Abstract, Lula, Dilma, and Temer: The Rise and Fall of Brazilian Foreign Policy

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Lula, Dilma, and Temer: The Rise and Fall of Brazilian Foreign Policy
by André Luiz Reis da Silva and José O. Pérez

The rapid rise and fall of Brazilian foreign policy initiatives and capacities across the Lula (2003–2010), Dilma (2011–2016), and Temer (2016–2018) governments cannot be attributed solely to any of these presidential administrations but was also affected by domestic variables, international events, and economic factors. Furthermore, identity, corporations, the media, corruption scandals, and other variables influenced each president’s ability to conduct foreign policy. Process tracing of these three governments reveals the way policies and programs such as the BRICS and IBSA can be understood in this context. In short, analyses of Brazilian foreign policy must be balanced between agent and structure.

Abstract, Marking “Preemptive Suspects”: Migration, Bodies, and Exclusion

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Marking “Preemptive Suspects”: Migration, Bodies, and Exclusion
by Seth M. Holmes 


The dynamics of inclusion and exclusion are central to public perceptions and policy responses to transnational immigrants, including those arriving from Latin America in the United States. Scholars have shown in various contexts that even official inclusion by a nation-state involves important gradations of exclusion on social, economic, political, and symbolic levels (e.g., Blommaert and Verschueren, 1998; Castañeda, 2012). Social scientists have analyzed the metaphors through which different variations of exclusion are promoted and enacted, including the dichotomy of the undeserving voluntary economic migrant versus the (relatively) deserving forced political refugee (e.g., Holmes, 2013; Holmes and Castañeda, 2016; Yarris and Castañeda, 2015). Lynn Stephen analyzes the “preemptive suspect” as a metaphor of exclusion in the treatment of unaccompanied Central American minors arriving in the United States in 2014. She builds on her previous work on indigenous Mexican families (2007), resistance (2002; 2005; 2013), and transborder life (2007), synthesizing and organizing substantial scholarship and placing it in historical context. At the same time, her diverse experiences as ethnographer, activist, expert witness, and comadre add local color and thick description to her rigorous analysis. She develops her analysis explicitly in honor of Michael Kearney, who examined theoretical understandings of immigration and conducted ethnographic work focused on indigenous Mexican migrants in the United States and especially on their health (e.g., Kearney, 1986; Kearney and Nagengast, 1989). His focus on health, health care, and bodies seems especially important here. After all, for many transnational migrants the gradations of exclusion encountered in the process of displacement can easily become a matter of life and death. 

Political Report # 1270 Sphere of Influence: How American Libertarians Are Remaking Latin American Politics

By Lee Fang, The Intercept

FOR ALEJANDRO CHAFUEN, the gathering this spring at the Brick Hotel in Buenos Aires was as much a homecoming as it was a victory lap. Chafuen, a lanky Argentine-American, had spent his adult life working to undermine left-wing social movements and governments in South and Central America, and boost a business-friendly version of libertarianism instead. It was a lonely battle for decades, but not lately. Chafuen was among friends at the 2017 Latin America Liberty Forum. The international meeting of libertarian activists was sponsored by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, a leadership-training nonprofit now known simply as the Atlas Network, which Chafuen has led since 1991. At the Brick Hotel, Chafuen was reveling in recent victories; his years of work were starting to pay off, thanks to political and economic circumstances - but also because of the network of activists Chafuen has been working for so long to cultivate. Over the past 10 years, leftist governments have used "money to buy votes, to redistribute," said Chafuen, seated comfortably in the lobby. But the recent drop in commodity prices, coupled with corruption scandals, has given an opportunity for Atlas Network groups to spring into action. "When there is an opening, you have a crisis, and there is some demand for change, you have people who are trained to push for certain policies," Chafuen noted, paraphrasing the late Milton Friedman. "And in our case, we tend to favor to private solutions to public problems." Chafuen pointed to numerous Atlas-affiliated leaders now in the spotlight: ministers in the new conservative government in Argentina, senators in Bolivia, and the leaders of the Free Brazil Movement that took down Dilma Rousseff's presidency, where Chafuen's network sprang to life before his very eyes.

Abstract, The United States and Latin America in the Trans-Pacific Partnership: Renewing Hegemony in a Post–Washington Consensus Hemisphere?

