External Agenda Research Articles

Slums, Villas Miseria, and Barriadas: Why Terms Matter

Building upon previous debates surrounding the English-language term slum, this article argues that slum stigmatizes the spaces and subjects that it refers to not only because it evokes nineteenth-century imaginaries of pauperism and crime but also for the sweeping gesture that it implies; for its refusal to observe in depth the experience of those who inhabit the spaces at stake and the interests associated. Intended as a universal term, “slum” can refer to such disparate urban typologies as inner-city high-rise tenements, low-rise overcrowded housing, and peripheral shantytowns, which empties it of specific meaning and converts it into an abstract container on to which external agendas are projected. To further demonstrate this point, the article reads slum alongside the seemingly analogous yet more specific Argentine and Peruvian terms villas miseria, barriadas and pueblos jóvenes, fields of dispute whose meanings have been contested by different actors, including residents, from the outset.

The sense of meaninglessness in bureaucratized science.

Looking at scientists (in the life sciences), we focus on the sense of meaninglessness associated with bureaucratization. We define the sense of meaninglessness as a perception of meaning deficit or meaning conflict in particular situations that can be associated with frustration, irritation, and/or boredom. We show that it can be caused by identity disturbance - particularly the incongruence between the ideal self as a researcher and the imposed self as a bureaucrat. We claim that the sense of meaninglessness is more likely to emerge in those activities that are further from an individual's core identity, and more identity work is needed to make them meaningful. We also claim that processes of rationalization imposed by external agendas, particularly transitions from substantive to formal rationality (predictability, control and calculability, efficiency) contribute to the proliferation of meaninglessness in academia. The sense of meaninglessness is, therefore, ignited by the external forces colonizing academic life and constitutes an instance of the 'irrationality of rationality'. It is an outcome or side effect of the collision between two incompatible logics of practice: bureaucratic and scientific. To show the incongruence of those competing logics, we analyze the data derived from a mixed-method study conducted between 2013 and 2014 among beneficiaries of an international research grant project. As a supplementary source of reference, we use our research on academic boredom and laboratory scientists' work and careers.

Daraa and the Altered Trajectory of the Syrian Crisis

Daraa City is widely known as the birthplace of the Syrian uprising. The uprising, which was initially motivated by high-minded ideas and opposition to the arbitrary violence of an authoritarian state, rapidly degenerated into a civil war orientated by external agendas and priorities. In this paper, I want to situate Daraa governorate at the centre of this development, with the intention of highlighting how the course of events in this small part of Syria had vital implications for the development of the Syrian Civil War. In seeking to develop an analysis of the interplay of internal dynamics and external influences, i seek to ‘reconcile’ the ‘micro’ and ‘macro’ dimensions of civil war, and also draw on contributions to the peacebuilding literature, and this enables me to reconceptualise the relationship between ‘internal’ and ‘external’ drivers of conflict.

O papel da ZOPACAS nas políticas externa e de defesa do Brasil no século XXI (2005-hoje)

The 21st century has been characterized by complexity with the rise/consolidation of regional power poles, configuring characteristics of a multipolar order. Global attention was once again directed to the Southern hemisphere due to the intensification of South-South relations, including the South Atlantic, in the geostrategic calculations. In this context, Brazil reconsolidated the axis of its foreign policy for the South, intensifying relations with the countries in its strategic surroundings, articulating defense matters there. Thus, this article aims to analyze the role of ZOPACAS in Brazil's foreign and defense policies, especially from 2005 onwards with the first review of the National Defense Policy (PND). As a hypothesis, it is evident that the Zone is part of the concept of Brazil's strategic environment, having been a priority of its foreign and defense policies since 1986, even with periods of greater or lesser intensity in its external agenda. Methodologically, we opted for a qualitative approach research, applying the hypothetical-deductive method.

