Modern formation, ethnic reformation: the social sources of the American nation

The question, 'When is the nation?', ranks second in importance only to the related query, 'Why is the nation?' in the contemporary social science and humanities literature on nationalism. This issue is confronted by this essay, which considers Anthony Smith's important perennialist-modernist dichotomy through the lens of the American experience. Along the way, it will address the related but independent question of whether nations are 'top-down' artefacts constructed by the modern state, or 'bottom-up' social formations generated by ethnic groups within civil society. The importance of this theoretical question lies not merely with the antiquarian interest in how our world system of nations emerged, but with the more pressing question of why it is persistently re-created, and, for idealists, how it may be superseded

Diasporic and Local Mainstream Media as a Tool for Intercultural Integration? The Case of Latin American Communities in Italy

In Italy, communication research on the impact of media on immigrants’ integration dynamics has up until now privileged the sphere of national mainstream media. This paper takes into consideration the role of diasporic media as complimentary to perspective, by exploring the disposition of the two media fields towards the promotion of intercultural dialogue. In an attempt to assess whether there is in fact an intercultural media integration process occurring in both mainstream and Latin-America diasporic media players in Italy, this paper focuses on gathering evidence from the media pertaining to the society in general and from those created by and for immigrant communities. This evaluation aims to establish the degree to which majority and minorities take an interest in each other as well as the story telling they deploy or one another. Interculturalism and intercultural media integration are the main theoretical frameworks used to understand how intercultural dialogue is operationalized at the media level. Preliminary findings suggest a local mainstream media scene out of step with the de facto multicultural society, whereas only in some cases do Latin-American diasporic media demonstrate integrative potential capable of” bridging the gap” with the host society rather than merely fulfilling its ingroup “bonding” role

Global Risks 2015, 10th Edition.

The 2015 edition of the Global Risks report completes a decade of highlighting the most significant long-term risks worldwide, drawing on the perspectives of experts and global decision-makers. Over that time, analysis has moved from risk identification to thinking through risk interconnections and the potentially cascading effects that result. Taking this effort one step further, this year's report underscores potential causes as well as solutions to global risks. Not only do we set out a view on 28 global risks in the report's traditional categories (economic, environmental, societal, geopolitical and technological) but also we consider the drivers of those risks in the form of 13 trends. In addition, we have selected initiatives for addressing significant challenges, which we hope will inspire collaboration among business, government and civil society communitie

Social medicine and international expert networks in Latin America, 1930–1945

This paper examines the international networks that influenced ideas and policy in social medicine in the 1930s and 1940s in Latin America, focusing on institutional networks organised by the League of Nations Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, and the Pan-American Sanitary Bureau. After examining the architecture of these networks, this paper traces their influence on social and health policy in two policy domains: social security and nutrition. Closer scrutiny of a series of international conferences and local media accounts of them reveals that international networks were not just ‘conveyor belts’ for policy ideas from the industrialised countries of the US and Europe into Latin America; rather, there was often contentious debate over the relevance and appropriateness of health and social policy models in the Latin American context. Recognition of difference between Latin America and the global economic core regions was a key impetus for seeking ‘national solutions to national problems’ in countries like Argentina and Chile, even as integration into these networks provided progressive doctors, scientists, and other intellectuals important international support for local political reforms

Contemporary global challenges in geopolitics, security policy and world economy

This is the second time that the International PhD Conference has been organized by the International Relations Multidisciplinary Doctoral School of Corvinus University of Budapest. We hope this is a sign that we have created a tradition, and that the conference will be organized in the future as well. As in the previous year, most of the presentations given at this year’s conference will again be published in a collected volume in the form of edited studies, with the aim of promoting the publication performance of PhD students.The comprehensive profile of the Doctoral School, the diversity of its three subprograms – International and Security Studies, World Economy and Geopolitics – is reflected in the various topics of the studies in this volume. These include e.g. security and defence policy, challenges the world economy is facing nowadays, the institutions and policies of the European Union, the emerging powers of Asia, as well as sustainability and other important, highly relevant issues. The regions examined in the studies range from the EU through the Arab world to Latin America and Asia, and countries such as the United States, Russia, Ukraine, China, India, Jordan and Tunisia are analysed, to name just a few.The multidisciplinary nature of the Doctoral School has long been expressed in its name, mainly due to the fact that it is entitled to award degrees in two disciplines (economics and political science). Multidisciplinarity is also manifested in the diversity of the topics of this volume. Not only multidisciplinarity, but also interdisciplinarity, the presence of “frontiers” in the field of mutually interdependent disciplines can be traced in the articles, as the authors refer to e.g. law, history, security policy as well as theories of international relations

