Britain as a global power in the twentieth century

This chapter examines the extent to which Britain's status as a global power in the twentieth century was underpinned by the existence of its empire. It suggests that, in a military sense, empire represented an uncertain resource. While the mobilization of the empire in the two world wars was ultimately crucial to British victory, its latent power in the years leading to those conflicts was poorly appreciated, not least by UK policy‐makers themselves. As such, it had limited value as a deterrent to Britain's enemies. Furthermore, the process of mobilizing the empire for war placed an almost intolerable strain on the fragile structures of imperial control. Britain's continuing aspirations to play the role of a global power following post‐war decolonization reflect the extent to which its overseas interests had always transcended the formal boundaries of empire. Meanwhile the Anglo‐American alliance provided Britain with a degree of security that its empire had never offered.

Global reach--global power : Air Force strategic vision, past and future /

"February 1996."

Economics of Hybrid Photovoltaic Power Plants

The global power supply stability is faced to several severe and fundamental threats, in particular steadily increasing power demand, diminishing and degrading fossil and nuclear energy resources, very harmful greenhouse gas emissions, significant energy injustice and a structurally misbalanced ecological footprint. Photovoltaic (PV) power systems are analysed in various aspects focusing on economic and technical considerations of supplemental and substitutional power supply to the constraint conventional power system. To infer the most relevant system approach for PV power plants several solar resources available for PV systems are compared. By combining the different solar resources and respective economics, two major PV systems are identified to be very competitive in almost all regions in the world. The experience curve concept is used as a key technique for the development of scenario assumptions on economic projections for the decade of the 2010s. Main drivers for cost reductions in PV systems are learning and production growth rate, thus several relevant aspects are discussed such as research and development investments, technical PV market potential, different PV technologies and the energetic sustainability of PV. Three major market segments for PV systems are identified: off-grid PV solutions, decentralised small scale on-grid PV systems (several kWp) and large scale PV power plants (tens of MWp). Mainly by application of ‘grid-parity’ and ‘fuel-parity’ concepts per country, local market and conventional power plant basis, the global economic market potential for all major PV system segments is derived. PV power plant hybridization potential of all relevant power technologies and the global power plant structure are analyzed regarding technical, economical and geographical feasibility. Key success criteria for hybrid PV power plants are discussed and comprehensively analysed for all adequate power plant technologies, i.e. oil, gas and coal fired power plants, wind power, solar thermal power (STEG) and hydro power plants. For the 2010s, detailed global demand curves are derived for hybrid PV-Fossil power plants on a per power plant, per country and per fuel type basis. The fundamental technical and economic potentials for hybrid PV-STEG, hybrid PV-Wind and hybrid PV-Hydro power plants are considered. The global resource availability for PV and wind power plants is excellent, thus knowing the competitive or complementary characteristic of hybrid PV-Wind power plants on a local basis is identified as being of utmost relevance. The complementarity of hybrid PV-Wind power plants is confirmed. As a result of that almost no reduction of the global economic PV market potential need to be expected and more complex power system designs on basis of hybrid PV-Wind power plants are feasible. The final target of implementing renewable power technologies into the global power system is a nearly 100% renewable power supply. Besides balancing facilities, storage options are needed, in particular for seasonal power storage. Renewable power methane (RPM) offers respective options. A comprehensive global and local analysis is performed for analysing a hybrid PV-Wind-RPM combined cycle gas turbine power system. Such a power system design might be competitive and could offer solutions for nearly all current energy system constraints including the heating and transportation sector and even the chemical industry. Summing up, hybrid PV power plants become very attractive and PV power systems will very likely evolve together with wind power to the major and final source of energy for mankind.

Las implicaciones políticas de la relación China-América Latina: el Consenso Asiático como red de poder global y el caso brasileño (Tema Central)

This paper analyzes the People’s Republic of China economic and political ascendance in the 21st century, focusing on the evolution of its sui géneris economic development model and its significance for the relationship between China and the developing countries of the peripheral ‘Global South.’ The objective of this article is to analyze the relationship between China and Latin America in the 21st century, characterizing it as a new Center-periphery global power network based on trade and investment, which is often referred to as the ‘Asian Consensus’. The article will give special attention to the Brazilian case.

Brazil, China, US: a triangular relation?

This article is divided in three sections. The first one explores the so-called "strategic partnership" between Brazil and China. In the second section we shall examine how US-China relations in the global system could affect both Brazil-US, and Brazil-China bilateral relations. A final section presents some recommendations for Brazil strategic orientations regarding the current systemic transition in the allotment of global power.