The Politics of Normative Power Europe: Norm Entrepreneurs and Contestation in the Making of EU External Human Rights Policy

AbstractThe literature on Normative Power Europe (NPE) largely omits the question of why the EU chooses to focus on particular norms in the first place. This paper goes beyond the assumption that the EU simply externalizes its internal norms, because such a perspective does not sufficiently explain why the EU prioritizes certain norms over others, particularly in the case of contested norms. Using LGBTI rights and Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) in the EU's external human rights policy as two cases, I demonstrate how norm entrepreneurs – both external and internal – have been essential for bringing these norms to the EU's attention. Only after initial internal resistances had been overcome, were these norms able to reach the EU's external agenda. The two cases illustrate the internal political struggles that precede norm selection, supporting recent calls for a more politics‐oriented perspective on Normative Power Europe.

Developing Research and a Research Culture: Results from a Pilot Project in Pakistan

This paper argues that successful public policy requires engaged research developing ideas and evidence from diverse vantage points. Pakistan’s social science research remains fragmented, under-resourced and dependent on external agendas. We describe a five-year pilot programme to enhance Pakistan’s research culture. Seventy-two crowd-sourced and competitively-selected projects at 46 geographically dispersed institutions were supported. Provincial universities were empowered and networking with the better-placed metropolitan institutions proved mutually beneficial to scholarship. Substantial research outputs were completed in important areas of policy. We conclude that such multi-year commitments to review and network engagement are vital to strengthening policy capacity. Keywords: Pakistan; Research Community; Social Sciences; Networking; Competitive Grants

Universities in Turkey: Changing politics and science

Throughout the history of modernization, universities have been one of the critical topics of debate of Turkish political life. Especially in the Republican period, universities continued to occupy the political and social agendas in line with their relations with politics in the context of both organization and caderization and the mentality they brought forward. In the process from the beginning of the Republican period to the present day, the reorganizations made again and again in universities under the name of reform in the direction of the prevailing understanding of power both brought about the liquidation of existing cadres and hindered the formation of a scientific tradition. In other words, the scientific understanding in Turkey has always remained young throughout the history of the republic. This, in turn, rendered universities and Turkish intellectual life more open to international influences. Such an understanding of university acted in line with the political institutions' preferences in the international arena rather than determining the internal and external agenda of the country; thus, university became an institution, which acted with the understanding of eclecticism rather than production. That the change in the understanding of science was parallel to the preferences of the institution of politics, also rendered science–politics relations and the qualifications that academicians should have debatable. The present article aims to address these discussions about the Turkish universities in the context of the changing political and scientific mindset in the Ottoman-Turkish modernization process, especially during the Republican period, and to analyze how the organizational structure and mentality of scientific institutions have been shaped.

Politicization and Regional Integration in Latin America: Implications for EU–MERCOSUR Negotiations?

Regional integration in Latin America has experienced different periods of politicization. The most recent goes back to the 2000s and is related to the domestic political changes resulting from the so-called ‘left turn’ which sought alternative economic and development policies to neoliberalism as the state regained centrality. These transformations led to a broad process of politicization of regionalism which changed the terms of the debate surrounding whether regional integration and free trade are the only way for these countries to integrate regionally and internationally. Analyses have thus underscored the postliberal character of this phase of regionalism as reflected in the greater weight of social and political agendas at the expense of economic and trade issues. The Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) was no exception to this trend. However, in 2010 the bloc rather surprisingly agreed to relaunch negotiations with the European Union (EU). Why did MERCOSUR decide to resume these negotiations—stalled since 2004—in a context of high politicization of regional integration? This article argues that internal politicization did not lead to a paralysis of the international agenda. Moreover, internal politicization, coupled with external pressures and the demand for group-to-group negotiations by the EU, drove and supported the conduct of international negotiations. In so doing, this article also contests the idea that after the 2000s, MERCOSUR moved inexorably towards a postliberal model, thus rejecting any trade component. Findings suggest that these accounts may have overemphasized change and underestimated continuities in regional integration dynamics as the case of the external agenda shows.

