchangeable fact for 50 years: Cuba-USA relations.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy imposed a naval blockade on the Island and the resulting embargo, missile crisis, rafter exodus, Helms-Burton law, consecutive “alleged” murdering attempts of Fidel Castro, the aggressive policy of last Administration… all North American presidents since JFK have taken Castro’s Cuba as “their stone in the shoe”.

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Issue 14/April-May 2009
By Juan Luis Dorado Merchán

This article could perfectly be titled “Hugo Chávez’s nationalizations” or perhaps “Chávez’ economic politics”, but considering Chávez’s policies and manners, it is more suitable for the reader to write a crazy and a bit incomprehensible title.

Everyday Hugo Chávez clings more and more to power in Venezuela. His victory in the last elections gave him carte blanche in every regards, especially in controlling his main aim: oil.

Threatening foreign companies settled in Venezuela seems to be one of Chavez’ favourite sports in his thirst for nationalizing everything, taking the companies’ goods to give them to people. But, to which part of Venezuelan people does it belongs?

“Chávez threatens more nationalizations”, the media reported some months ago. Nothing new. No. This time it is different. Now Chávez has all the power he could achieve and he has got the option to remain in power all the years that the Constitution will establish, which means: all the time he will wish to keep in it.

We imagine that his economic and politic analysts, his nearest advisers, tell him about the misfortunes such as the slowdown to foreign investment will cause in Venezuela. However, Chávez doesn’t care because he has got oil.

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Issue 13/February-March 2009
By Andrea Bonzanni

On 11th September President Evo Morales declared the Ambassador of the United States in La Paz, Philip S. Goldberg, “persona non grata” [1]. Five days later he announced a $ 4.5 million agreement with the Russian national energy giant, Gazprom, and said he regrets not having strengthened ties with Russia years ago [2]. At the end of the month it was the Russian Ambassador who spoke and told the world that the government of Bolivia had purchased five civil defence helicopters as a “first step” of deepening ties [3]. It has been a tough September for the United States in the Andean country. The first Indian president in the history of the country, after almost three years of incendiary anti-Yankees rhetoric, seems to have started putting his words into practice, while Russia is eager to restore its sphere of influence without restraining itself to the so-called ‘near abroad’, as it had initially appeared the case.

The attention of all the observers and policy-makers has of course concentrated on the super-power level and speculations about the vanished American hegemony in Latin America, the mistakes of the United States in the continent since the end of the Cold War are countless. Likewise, analysts are debating on whether or not the current awakening of Russia and its unscrupulous international activism will bring about a new version of the Cold War. I will rather focus in this article on the dynamics that have led a country like Bolivia to take such risky moves. Most of the accounts have hitherto concentrated on idealistic and quasi-personalistic motives, arguing that the political program of Evo Morales and its Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) have led to a necessary confrontation with the United States.

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Issue 12/December-January 2009
By Juan Luis Dorado

In the last few months, people have been talking a lot about the change. The President-Elect of the United States has arrived at the White House with a message of change. They are also trying to change the international financial system, to avoid a new difficult situation for the markets. But, when will the situation change in Latin America?

During the last years, several Latin-American countries have reemerged and they have acquired an important role in the international system of the 21st century (above all in the economy).

Brazil has turned into a world economic power. This country is one of the strong ones of the Group of Emerging Market Countries. Moreover, Brazilian President Lula da Silva had an important role at the meeting for the financial reform, which took place in Washington.

Argentina also recovered stillness after the stormy times of the “corralito” and it is also becoming important in the International Community. An example of this was Cristina Fernández, being at the meeting of the G-20.

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Issue 11/October-November 2008
By Juan Luis Dorado Merchán

Nearly three years ago, an indigenous, unionised, coca-farming leader came to power in Bolivia: Evo Morales. What was at the time celebrated as a success of integration and an historical achievement, as Morales is the first indigenous president of the country, has become a constant source of tension, not only within Bolivia itself, but also in the rest of Latin America.

Evo Morales’ arrival in power was received with joy and distrust in equal measures. Joy from the growing Left, which is strong in the region, above all with the Chávez-Castro alignment of the first few years of the new century. Distrust came from the United States and many other countries, both European and Latin American, worried about the situation of their businesses and investments in the country.

The first moments of Morales were intensely scrutinised by international analysts, but they soon saw that the world realised that his campaign was becoming deflated. First came a series of unpopular decisions, like the nationalisation of hydrocarbons, and above all the creation of a Constitutional Assembly to create a new Magna Carta for Bolivia; a constitution to his liking. This new constitutional text, with a referendum attached to it, ended up leaving the country without a leader. It was approved in November 2007, in the city of Oruro, in the middle of a crisis and out war with the opposition over the legality or illegality of the whole process.

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