The human rights dilemma : an east-west encounter : Germany and China in 1996 /

Conflicts over human rights in relations between East Asia and the West have increased since the end of the Cold War. Western governments express concern about human rights standards in East Asian countries. In the East, these expressions have been perceived as interference in internal affairs. Due to dramatic economic development, East Asian nations recently have gained in pride and self-confidence as global actors. Such development is observed with suspicion in the West. Concerned about the decline of global U.S. influence, some American scholars have re-invented the notion of "culture" to point at an alleged East Asian threat. Also East Asian statesmen use the cultural argument by claiming the existence of so-called 'Asian values', which they allege are the key to Eastern economic success. This thesis argues that issues of human rights in East-West relations are not only a consequence of well-intended concern by Western governments regarding the human rights and welfare of the citizens of East Asian nations, but are in fact dominated by and used as a pawn in interplay with more complicated questions of global power and economic relations between East and West. The thesis reviews the relevance of culture in East-West relations. In the West, particularly Samuel P. Huntington with his prediction of the Clash of Civilizations stands out. Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew has been very vocal on the Eastern side. Whereas the West tries to cope with its decrease of global influence, after hundreds of years under Western hegemonism, the East believes in an Asian way of development without interference form the West. Most of this dispute revolves around the issue of human rights. The West claims the universality of rights which in fact emphasizes political and civil rights. Western countries critizise poor human rights standards in East Asia. The East, in return, accuses the West of hypocritical policies that seek global dominance. East Asian governments assert that due to a different stage of development they have to stress first their rights to development in order to assure stability. In particular, China argues this way. The country's leadership, however, shows concern about human rights and has already improved its human rights record over the past years. This thesis analyses the dispute over human rights in a case study on Germany and China. Both countries have a mutual interest in trade relations which has conflicted with Germany's criticism of China's problematic human rights record. In 1996, the two countries clashed after the German parliament passed a resolution condemning China's treatment of Tibet. This caused a lot of damage to the Chinese-German relationship which in the course of the year went back to normality. In the light of these frictions a German human rights policy that focuses on unspectacular grass-roots support of China, for example in strengthening China's legal system, would be preferable. Such co-operation must be based on mutual respect.

Análisis del efecto de engranaje generado por la entrada en vigor del Tratado de Lisboa el 1 de diciembre de 2009 en el marco de la Política Común de Seguridad y Defensa (PCSD) en la Unión Europea

El proceso de integración en Unión Europea se caracteriza por la incorporación de los asuntos de seguridad exterior y defensa, tras el Tratado de Lisboa se enmarcaron en la PCSD. Dicha política por un proceso de integración progresiva, Spillover, ha tenido periodos de reactivación y de letargos.

Análisis de la Política Exterior rusa enmarcada en el concepto de “Espacio Post-soviético”, a la luz de la teoría de Realismo Clásico de Hans Morgenthau durante los dos periodos de Vladimir Putin, 2000 A 2008

La Política Exterior rusa ha tenido un giro sustancial con la llegada de Vladimir Putin en el año 2000. En consecuencia, esto se ve reflejado en las acciones tomadas por el Kremlin con las revoluciones de Ucrania (Revolución Naranja) y Georgia (Revolución de las Rosas). La apuesta de los dos mandatos de Putin era claramente influenciar su zona geográficamente más cercana, es decir el "Espacio Post-soviético".

Geopolítica y petróleo. La nueva dependencia energética

Este artículo, sobre geopolítica y petróleo, busca analizar la actual geopolítica internacional en función de la variable petrolera. Con el alza del precio del crudo a casi US $150 el barril, el “oro negro” se ha convertido más que nunca en un instrumento de poder global. Por otra parte, la demanda cada vez más apremiante de petróleo, por China e India, está empujando no solamente el precio de los hidrocarburos, sino también la pugna por el control de los yacimientos a nivel mundial o por lo menos tener gobiernos aliados en el poder.Es dentro de esta lógica que China ha iniciado una ofensiva de penetración en el continente africano y es esto lo que explica el crecimiento espectacular del continente negro. Finalmente, el trabajo también demuestra que los datos catastróficos sobre un inminente agotamiento del petróleo no corresponden a la realidad. En 1987 se planteaba la existencia de petróleo por 40 años. Hoy tenemos más petróleo que hace 20 años.-----This article about geopolitics and oil seeks to analyze the current international geopolitics in function of the oil variable. With the rise of the crude oil price up to almost 150 US dollars per barrel, the “black gold” has become an instrument for global power more than ever before. Furthermore, the increasingly urging demand for oil by China and India is pushing not only the hydrocarbon price but also the struggle for controlling the oil reservoirs around the world or at least having allied governments in power.Thus, under this logic, China has started an offensive to penetrate the African continent and this explains the amazing growth of the black continent. Last, this paper also shows that the catastrophic data on an impending shortage of the oil does not correspond with reality. In 1987, oil existence was forecasted for 40 years. Today, we have more oil than 20 years ago. 

Los intereses del Reino Unido y Estados Unidos en el sostenimiento y desarrollo de paraísos fiscales

El interés del Reino Unido y Estados Unidos en el desarrollo y sostenimiento de paraísos fiscales es parte del cumplimiento de sus objetivos económicos: ser altamente competitivos, tener un crecimiento económico constante y viable a largo plazo, y tener una fuerte presencia e influencia económ