A AMBIGUIDADE FRENTE ÀS COLÔNIAS AFRICANAS DE PORTUGAL (1953-1985): ASPECTOS DEFINIDORES DA POLÍTICA AFRICANA DO BRASIL

O objetivo do artigo é analisar a ambiguidade entre o discurso político e a prática externa brasileira frente às colônias portuguesas no período entre o Tratado de Amizade e Consulta com Portugal, passando pela Política Externa Independente (PEI) e o Regime Militar (período total de 1953 a 1985). Metodologicamente, a pesquisa utiliza a abordagem quanti-qualitativa aplicando o método hipotético-dedutivo, ao passo que se classifica como descritivo-explicativa quanto aos objetivos. Em relação aos procedimentos, utilizou-se a revisão bibliográfica, a análise documental de fontes primárias, secundárias e de imprensa. Identifica-se, como questão geradora, que o apoio brasileiro ao colonialismo português estabeleceu um bloqueio inicial para consolidar sua política africana, que vai se formar progressivamente à medida em que a pauta africana aumenta na agenda política e comercial do Brasil na década de 1970.

Political turns and perceptions in the foreign policies of Argentina and Brazil (2003-2019)

In the evolution of contemporary international politics, ideological turns are important factors that affect the resetting of governments' external agendas and of intra-regional and extra-regional ties. All of them are affected by the worldviews of political leaders who occupy a prominent place in governments and by the types of leadership that presidents choose to have in the exercise of their functions. This prompts us to analyse and reflect on the forms of international insertion South American countries in the regional, continental and global scene based on the perceptions of these leaders. The challenge is to analyse the pre-existing and emerging perceptions between Argentina and Brazil in the period 2003-2019 and how they shaped the regional integration processes. At the same time, this paper examines their trends based on the operational milieu, that is, according to the international and regional context and the evaluation of integrationist alternatives. The hypothesis is that the changes that took place in the operational milieu were a determining factor in the setting of the psychological milieu; and that the resetting of the agenda regarding regional integration shows both a change in perceptions and an effort to adapt to external and internal political turns. Thus, among the various existing perceptions, we highlight as the most relevant three ideal models/types that move towards two extremes to achieve a third that synthesizes them: the strategic alliance; nationalist-military thought (or traditional suspicion); and Mutually Assured Trust (MAT). The creation of concepts such as the MAT implies advancing in a relational model that removes uncertainty from the bilateral relationship.

Unpacking domestic preferences in the policy-\u2018receiving\u2019 state: the EU\u2019s migration cooperation with Senegal and Ghana

Drawing on interviews conducted in Brussels, Dakar and Accra between September 2017–March 2018, this paper discusses the responses of domestic policy actors to the EU’s migration policy proposals in the two West African countries of Senegal and Ghana. EU-African cooperation in migration is mediated by the domestic context that the EU’s migration agenda is ‘received’ in, and the preferences and responses of policy communities in the countries that are the intended recipients of the EU’s governance approach. While existing studies have examined preference formation on the part of European actors in the EU’s external migration agenda, the preferences and agency of African actors and how these shape the EU’s external migration governance remain under-examined. Looking primarily at domestic contestation in the area of returns and readmission, this paper demonstrates that the preferences of policy actors in the receiving country are formed in a shifting domestic context and have an impact in determining the ability of the EU to achieve its aims and preferred governance strategy. In addition, it is shown that organisational and bureaucratic dynamics can influence cooperation outcomes.

The Strategic Ambiguity of the United Nations Approach to Preventing Violent Extremism

The use of international peacebuilding as a delivery vehicle for preventing violent extremism (PVE) initiatives is a recent and pivotal development in United Nations (UN) counterterrorism strategy. However, existing research has not considered the contradictions that emerge when international organizations transition to new peacebuilding approaches such as PVE. Further, it remains unclear whether and how intervening organizations overcome these contradictions. Based on forty-seven interviews with UN, government, and nongovernmental organization officials in Kyrgyzstan and New York this article critically analyzes the shift to PVE as an underlying strategic approach to UN peacebuilding and the mismatch between external expectations and local priorities. Interview narratives feature ambiguity in conceptions of foundational PVE concepts and in how interveners reference a menu of drivers for violent extremism according to project requirements. This article argues that ambiguity is strategically tolerated and employed, whereby not clarifying the terms of engagement with (sub-)national counterparts supports external agendas and achieves a basic unity of purpose by permitting counterparts increased managerial latitude to satisfy self-interests.

