Un nacionalismo más allá de las fronteras: la transnacionalización del movimiento independentista catalán

La presente investigación tiene como objetivo identificar los procesos que han posibilitado la transnacionalización del movimiento independentista catalán entre 2010 y 2014. Por tal motivo, el análisis de este estudio de caso permitirá comprender con mayor profundidad las dinámicas de transnacionalización de una causa nacional, con las que dicho movimiento ha conseguido conectar lo local con lo global. Para ello, la recolección de datos cualitativos se hace imprescindible en la caracterización de este fenómeno social, a partir del uso de herramientas como la observación participante, entrevistas y el análisis documental. Esto, con el propósito de facilitar la obtención de información proveniente de fuentes primarias y secundarias, respetando la perspectiva de los actores involucrados. De tal manera, será posible evidenciar que estos procesos transnacionales se impulsan mutuamente, propiciando la proyección del debate sobre la independencia fuera de las fronteras catalanas.

Natural resource windfalls and efficiency of local government expenditures: evidence from Peru

We study the role of natural resource windfalls in explaining the efficiency of public expenditures. Using a rich dataset of expenditures and public good provision for 1,836 municipalities in Peru for period 2001-2010, we estimate a non-monotonic relationship between the efficiency of public good provision and the level of natural resource transfers. Local governments that were extremely favored by the boom of mineral prices were more efficient in using fiscal windfalls whereas those benefited with modest transfers were more inefficient. These results can be explained by the increase in political competition associated with the boom. However, the fact that increases in efficiency were related to reductions in public good provision casts doubts about the beneficial effects of political competition in promoting efficiency.

Military competition and the emergence of nationalism: putting the logic of political survival into historical context

This essay aims to make a contribution to the conversation between IR and nationalism literatures by considering a particular question: What is the relationship between interstate military competition and the emergence of nationalism as a potent force in world politics? The conventional wisdom among international security scholars, especially neorealists, holds that nationalism can be more or less treated like a “technology” that allowed states to extract significant resources as well as manpower from their respective populations. This paper underlines some of the problems involved with this perspective and pushes forward an interpretation that is based on the logic of political survival. I argue that nationalism’s emergence as a powerful force in world politics followed from the “mutation” and absorption of the universalistic/cosmopolitan republican ideas that gained temporary primacy in Europe during the eighteenth century into particularistic nationalist ideologies. This transformation, in turn, can be best explained by the French Revolution’s dramatic impacts on rulers’ political survival calculi vis-à-vis both interstate and domestic political challenges. The analysis offered in this essay contributes to our understanding of the relationship between IR and nationalism while also highlighting the potential value of the political survival framework for exploring macrohistorical puzzles.

Sharing power? Prospects for a U.S. concert-balance strategy

The Pax Americana and the grand strategy of hegemony (or “Primacy”) that underpins it may be becoming unsustainable. Particularly in the wake of exhausting wars, the Global Financial Crisis, and the shift of wealth from West to East, it may no longer be possible or prudent for the United States to act as the unipolar sheriff or guardian of a world order. But how viable are the alternatives, and what difficulties will these alternatives entail in their design and execution? This analysis offers a sympathetic but critical analysis of alternative U.S. National Security Strategies of “retrenchment” that critics of American diplomacy offer. In these strategies, the United States would anticipate the coming of a more multipolar world and organize its behavior around the dual principles of “concert” and “balance,” seeking a collaborative relationship with other great powers, while being prepared to counterbalance any hostile aggressor that threatens world order. The proponents of such strategies argue that by scaling back its global military presence and its commitments, the United States can trade prestige for security, shift burdens, and attain a more free hand. To support this theory, they often look to the 19th-century concert of Europe as a model of a successful security regime and to general theories about the natural balancing behavior of states. This monograph examines this precedent and measures its usefulness for contemporary statecraft to identify how great power concerts are sustained and how they break down. The project also applies competing theories to how states might behave if world politics are in transition: Will they balance, bandwagon, or hedge? This demonstrates the multiple possible futures that could shape and be shaped by a new strategy. viii A new strategy based on an acceptance of multipolarity and the limits of power is prudent. There is scope for such a shift. The convergence of several trends—including transnational problems needing collaborative efforts, the military advantages of defenders, the reluctance of states to engage in unbridled competition, and hegemony fatigue among the American people—means that an opportunity exists internationally and at home for a shift to a new strategy. But a Concert-Balance strategy will still need to deal with several potential dilemmas. These include the difficulty of reconciling competitive balancing with cooperative concerts, the limits of balancing without a forward-reaching onshore military capability, possible unanticipated consequences such as a rise in regional power competition or the emergence of blocs (such as a Chinese East Asia or an Iranian Gulf), and the challenge of sustaining domestic political support for a strategy that voluntarily abdicates world leadership. These difficulties can be mitigated, but they must be met with pragmatic and gradual implementation as well as elegant theorizing and the need to avoid swapping one ironclad, doctrinaire grand strategy for another.

Institutional multilingualism in NGOs: Amnesty International’s strategic understanding of multilingualism

Institutional multilingualism is most often associated with large intergovernmental institutions such as the European Union and the United Nations. Multilingualism in non-governmental organisations (NGOs), however, has remained invisible to a large extent. Yet these organisations have been identified as very powerful in world politics in the globalised 21st century. Like international governmental organisations (IGOs), they operate across linguistic and language borders. This raises the questions if NGOs actually use language and translation in the same way as IGOs. This article examines Amnesty International as a case study and explores what official multilingualism means for this organisation, how it is reflected in its language policy, and how it is put into practice. By gaining insight into the particular case of Amnesty International, this article aims to make a contribution to institutional translation studies.