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The United States and Latin America in the Trans-Pacific Partnership: Renewing Hegemony in a Post–Washington Consensus Hemisphere?
by Rubrick Biegon                  


The nascent Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement puts the United States at the center of an expanding liberalization regime connecting the Americas to the Asia-Pacific region. U.S. power is bound up with the globalization of Latin America’s political economy, and the TPP is indicative of U.S. efforts to renew its hegemony in the region. It reinforces the importance of “free trade” on the post–Washington Consensus agenda, undercutting existing Latin American–led approaches to integration while responding to China’s growing influence in the hemisphere. As the free-trade consensus is reconstructed through the TPP process, U.S. hegemony in the Americas is potentially extended even as it continues to face challenges in the structural, institutional, and ideological dimensions of intrahemispheric affairs.

Book, The United States and Cuba: From Closest Enemies to Distant Friends

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The United States and Cuba: From Closest Enemies to Distant Friends
by Marc Becker

A valuable Cuban overview of the continuities and ruptures in the relationship between the United States and Cuba. López Segrera’s generally optimistic and nuanced account brings the story right up to date with a discussion of the normalization announced on December 19, 2014, and the reestablishment of diplomatic relations in July 2015. In a field dominated by U.S. scholarship, this Cuban-centered analysis benefits from close access to key players in the island’s foreign policy establishment. (Barry Carr, La Trobe University, Australia)

Global Security Watch—Venezuela

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Global Security Watch—Venezuela
by Daniel Hellinger

This in-depth study provides a timely assessment of how the foreign, military, and security policies of Venezuela shape relations with the United States in the Chavez era.

The growing importance of Venezuela in the global oil market along with the controversial nature of its leadership provoke concern among some world powers—especially the United States, whose international policies have been heavily criticized by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. This critical look at American/Venezuelan relations presents perceptions held by each government of the other and examines the sources of tensions—and points of confluence—between the two countries.

Global Security Watch—Venezuela traces the political relations between the United States and Venezuela from the early roots based in Pan Americanism to the domestic and foreign policies of the Chavez regime, including petro-diplomacy. This book provides a serious examination of the allegations about Venezuelan involvement in the drug trade, terrorism, and intervention; the view that the unilateralism of the United States threatens world peace; and the future of relations between the two countries.

Book, Global Security Watch—Venezuela

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Global Security Watch—Venezuela
by Daniel Hellinger

This in-depth study provides a timely assessment of how the foreign, military, and security policies of Venezuela shape relations with the United States in the Chavez era.

The growing importance of Venezuela in the global oil market along with the controversial nature of its leadership provoke concern among some world powers—especially the United States, whose international policies have been heavily criticized by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. This critical look at American/Venezuelan relations presents perceptions held by each government of the other and examines the sources of tensions—and points of confluence—between the two countries.

Global Security Watch—Venezuela traces the political relations between the United States and Venezuela from the early roots based in Pan Americanism to the domestic and foreign policies of the Chavez regime, including petro-diplomacy. This book provides a serious examination of the allegations about Venezuelan involvement in the drug trade, terrorism, and intervention; the view that the unilateralism of the United States threatens world peace; and the future of relations between the two countries.

Book, Global Security Watch—Venezuela

:::::: Book ::::::

Global Security Watch—Venezuela
by Daniel Hellinger

This in-depth study provides a timely assessment of how the foreign, military, and security policies of Venezuela shape relations with the United States in the Chavez era.

The growing importance of Venezuela in the global oil market along with the controversial nature of its leadership provoke concern among some world powers—especially the United States, whose international policies have been heavily criticized by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. This critical look at American/Venezuelan relations presents perceptions held by each government of the other and examines the sources of tensions—and points of confluence—between the two countries.

Global Security Watch—Venezuela traces the political relations between the United States and Venezuela from the early roots based in Pan Americanism to the domestic and foreign policies of the Chavez regime, including petro-diplomacy. This book provides a serious examination of the allegations about Venezuelan involvement in the drug trade, terrorism, and intervention; the view that the unilateralism of the United States threatens world peace; and the future of relations between the two countries.

Political Report # 1077: What WikiLeaks Teaches Us About How the US Operates By Julian Assange, Newsweek

Julian Assange at a press conference with Ecuador's foreign minister. (photo: Getty) By Julian Assange, Newsweek

One day, a monk and two novices found a heavy stone in their path. "We will throw it away," said the novices. But before they could do so, the monk took his ax and cleaved the stone in half. After seeking his approval, the novices then threw the halves away.