Filipinas en la agenda argentina hacia este de Asia: desafíos y oportunidades para la diversificación intra-asiática (2008-2017)

Filipinas se erige en el extremo oriente como uno de los recientes socios no tradicionales de la Argentina, tanto en la dimensión comercial como política. En este trabajo nuestro objetivo es analizar la política exterior y las relaciones comerciales de Argentina con Filipinas entre 2008 y la actualidad. Como objetivos específicos procuraremos: 1) Identificar y analizar las acciones implementadas por Argentina desde la dimensión política y estratégica, 2) Distinguir las iniciativas de naturaleza científico-académica, con la participación de actores gubernamentales y no gubernamentales, en el período mencionado, y 3) Describir y analizar el flujo de los intercambios comerciales en términos de montos y composición.
 Dado que Filipinas se encuentra aún en un espacio no prioritario de la agenda externa argentina, buscaremos entender cómo se inscriben estas acciones de acercamiento en una política de diversificación por impulsos, antes que en una clara estrategia de acercamiento político y económico premeditada. Concluiremos que el espacio de Filipinas en la inserción externa de Argentina es aún periférico, a pesar de formar parte de la región del Este de Asia, un área neurálgica en la agenda comercial y política del país. 

Sustainability: Lenders Know Best - A Practitioner’s View

The recent formation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has once again brought into focus issues of governance within the international lending institutions as well as the conditions imposed on borrowers i.e. national governments. This paper will explore, from a practitioner’s perspective whether the drive for effectiveness and efficiency of operations imposed by the lenders are imposing conditions that are in effect impacting on the long-term sustainability of local communities. Lending institutions may impose a philosophy that is contrary to the best interests of the citizens and the social fabric of society. This was clearly the case with the IMF and the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-1998 and its impact on countries such as Thailand and Indonesia. Lessons have been learnt but is the mix right. International lending institutions are more and trying to force governments to comply with a neo-liberal agenda before they will grant a loan. The solutions may be inappropriate or too extensive. Governments often accept the conditions to obtain the loan. Whilst it is critical that governments have the appropriate fiscal and contract management skills in place the imposition of a neo-liberal agenda is another story. The agenda essentially implies that services should be outsourced wherever possible. Such an agenda may be efficient, but it can have devastating effects on the local communities. Rather than imposition of the external agenda for wholesale change the institution undergoing change needs to be fully committed and systematic institutional diagnostics should be undertaken jointly before a decision is made on the areas and direction of change. A medium-term strategy for capacity building should be developed, providing the framework for continuous assistance with interim milestones. Without such an approach sustainability is likely to be a pipe dream. There are plenty of examples to prove it.

Who Cares about Courts? Creating a Constituency for Judicial Independence in Africa

At a time when many American legal scholars are turning away from courts, stressing the development of legal norms outside of the judiciary, Jennifer Widner offers us a contrasting perspective on the centrality of courts to democracy in her powerful history of the role of courts and judicial review in democratization in Africa, Building the Rule of Law: Francis Nyalali and the Road to Judicial Independence in Africa (Norton & Company, Inc., 2001). As this review essay illustrates, Widner focuses on the role of one judge, a man who would see himself as embodying the role in Tanzania that Chief Justice John Marshall had played in the United States. As he worked to carve out a role for courts in the politics of Tanzania, Francis Nyalali focused especially on the importance of public support for the courts, on creating a constituency for judicial review. Creating a public that cared about courts, was, for Nyalali, an essential component of democratic government. Faced with an attack on judicial autonomy early in his tenure as Chief Justice of the High Court of Tanzania, Nyalali confronted a dilemma that has troubled other judges in other regimes. What should a judge do when he finds himself presiding in a system that is itself unjust? Is it best to resign so as not to confer legitimacy on an illegitimate system? Or is it better to stay on, and to ameliorate the system's faults to the extent he can? Nyalali chose instead a third path. He took his case to the political process, and worked to generate a constituency for judicial review in Tanzania. In this way, Widner's study illuminates a general point about courts and judges as strategic political actors. In this story the focus of strategic politics is not a particular external agenda; the objective instead is to create a political space for courts and judicial review. The notion of courts reaching out to the public runs directly contrary to some American perspectives on the judicial role. However, this essay argues, Widner helps us to see the way public opinion plays a role in judicial development, at least for courts at a comparatively early stage in institutional development. This history helps us to take seriously the question of whether a public constituency should be very much on the agenda of courts interested in maintaining their own legitimacy.