International authority and its politicization

The article focuses on the politicization of international authority as a thus far little understood development in world politics. We first define the concept and show that there is an empirical trend towards politicization of international institutions. We then argue that the increasing authority of international institutions has led to their politicization and we relate this hypothesis to alternative explanations. The validity of the authority–politicization nexus is illustrated by the rise of international authority in parallel to politicization. We go on to distinguish different policy functions such as rule definition, monitoring, interpretation, and enforcement in order to show that especially those international institutions with a high level of authority meet with strong contestation of their competencies. We conclude the article by exploring various avenues for future politicization research.

Desenvolvimento de material compósito a base de raspa de pneu e látex para isolamento térmico

The process of recycling has been stimulated by the markets for several reasons, mainly on economical and environmental. Several products have been developed from recycled materials that already exist as well as several residues have been studied in different forms of applications. The greater majority of the applications for thermal insulation in the domestic, commercial and industrial systems have been elaborated in the temperature ranges between low to medium reaching up to 180oC. Many materials such as glass wool, rock wool, polystyrene are being used which are aggressive to the environment. Such materials in spite of the effectiveness in the retention of heat flow, they cost more and when discarded take several years to be absorbed by the nature. This way, in order to adapt to a world politics concerning the preservation of the environment, the present study was intended to develop a material composed of natural/biodegradable materials and industrial residues. The development of such a product in the form of a composite material based on tyre scrapes and latex for thermal insulation is presented in this research work. Thermal and physical properties of the tire scrapes as well as latex were studied in order to use them as raw materials for the manufacture of the intended composite to be applied as a thermal insulator in hot and cold systems varying between 0ºC and 200oC, respectively. Composite blankets were manufactured manually, in weight proportions of 1:1 (50:50%); 1:2 (33:67%) and 2:1 (67:33%) (tire scrapes: latex) respectively. Physical, mechanical and thermal properties of the composites were analyzed to obtain data about the viability of using the composite as a thermal insulator. The analyses carried out were based on standards ABNT, ASTM and UL. The maximum temperature obtained for the composite as a thermal insulator was 200ºC, which meets the range of applications that could be used as a thermal insulator in domestic as well as industrial purposes. The experimental results prove that the composite can be used as a thermal insulator on heated or cooled surface

Social sciences and social reality in Central America

Includes bibliography

The United Nations in global governance, a Latin American and Caribbean perspective Santiago, 8 and 9 August 2011: regional seminar

Foreword by Alicia Bárcena

Wilsonismo e mudanca: analise da abordagem wilsoniana na politica externa das administracoes Bill Clinton e George W. Bush

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A aproximação entre os Estados Unidos e a Índia e o processo de negociação do acordo nuclear civil (2008)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

1963-1968. Dall'avvento dell'amministrazione di Lyndon B. Johnson al Trattato di Non-Proliferazione. gli Stati Uniti, la Francia, la NATO e l'Europa agli esordi della distensione. Storia di una "non-crisi" transatlantica e della riorganizzazione dell'Alleanza.

The aim of this proposal is to explain the paradigm of the American foreign policy during the Johnson Administration, especially toward Europe, within the NATO framework, and toward URSS, in the context of the détente, just emerged during the decade of the sixties. During that period, after the passing of the J. F. Kennedy, President L. B. Johnson inherited a complex and very high-powered world politics, which wanted to get a new phase off the ground in the transatlantic relations and share the burden of the Cold war with a refractory Europe. Known as the grand design, it was a policy that needed the support of the allies and a clear purpose which appealed to the Europeans. At first, President Johnson detected in the problem of the nuclear sharing the good deal to make with the NATO allies. At the same time, he understood that the United States needed to reassert their leadeship within the new stage of relations with the Soviet Union. Soon, the “transatlantic bargain” became something not so easy to dealt with. The Federal Germany wanted to say a word in the nuclear affairs and, why not, put the finger on the trigger of the atlantic nuclear weapons. URSS, on the other hand, wanted to keep Germany down. The other allies did not want to share the onus of the defense of Europe, at most the responsability for the use of the weapons and, at least, to participate in the decision-making process. France, which wanted to detach herself from the policy of the United States and regained a world role, added difficulties to the manage of this course of action. Through the years of the Johnson’s office, the divergences of the policies placed by his advisers to gain the goal put the American foreign policy in deep water. The withdrawal of France from the organization but not from the Alliance, give Washington a chance to carry out his goal. The development of a clear-cut disarm policy leaded the Johnson’s administration to the core of the matter. The Non-proliferation Treaty signed in 1968, solved in a business-like fashion the problem with the allies. The question of nuclear sharing faded away with the acceptance of more deep consultative role in the nuclear affairs by the allies, the burden for the defense of Europe became more bearable through the offset agreement with the FRG and a new doctrine, the flexible response, put an end, at least formally, to the taboo of the nuclear age. The Johnson’s grand design proved to be different from the Kennedy’s one, but all things considered, it was more workable. The unpredictable result was a real détente with the Soviet Union, which, we can say, was a merit of President Johnson.