South American States Research Articles

Stack of Dominos Upended: Colombia, Paraguay and Palestine

In an article published by us (Alba and Silverburg, 2016), we discussed the geographical extent of South American states’ recognition of the State of Palestine. The gravamen of our presentation was to note that Colombia was an outlier in this regard.

Argentina and Brazil: from Military Nuclear Programs to National Atomic Energy

Argentina and Brazil were among the first developing countries that have undertaken the development of nuclear energy. In these largest South American States, the interest in atom was born in the depths of the military establishment and was spurred by the Argentine-Brazilian rivalry for leadership in the Latin American region, especially during dictatorial regimes. In those years, in both countries there were plans to develop its own nuclear weapons, determining their negative attitude to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and to the plans of making Latin America a nuclear-weapons-free zone. With the return to the democratic forms of government the projects to create their own nuclear weapons were withdrawn from the agenda, and the relations between Buenos Aires and Brasilia transformed into strategic cooperation, and engulfed the sphere of peaceful atom. In the international arena, the two countries came to oppose weapons of mass destruction and to support nuclear disarmament. It may be noted that, having passed a long way of mastering the power of the atom, Argentina and Brazil have found their own place in the global nuclear industry. Both countries have built research reactors and nuclear power plants, established enterprises of nuclear fuel cycle, conducted fundamental and applied research in the nuclear field. Argentina has exported nuclear technology and equipment, including modern low-power reactors, Brazil became the world’s only non-nuclear country building a nuclear submarine. To date, nuclear generation occupies but a modest place in the energy balance of these South American countries which, among other things, is due to other rich sources of energy in their possession. But the very logic of scientific and technological development pushes Argentina and Brazil to broader and more diversified use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes, encourages to increase their efforts in this regard, deploy national programs and expand the range of international interaction.

Latin America: Crisis of regionalism vs advancement of economic integration

Many regional organizations in Latin America are currently in crisis or confronted with the risk of dissolution. This is the case for the Union of South American States (UNASUR), where half of its members suspended their participation and stopped their financial contributions. The Government of Colombia even announced that it will exit the organization. However, crises may also create opportunities.

O ativismo jurídico transnacional no Sistema Interamericano de Direitos Humanos: um estudo sobre a mobilização no Chile em torno da promoção da justiça de transição

O presente artigo tem como objetivo fazer um estudo sobre a advocacytransnacional, por meio de um estudo de caso sobre a mobilização chilena no Sistema Interamericano de Direitos Humanos (SIDH), em torno da temática de justiça de transição. Nesse sentido, busca-se argumentar que o caso chileno foi o percurso em relação a advocacytransnacional na América Latina. Para tanto, foram analisados as informações disponíveis na base de dados do SIDH sobre os Estados sul-americanos do Núcleo de Pesquisa e Estudos em Direitos Humanos da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (NUPEDH-IERIUFU), sobre os casos processados contra o Estado chileno, com o propósito de analisar o perfil de mobilização contra o referido Estado na Comissão Interamericana de Direitos Humanos. As dinâmicas institucionais e a mobilização do ativismo transnacional, com vistas a alcançar efeitos normativos e estratégicos, foram estudados levando em consideração o contexto de disputa e o uso de oportunidades políticas, tanto para ressignificar as normas como para influenciar a política doméstica.

El marco constitucional de las relaciones entre iglesia y estado en América del Sur (1811-1900)

La diferente evolución histórica de cada una de las naciones que aparecen tras la desintegración del imperio colonial español en América del Sur condiciona la aparición de textos constitucionales de características propias en cada uno de estos estados. Tras establecer las líneas generales de la regulación constitucional de las relaciones entre la Iglesia y Estado en las naciones sudamericanas a lo largo del siglo XIX, el presente estudio aborda el análisis de estas relaciones atendiendo el caso particular de cada estado, analizándose la evolución al respecto de Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Perú, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia y Venezuela.

The challenge of articulating human rights at an LGBT ‘mega-event’: a personal reflection on Sao Paulo Pride 2017

This paper brings together Critical Event Studies (CES) and a reflexive/narrative autoethnographic approach in order to stimulate a debate around the commodification of public space, and the management of mega-events of dissent. This is achieved using the example of the researcher’s participation in the 2017 Sao Paulo Pride. Sao Paulo Pride is one of the largest LGBT demonstrations in the world. However, corporate interests in the event have commodified dissent in order to commercialise ‘otherness’, and the city has absorbed the demonstration into its cultural offer as a global brand. The confluence of these factors produces a pattern of place dressing and erasure that depoliticise the event and undermines its capacity to effectively articulate human rights. Currently Brazil has some of the most liberal LGBT laws of any South American state, yet recently Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT)/Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) human rights have been threatened by a rapid rise in hate crime and the emergence of an evangelical Christian right in state and regional assemblies. Within such a context the need to revive the roots of Pride as an articulation of otherness that demands recognition, and as a robust defence of human rights for the LGBT/SOGI community, is more pressing than ever.