Bones and Recognition: Compensating families of Missing Persons in Post-War Bosnia and Herzegovina

A growing trend in post-war transitional justice posits that structural conditions explain why only some post-war countries award material assistance to survivors of war atrocities. While these explanations provide critical insights into the processes behind compensation adoption across post-war states, they do not explain the great variance in which victims obtain compensation within post-war countries. Using the case of missing persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a victim category that secured compensation in 2004, I present a new model to explain compensation using a rationalist approach. The paper shows that compensation adoption is primarily driven by an opportune combination of three factors: international salience (defined as the international attention given to the victim category and/or prioritisation of its demands), moral authority (defined as the level of perceived domestic deservingness for compensation) and mobilisation resources (defined as the victim category's capacities to mobilise and the quality of its networks). Drawing on fieldwork, this article shows that the prominence of the Srebrenica genocide propelled the issue of missing persons on to domestic and external agendas, affording the surviving families an opportunity to demand special compensation.

When Hunger meets Diplomacy: Food Security in Brazilian Foreign Policy

In the literature on Foreign Policy Analysis, there is a flourishing debate on whether the administration of the Workers’ Party represented a discontinuity in Brazil’s foreign policy. By examining how food security was allocated in the external agenda, this paper claims that the rise of the Workers’ Party did represented a rupture. Secondly, that social gains in reducing hunger were used as a tool to boost Brazil’s soft power.

Promoting Human Rights Through the EU External Action: An Empty ‘Vessel’ for Sexual Minorities?

Sexual minorities’ rights are increasingly included in the EU internal as well as external agenda. While the EU normative framework and its internal developments seem to be dominated by the value of equality, doubts arise on the rationale underlying the EU external action. All institutions are indeed involved in this field. While the Commission is called to monitor issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity in accession countries, the Council has issued specific Guidelines and the EU Parliament has in turn raised specific concerns in its dialogue with African partners. Although these attempts are welcomed for stressing the need to protect a ‘vulnerable’ group in countries where they have no guarantees, a ‘selective’ non-discrimination approach seems to emerge in most actions having an external dimension. This approach contradicts the EU internal developments and may eventually risk being ineffective and counterproductive for targeted people. Considering the international trend in human rights law towards the recognition of the full spectrum of human rights irrespective of one’s sexual orientation or gender identity, this article posits the need for a significant change in the EU external approach in this field.

Shaping Rules and Practice for More Justice. Local Conventions and Local Resistance in Eastern Senegal

Participatory programs and the transfer of the means of regulation to local populations can move local people to adopt government or development project agendas. They do not always succeed. When externally driven agendas fail to match local norms and practices, they are resisted and re-worked to accommodate local views, needs, and aspirations. In this interaction both the external agenda and local norms are contested and reconstituted in ways that follow the contours of the power asymmetries among local actors and external resource users, government agents and project managers. In the Tambacounda Region of Senegal, forest-dwelling villagers constantly negotiate forest use with more powerful urban-based merchants and transhumant herders. Government and international development programs have introduced ‘local conventions,’ written agreements among resource users, to reduce conflict over resource-use decisions. However, despite elaboration through participatory processes these conventions impose rules of management and use that contradict local environmental subjectivities; consequently, local people resist and rework introduced rules, and thus reconstitute them as, at least partly, their own.

Reinvigorating the rotating presidency: Slovakia and agenda-setting in the EU’s external relations

ABSTRACTWhat scope and autonomy are available to a small member state holding the EU Presidency as regards shaping the agenda and influencing decision-making in the EU’s external relations? This article focuses on the case of the Slovak Presidency (SK PRES) of the Council of Ministers of the EU in the second half of 2016. Building on organization theory-inspired institutionalist approaches to studying practices in organizations, it examines how Slovakia sought to shape the EU’s external affairs agenda. Haugevik and Rieker have called for analyses of the balance between autonomy and integration of small member states in the EU’s governance order. This article is intended as a contribution to that end.