La relación entre Estados Unidos y América Latina y el Caribe en la era Trump

Las relaciones entre Estados Unidos y América Latina se han visto profundamente afectadas por la combinación de tendencias de largo plazo y de la repentina caída del liderazgo constructivo bajo la administración de Donald Trump. Se examinan cuatro tendencias de la política exterior del nuevo presidente norteamericano, las cuales tienen implicaciones problemáticas para México y la región. Este artículo analiza el contexto emergente, donde convergen las disparidades de poder con la falta de liderazgo para dar pie a una situación de asimetría acéfala. US-Latin American relations have been deeply affected both by long term trends and the sudden decline in constructive leadership under President Donald Trump. The policies of the US president are examined under four tendencies with troubling implications for Mexico and the region. This article analyzes the emerging situation in which continued power disparities and a lack of leadership combine to create a context of acephalous asymmetry

Small states, great power? Gaining influence through intrinsic, derivative, and collective power

In recent years, scholars have devoted increased attention to the agency of small states in International Relations. However, the conventional wisdom remains that while not completely powerful, small states are unlikely to achieve much of significance when faced by great power opposition. This argument, however, implicitly rests on resource-based and compulsory understandings of power. This article explores the implicit connections between the concept of "small state" and diverse concepts of power, asking how we should understand these states' attempts to gain influence and achieve their international political objectives. By connecting the study of small states with additional understandings of power, the article elaborates the broader avenues for influence that are open to many states but are particularly relevant for small states. The article argues that small states' power can be best understood as originating in three categories: “derivative,” collective, and particular-intrinsic. Derivative power, coined by Michael Handel, relies upon the relationship with a great power. Collective power involves building coalitions of supportive states, often through institutions. Particular-intrinsic power relies on the assets of the small state trying to do the influencing. Small states specialize in the bases and means of these types of power, which may have unconventional compulsory, institutional, structural, and productive aspects

The United States in Latin America: the overstated decline of a superpower

It is commonly asserted that the United States no longer holds the dominant position it once did in Latin America. This decline is credited to several factors: a global decline in U.S. power, lower levels of U.S. attention to the region, the entrance of new extra-hemispheric challengers, and more “assertive” Latin American leaders. This paper examines those claims of U.S. decline and seeks to empirically evaluate them. U.S. decline has too often been assumed instead of demonstrated; when evidence has been provided it has often been anecdotal. Instead, greater evidence demonstrates significant continuities. U.S. decline, both relative to extra-hemispheric powers and in regards to states within the region has been overstated, in part because of a tendency to exaggerate U.S. power in the past, a focus on changes, and an underestimation of the continued depth of U.S. military, economic, structural, and ideational power in the region. There have been real changes in the geographic concentration and nature of U.S. power, as well as in the economic role of China. However, these changes are often outweighed by the continuities of relationships that are still defined by asymmetry

Biden’s Latin America policy will be constrained more by weak regional leadership than by Florida’s electoral politics

Biden’s experience and appointments signal an interest in Latin America, but there are few leaders in the region with whom he can advance his policy goals or multilateral approach, writes Tom Long (University of Warwick). It is something of a cliché that there can be no “US policy toward Latin America” because there is no single “Latin America”. The region is too large and too diverse to be addressed by a single policy. Normally, this refrain is a helpful reminder that US policy should be attentive to variation in the region. But when the foreign policy team of the newly inaugurated President Joseph R. Biden looks to Latin America and sees that there is no “Latin America there”, this will reflect the central problem they face: a tremendous deficit of regional leadership

Biofuels Subsidies and the Green Paradox

This paper develops sufficient conditions under which the Weak Green Paradox may (and may not) hold in terms of subsidies for biofuel production such that the supply-side responses by fossil fuel producers may more than offset the substitution to biofuels. Analytical results are derived and numerical simulations show that, under a wide range of parameter values, biofuel subsidies will increase the rate of extraction of fossil fuels in the short and medium term, and possibly bring climate-change damages closer to the present.biofuels subsidies, the Green Paradox

Development of Critical Thinking Skills In Collegiate Aviation Programs

Critical thinking requires an individual to gather and interpret data, develop conclusions based upon relevant findings, and implement the best solution. The dynamic aviation industry requires these skills of its pilots, maintainers, and managers for companies to remain successful. Collegiate aviation programs need to teach critical thinking and cognitive skills to allow students entering the workforce to become these successful aviation managers, maintainers, and pilots. Since August 2021, Southern Illinois University has been conducting a study to inform the development of these techniques for promoting critical thinking skills in the classroom and determine their efficacy. SIU will provide the preliminary findings of the study so attendees can begin to formulate a framework allowing for the integration of critical thinking and cognitive skills into their existing curriculum

Regional public goods in North America

This paper will briefly examine the concept of RPGs as it applies to North America. Focusing on the role of these goods, it contextualizes today’s situation with a succinct account of North American integration. The paper argues that rule of law has emerged as one of the most important RPGs in North America, directed largely at regional economic transactions. While these effects have been important, the provision of rule of law is fragmentary and has not produced the degree of spillover that was hoped for. Finally, we conclude by examining the future prospects of RPG provision in North America

Setting Farmers Free: Righting the Unintended Anomaly of UCC Section 9-312(2)

status: publishe

Interview with Mary Glick

An interview with Marie Glick regarding her experiences in a one-room school house.https://scholars.fhsu.edu/ors/1100/thumbnail.jp

Structure of the substrate-engaged SecA-SecY protein translocation machine.

The Sec61/SecY channel allows the translocation of many proteins across the eukaryotic endoplasmic reticulum membrane or the prokaryotic plasma membrane. In bacteria, most secretory proteins are transported post-translationally through the SecY channel by the SecA ATPase. How a polypeptide is moved through the SecA-SecY complex is poorly understood, as structural information is lacking. Here, we report an electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) structure of a translocating SecA-SecY complex in a lipid environment. The translocating polypeptide chain can be traced through both SecA and SecY. In the captured transition state of ATP hydrolysis, SecAs two-helix finger is close to the polypeptide, while SecAs clamp interacts with the polypeptide in a sequence-independent manner by inducing a short β-strand. Taking into account previous biochemical and biophysical data, our structure is consistent with a model in which the two-helix finger and clamp cooperate during the ATPase cycle to move a polypeptide through the channel