The Geopolitics of Open

The Geopolitics of Open addresses issues of difference, ideology and infrastructure across the stratified geographies of open access publishing. It examines the construction of power and inequality in our scholarly practices and discourses around the open. How can we contextualise open access, as a contingent and politically-laden concept, within particular historical and regional contexts and socio-political struggles? This will involve asking questions about how notions of openness have been implicit in processes of global knowledge appropriation and exploitation in a postcolonial neoliberal context. The three exploratory essays that make up this pamphlet all pursue this attempt to regionalise and, in the process, politicise how open access infrastructures form and for whom they become beneficial, both financially and socially. They share a commitment to articulating a scaled down geo-politics that asks of publishing infrastructures: where and by what means? And also consider how varied institutional contexts, from multistate formations like the European Union, to urban and regional universities in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, start to shape the varied epistemological and political geographies of situated open access practices

Ideas, Beliefs, Strategic Culture, and Foreign Policy: Understanding Brazil\u27s Geopolitical Thought

Brazil is an important player both at regional and global levels, figuring prominently in almost all lists of emerging states and regional powers. It is one of the world\u27s largest democracies, the fifth most populous country in the world, the world\u27s seventh-largest economy, and Latin America\u27s largest economy, accounting for approximately 60% of South America\u27s GDP, 47% of South America\u27s territory and 49% of South American population, a G20 member, and an active contributor to United Nations peacekeeping operations. However, despite being usually depicted as a monster country which would help shape global affairs, Brazil has never been able to match its geographic, territorial and demographic assets with global geostrategic clout, and military, political, and economic power. This research seeks to explain how a rising power such as Brazil has historically behaved, reacted and constructed a discourse that, at the same time, constrains/motivates its decisions, explains its actions, and legitimizes its behavior. More specifically, the puzzle to be solved is why Brazilian regional policies are not more assertive given Brazil\u27s capabilities? In order to answer this puzzle, this research will seek to analyze how a strategic culture influences a country\u27s geopolitical thought, and consequently its policy choices and outcomes; to identify and qualify the elements of Brazilian strategic culture and its nature, as well as determine the relationship between these elements and Brazilian foreign and security policy decisions; to analyze the influence of Brazilian strategic culture features upon the country\u27s geopolitical thought and grand strategy, and Brazil\u27s geopolitics to South America; and finally to discuss the question of the dynamics of strategic cultural change in Brazil and its implications for the country\u27s security and foreign policy decision-making process, as well as for its regional neighborhood

Strategic Representations, Territory and Border<br />areas: latin america and global disorder

Version préliminaire de l'article publié dans Geopolitics, VOLUME 12, ISSUE 1, 2007, pp :19–56. Copyright © Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, NY, USA, LLC ISSN: 1465-0045 print / 1557-3028 online DOI: 10.1080/14650040601031123International audienceIn Latin America, post–Cold War ideas about defence and security broke down geopolitical logics that had been historically accepted by Latin American armed forces. These ideas also provoked a partial downfall of one component of their traditional strategic representations: This geopolitical determinism explained post-colonial conflicts as being due to historical influences and to disputes about power and territory. Paradoxically, national frontiers are emerging and are threatened by destabilisation. The new conception of the border and its revalorisation at the strategic level must be related not only to the character of post–Cold War threats but also to the new security vision prevailing in the international system. This vision cannot be separated from US strategic representations, which emphasise the “global” character of risks and security mechanisms. Thus, it appears that the transnational dimension of the strategic representations promoted by the United States does not correspond to the traditional concept of national territory. This concept, which is the basis of the reshuffling of military architecture in Latin America after the Cold War, is rooted in a representation of the region that has been present since the 1940s but was systematised under the Democratic Clinton Administration in the 1990s and further developed under the presidency of Republican George W. Bush in the early twenty-first century