Globalaffairs

Issue 20/April-June 2010
By Niruban Balachandran

From finger-pointing to reciprocal accusations of stubbornness to seemingly endless differences in opinion, America’s and China’s increasingly tense yet tightly-interdependent relationship will continue to give policymakers from both nations multiple sources of irritation (and rising blood pressures) over the next several months. Here are five points of conflict between America and China to watch this year.

Continue reading »

Issue 19/ February- March 2010
By Franco D. Bonaro

Without highlighting the technical details that are common knowledge, I would like to focus on the ideological debate that the much discussed plans for the new Health Act proposed by the Obama administration.

Is the US society prepared for a change of this scale?

The answer is not clear cut as yet, however, it is apparent that a large part of the contributors do not favour the politics of inclusiveness that the democratic government wants to implement. The US economy albeit one of the largest in the world fails to meet the basic health needs of its inhabitants.

The model of a Welfare State, following Sping Andersen, adopted by the USA characteristically focuses its social politics on those sectors of the population that show a need (1).Within this scheme of a liberal state, social help is only aimed at the “losers” of the system, generating a negative effect of stigmatization of the poor. These people receive health coverage through a system of medical assistance called Medicaid. Whereas, senior citizens of 65 years and older receive medical care through Medicare.

Continue reading »

Issue 17/ October-November 2009
By Danny Mauricio Suárez

The military pact that is to be closed between Columbia and the United States through which the US military will cooperate with Columbia at seven military bases, is a dire necessity for Columbia in its battle against drug trafficking and the terrorism of the FARC guerrilla movement that have been wreaking havoc in the country for over 50 years, but at the same time is awkward for its neighbours.

The aid agreement and military collaboration between the two countries, however, are not new; contrary to what their neighbouring nations believe, the United States have been an unconditional ally of the Columbian government contributing military aid for over 10 years with the added total of six billion dollars. The collaboration has been decisive in cornering the FARC and disbanding several drug cartels headed up by Diego León Montoya also known as “Don Diego”, captured and extradited to the United States where he was sentenced to 45 years for drug trafficking, as well as disbanding the paramilitary groups led by Salvatore Mancuso; Diego Fernando Murilla known as “Don Berna”, Rodrigo Tovar Pupo known as “Jorge 40″; and José Ever Veloza García knows as “H.H.” amongst others, who were also extradited to the United States.

Continue reading »

Issue 16/August-September 2009
By Sandra Azima

This discussion aims to highlight the central policy concern which has existed for over two decades in Mexican politics. The issue of drug trafficking remains a challenge for the Mexican authorities and the mission of combating drug cartels and curtailing drug-related violence has consequently turned into a transnational matter. In order to allow for a closer examination of these elements, a consideration of the escalating narco-criminal war needs to be made. The failure of law enforcement institutions to combat drug cartels has lead the Calderón administration to deploy military forces in an attempt to regain control and meanwhile effectively limit violence throughout the nation. Furthermore attention will be drawn to the US-Mexican bilateral relationship, in addition to considering the impact of US gun and drug policies on this enduring global narcotics trade.

Finally the issue of drug abuse and the re-examination of existing policies by the authorities is discussed, to evaluate the effectiveness of such measures in reducing addiction and curbing the rising levels of violence of that this war on drugs has generated.

Continue reading »

Issue 15/June-July 2009
By Erin Fitzgerald

Since the nineteenth century, Afghanistan has been the central battleground in the “Great Game” among the world’s major powers. The players, rules, and objectives have changed since the original struggle between Britain and Russian for control of Central Asia, but the Game continues to be played (1). After the traumatic attacks of 11 September 2001, a war was launched on Afghanistan to wipe out the al-Qaeda terrorist network and to overthrow the Taliban government that sheltered it. Under the Bush administration, the goal of the war was to replace the Taliban with Western-style democratic institutions, but establishing a functioning democracy proved more challenging than anticipated. Nearly eight years later, US forces are still in Central Asia, struggling to suppress a Taliban insurgency that has spilled over the border into Pakistan.

Upon inheriting these difficulties, one of the Obama administration’s first initiatives was to reassess the war’s objectives. On March 27, President Barack Obama announced that rather than exporting democracy, his administration’s goal will be to “disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future,” essentially redefining the aims of the US mission (2). Yet, while the President is correct to look beyond the fighting in Afghanistan and to call for a regional approach, it is far too early to know whether peace and stability can be achieved with these more limited objectives.

Continue reading »

Issue 14/April-May 2009
By Luis Guillermo Colín Villavicencio

On 25th and 26th March the USA Secretary of State Hilary Clinton visited Mexico. It was an official visit, the first one since she was appointed by President Barack Obama and it is in the context of a serial of visits being done since February to European and Asian countries.

Overall, the assessment of such visit is positive due to four aspects, however, there is a negative aspect related to the potential appointment of the North American diplomat Carlos Pascual as representative of such country in Mexico.

First of all, the meeting of Clinton with the President Calderon is framed in a high diplomatic level dialogue that has been initiated in February when President Calderon visited the still elected President Barack Obama. The participation of Foreign Secretary Espinosa in the meeting could have established a new personal relation between both. This will allow going forward in the definition and enforcement of the Binational Agenda Mexico-USA.

