Resource Grabbing Research Articles

Land Grabbing as Security Mercantilism in International Relations

International studies routinely consign agri-food relations to the analytical margins, despite the substantive historical impact of the agri-food frontiers and provisioning on the structuring of the interstate system. As a case in point, current restructuring of the food regime and its global political-economic coordinates is expressed through the process of ‘land grabbing’. Here, the crisis of the WTO-centered corporate food regime, which has neoliberalized Southern agriculture while sustaining Northern agro-food subsidies, is manifest in a new form of mercantilism of commandeering offshore land for supplies of food, feed, and fuel. This article examines the content and implications of this new ‘security mercantilism’, which both affirms and contradicts a neoliberal order, anticipating a shift in international relations around resource grabbing. Los estudios internacionales destinan periódicamente las relaciones de los productos agroalimentarios a los márgenes analíticos, a pesar del impacto histórico fundamental de las fronteras agroalimentarias y del abastecimiento en la estructuración del sistema interestatal. Como ejemplo, la reestructuración actual del régimen alimentario y sus coordenadas políticas económicas globales, se expresa a través del proceso del ‘acaparamiento de tierras’. Aquí, la crisis del régimen corporativo alimentario centrado en la OMC, el cual ha neoliberalizado la agricultura del sur, mientras sostiene subsidios agroalimentarios en el norte, se manifiesta en una nueva forma de mercantilismo de incautación de alimentos y combustible en tierra extranjera. Este artículo examina el contenido y las implicaciones de esta nueva ‘seguridad mercantilista’, que tanto afirma como contradice un orden neoliberal, anticipando un cambio en las relaciones internacionales alrededor del acaparamiento de recursos. 国际研究通常把农业食品的关系作为分析边际，尽管农业食品新领域的实质历史性影响以及国家间系统结构的设置。一个恰当的例子就是，当前粮食制度的再重构及其全球政治经济协调通过“土地并购”过程体现出来。在这里，以世界贸易组织为中心的粮食企业制度的危机，通过为提供食物、饲料、燃料而征用海外土地的重商主义新形式体现出来，该粮食企业制度使南部农业重新自由化，而对北部持续提供农业补贴。本文仔细研究了这种肯定却又违背了新自由主义秩序的新型 “安全重商主义”的内容与含义，预测围绕资源掠夺的国际关系将会发生一定的转变。 درجت الدراسات الدولية على إزاحة العلاقات الزراعية الغذائية إلى هوامش التحليل، على الرغم من الأثر التاريخي الكبير لها ودورها في تشكيل منظومة الدولة الداخلية. وكمثال على ذلك، فإن إعادة الهيكلة الحالية للنظام الغذائي وتنسيقاتها السياسية الاقتصادية العالمية تتجلى من خلال عملية "الاستيلاء على الأراضي". وهكذا فإن أزمة النظام الغذائي، الذي تتبناه منظمة التجارة العالمية والمتمركز حول مصلحة الشركات وله طابع نظام الزراعة النيوليبرالي في الجنوب بينما يحتفظ ببقايا العلاقات الزراعية الغذائية في الشمال، تظهر في شكل جديد من المنظومة التجارية (المركانتيلية) للتحكم في الأراضي خارج البلد المعني من حيث استخدامها لأغراض غذاء الإنسان والحيوان والوقود الحيوي. وتتحرى هذه الورقة مضمون ونتائج هذه "المركانتيلية الأمنية" الجديدة، والتي تؤكد وتناقض في وقت واحد نظاماً نيوليبرالياً، مما يشير إلى تحوّل في العلاقات الدولية إزاء الاستيلاء على الموارد. 농업-식량의 심각한 역사적 영향과 국가간 체계의 구조화에 미치는 영향에도 불구하고, 국제관계 연구는 농업-식량 관계를 분석에서 주변화시켰다. 문제가 되는 사례로서 현재 이루어지고 있는 식량 레짐의 재구화와 지구적 정치-경제적 조절은 ‘토지 점유’ 과정을 통해서 표출된다. 여기에서 WTO 중심의 기업 식량 레짐의 위기는 식량, 사료와 원료 공급을 위해 해외 토지를 징발하는 새로운 형태의 중상주의로 나타난다. 그리고 WTO 중심의 기업 식량 레짐은 선진국의 농업-식량 보조금 지원을 유지하면서 후진국의 농업을 신자유주의화하고 있다. 이 논문은 자원 점유를 둘러싼 국제 관계의 변화를 기대하면서, 새로운 “안보 중상주의”의 내용과 함의를 다루고, 안보 중산주의가 신자유주의 질서에 부합하면서 동시에 모순적이라는 점을 다룬다. Международные исследования регулярно обрекают сельскохозяйственно-продовольственные отношения на аналитические окраины, несмотря на их существенный исторический вклад в обеспечение и структурирование межгосударственной системы. В качестве примера, текущая реструктуризация продовольственного режима и его глобальных политико-экономических координат выражается через процесс «захвата земли». Здесь, кризис в ВТО - центре корпоративного продовольственного режима, который имеет неолиберальное «южное» сельское хозяйство при сохраненных «северных» продовольственных субсидиях, проявляется в новой форме меркантилизма – присваивании оффшорной земли для поставок продуктов питания, кормов и топлива. В статье рассматривается содержание и значение этого нового «безопасного меркантилизма», который и подтверждает и противоречит неолиберальному порядку, предвосхищая изменения в международных отношениях вокруг захвата ресурсов.