Continue reading »

Issue 13/ February-March 2009
By Priya Nandita Pooran

The past several months have produced a range of challenges for financial institutions and regulatory authorities throughout the international financial system. For the first time since the proliferation of the new range of financial instruments, global regulators have had to confront the weaknesses in these techniques and seek an effective regulatory solution, both nationally and at a system-wide level.

The crisis is almost unprecedented. It is potentially unprecedented in two significant ways. First, in financial terms, the crisis is unprecedented in the difficulties of quantifying the exact losses, the extent and location of risk transfer, the cross-border nature of the transactions at play and the lack of a cross-border mechanism for governing and assessing such transactions (including the extent of risk transfer) on an institution-wide level. Second, the crisis presents unprecedented regulatory challenges. It seriously challenges and questions the efficacy of existing regulatory approaches, requirements, frameworks and institutions. The failures of financial institutions in the months following the difficulties of Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest investment bank in the US, on Sept. 15, 2008 will inevitably lead government authorities, regulators and law-makers to closely question to the causes of this crisis. They are already injecting liquidity and provide support to institutions. They will also review the role of regulation in the modern global financial system. Although these developments are inevitable and valuable, (in the terms of government support, to a more limited extent), the real value of this crisis lies in the reforms it will force in cross-border commercial transactions, that correct the failures of the present system of regulation and strengthen the international financial architecture to promote stability on institutional, national, regional and global levels.

Continue reading »

Issue 12/December-January 2009
By Kim Young

After twenty-two months of grueling campaigning, America chose African-American Barack Obama to be the 44th President of the United States of America. With celebrations erupting in Grant Park, Chicago in Obama’s home state of Illinois to celebrations in Kenya, London, Japan, Europe and Sydney, to name a few, a new era was ushered in under the mantle of “Change We Can Believe In”, while at the same moment, exactly 44 years later, an African American affirmed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Obama was born in Hawaii to a white mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya and largely raised by his white grandparents. He lived in Indonesia and was raised in Hawaii until his college years at Harvard where he became the President of the illustrious Harvard Law Review and went on to teach Constitutional Law. Married to a Harvard educated lawyer, Michelle Obama, Obama gave up the prospect of a six figure income to work in community organizing on the South side of Chicago when unemployment was high and homelessness stole hope from its citizens. He wrote two memoirs, “The Audacity of Hope” and “Dreams from my Father” both immediate bestsellers.

In a hard fought battle, Obama emerged victorious around midnight. Over at the luxurious Belmont Hotel, a sorely disappointed John McCain, a US war veteran and former P.O.W. who already attempted to run for President, addressed die-hard Republicans and graciously accepted the will of the people. However, graciousness was not the hallmark of the battle for the White House.

Continue reading »

Issue 11/October-November 2008
By Kim Young

Not since President Richard Nixon, or perhaps the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, any President has been more embroiled in controversy. From the outing of CIA former covert spy, Valerie Plame to the most unpopular war in US history, President George W. Bush has been declared the United States worst President ever by some historians, citizens and foreign countries alike. To attempt to compress a presidency of eight years into one article is almost impossible and so I will touch on some issues.

Everything from education to jobs and the current Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac predatory Mortgage lending debacles continue to plague Bush’s Presidency and the economy of the United States. It just seems that President Bush cannot avoid being the butt of major criticism on nearly every issue important to the people of the United States. Even the members of the Republican Party are fed up and the GOP is decidedly hoping that the John McCain/Sarah Palin ticket may steer them from Bush/Cheney era and lead them to a new dispensation in domestic and world politics. Bush is hugely unpopular in Europe.

In an article written by noted historian Sean Wilenz in a Rolling Stone Magazine article comments, “yet recently, just short of three years after Bush buoyantly declared “mission accomplished” in Iraq, his disapproval ratings have been running considerably higher than Johnson’s, at about sixty percent. More than half the country now considers Bush dishonest and untrustworthy, and a decisive plurality consider him less trustworthy than his predecessor, Bill Clinton — a figure still attacked by conservative zealots as “Slick Willie.” (1).

Continue reading »

Issue 11/October-November 2008
By Glen Ruffle

The Georgian-Russian war in South Ossetia may be over, but its long term effects could prove monumental. Russia was victorious, the EU has been strengthened, US power is weakened, and NATO, the object of much Georgian foreign policy, could be seriously undermined.

The first casualty of war is always truth. When Russian tanks poured into South Ossetia on 8th August, rumours erupted of thousands of deaths, ethnic cleansing and genocide. For the most part, the media in Europe and the United States immediately started reminding everyone of the Cold War, and likening this intervention to the Soviet crushing of the Prague Spring in 1968.

It was clear to work out the good guys and bad guys: the big, angry and aggressive Russian bear was invading the tiny, defenceless and peace-loving Georgia. Russia was wrong, Georgia was right. This image was reinforced by the Russian secrecy surrounding the operation, whilst Georgian President Saakashvili appeared personally on TV interviews with all the major Western TV channels, launching a spectacular public relations assault.

Yet now, as peace returns, we can start to assess the evidence. Tragically, hundreds of people did die. But the genocide that Saakashvili talked about was purely in his imagination. And the speculation that the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline running across South Georgia was to be a target for the Russians also proved to be just that: speculation.

Continue reading »