The evolution of the land struggle for smallholder irrigated rice production in Nante, Mozambique

The case of Munda Munda irrigation system in Nante, Zambezia, Mozambique, is an example of how a smallholder community, with the active support of local NGOs, has successfully defended its land and water resources against several attempts of resource grabbing. This article examines the strategies the community used to defend its resources. After an initial struggle over legal entitlements the discussion shifted to questions of efficient and productive use of the land. This shift is possible in the context of Mozambican land law which prohibits land from being privately owned while simultaneously aiming to regulate external investments on a basis of arguments of productive use of resources. Smallholders sustained their claim of productive use by switching to ‘modern’ technologies (tractor, fertilizers, improved seeds), investments in infrastructure (rehabilitation and extension of the irrigation system) and commercialisation of their production (increase of yields, processing and marketing). At a second level the case reveals a conflict between two alternative rural development models, the company/concessionary model and the smallholder/cooperative model. The dynamics in Nante are an expression of how this dichotomy plays out at a local level. The article is based on a long-term involvement in the area since 2004.

Sovereignty in the Blood: Cultural Resistance in the Characters of James Welch

In June of 1992, the Coeur d'Alene Tribe of Idaho, the Nez Perce Tribe, the University of Idaho, Washington State University, and Upward Bound sponsored a symposium titled and Natural Resources Issues. In addition to the representatives from the tribes and the universities, state officials, and scholars, personnel from federal government agencies as stewards of the nation's natural resources were also present. The issues examined included not only the regulation of federal public resources, but also the management of resources on federal trust lands. Of great concern from tribal perspective seemed to be the possible unilateral governmental development of reservation lands where at least thirty-five percent of the remaining natural resources in territorial United States are located. There were fears that the federal government would retreat from the acknowledged policy of tribal self-determination and return to a national colonial policy and a government resource grab. The tribal spokespersons expressed their concern about being able to determine their future. The underlying issue of contention was tribal sovereignty. After five hundred years of intercultural contact, the ability of the native peoples to manage their own future was still being contested. Central to the conflict was the definition of sovereignty. In addition to his university responsibilities, Cecil Jose, the Director of American Indian Studies at Eastern Washington University, works with Native American tribes, regional organizations, and the National Congress of American Indians putting on workshops to instruct people in issue and problem management techniques. Jose uses what he calls a cultural civics curriculum. which is a theoretical foundation for cross cultural communication. Jose teaches methods and processes of defining issues to try to avoid confrontational or adversarial approaches to problems because antagonistic approaches do not lead to situations. Jose's transformative situation is one that emphasizes common values and beliefs in cross cultural situations and allows for a mutually beneficial relationship. Jose's first step in problem management is to specify the central issue, such as the definition of sovereignty. Jose notes that in the cultural context of sovereignty, Euroamericans come from a secular, nation-state tradition while tribal-specific Natives come from a spiritual, community tradition. An example of Jose's tribal-specific community based sovereignty can be seen in Donald L. Fixico's Sovereignty Revitalized. Though the spiritual component of sovereignty is difficult to ascertain in this short analysis, the Fixico piece does show the Creek Nation's effort to determine its own cultural, economic, and educational destiny. In the study, Fixico shows a small Creek town in Oklahoma, Thiopthlocco, that is part of the larger Creek Nation. The people of Thlopthlocco practice their customs, speak their own language, and are becoming entrepreneurs. The larger Creek Nation is also affecting their future. They have a capital at Okmulgee, other communities throughout the nation besides Thiopthiocco, each with their own business adventures. One successful operation is bingo where the money from the games is put back into the community in the form of social services, a hospital with Indian nurses and doctors, and scholarships for education. has been revitalized for the Creek Nation.