Ecuador’s 2017 Termination of Treaties: How Not to Exit the International Investment Regime

On 16 May 2017, Ecuador terminated all of the 16 Ecuadorian Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) still remaining in force. This decision was the end of a longer process that aimed to disengage the South American state from the international investment regime, a process begun nearly a decade earlier, with the drafting of a new constitution in 2008, one that contained an article prohibiting the state from giving consent to investment arbitration. The article argues that it was not the 2017 decision itself, but the different erratic legal steps, including the poor drafting of the constitutional provision, the confusing reasons given for a series of constitutional judgements, the timing involved in re-evaluating the constitutional decision so many years later, and in general the lack of a pre-established course of action during this process that led to Ecuador’s poor performance in terms of its FDI policy. In this light, the article further claims that an analysis of the Ecuadorian experience can contribute to a better understanding of how the constitutional sphere can best interact with international investment law, potentially by applying specific principles of investment rather than prohibitions on constitutional texts.

Construção de Confiança e Transparência Militar na UNASUL: avanços e desafios

Considerando o primeiro Registro Sul-Americano de Gastos Agregados em Defesa 2006-2010, este artigo analisa as seguintes questões: como se constituiu a agenda sul-americana de transparência militar? Que significado os membros da UNASUL atribuem à promoção da transparência militar? Quais são os desafios para o desenvolvimento dessa agenda?

La construcción conceptual en los procesos de delimitación y de fronterización: la región platina de Sudamérica (siglos XIX y XX)

El artículo toma como objeto la región platina, formada a partir de la cuenca del río de la Plata, involucrando a cinco Estados nacionales sudamericanos: la Argentina, el Brasil, Bolivia, el Paraguay y el Uruguay. Se propone reconstruir a grandes trazos el proceso de delimitación acontecido en esta región. Asimismo, busca identificar y sistematizar las principales iniciativas que llevaron a la formación de dispositivos fronterizos unilaterales y bilaterales. Se trabajó principalmente con legislación generada en esos países (leyes, constituciones) y entre ellos (acuerdos, protocolos). Se trabajará con dos nociones: delimitación y fronterización. Se logra reconstruir buena parte del sistema fronterizo regional, que permitió diferenciar los territorios, a la vez que acercarlos y mantener ciertos equilibrios de poder, a pesar de las asimetrías y las rivalidades existentes a lo largo de los siglos XIX y XX.

Political and military cooperation in the margins of UNASUR

The article gives an account of the directions of the South American Defense Council activities, analyses the level of UNASUR member-states` participation into political and military cooperation, defines military threats, evaluates the development of the cooperation of South American states in the near future

Drug policy reform in South America: Towards a Multiaxial Model of Preventive Regulation

Since the creation of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) in 2008, its members evidence an endogenous contradiction in relation to the illegal drug issue. While on one hand they are demanding a new approach to the world drug issue, focused on human rights and promoting initiatives oriented to harm reduction; on the other hand, many of them are implementing internal punitive measures, based on a supply-centric strategy and criminalization of drug users. This article analyzes some important factors that increase and constrain the coordination of a joint position among South American states on the illegal drug topic through the definition of two approaches —uniaxial and multiaxial—. Those approaches are characterized by the different consideration of three elements: the current legislation that affects the states’ behavior in relation to this issue; the dimensions of the problem; and the actors who try to exercise an influence on —and at the same time are influenced by— both the legislation and the dimensions. This paper also argues that a multiaxial cooperation dynamic could represent a useful long-term strategy to counterbalance the negative spillover effects of a uniaxial war on drugs policy.

An ocean for the Global South: Brazil and the zone of peace and cooperation in the South Atlantic

In this article, we analyse an instance of revitalisation of a dormant interregional organisation dating back to the Cold War: the Zone of Peace and Cooperation of the South Atlantic (ZOPACAS), initially launched by South American and African states in 1986 through the UN General Assembly. Drawing on the concepts of “consensual hegemony” we argue that the current phase of ZOPACAS’ existence is characterised by Brazil's efforts to rekindle it, thus reflecting its aspiration to create a new space of influence. Rather than pursuing more traditional forms of regional leadership, Brazil uses ZOPACAS as part of a persuasion-based strategy based on regional multilateralism that is designed in antagonism to other international organisations and Western powers. However, this strategy also faces important limitations resulting from resource constraints, lack of institutionalisation and an excessive exclusionary focus on minimising the role of global powers with interests in the region.

Diplomatic Dominos: South America and the Recognition of [the State of] Palestine

<h2>All but one of the states in South American have extended some type of diplomatic recognition to Palestine. There is a discussion of the meaning of diplomatic recognition in the current state system with its importance. The central theme of this paper is an examination of the process and an explanation for South American states’ provision of diplomatic recognition to Palestine while one other in the same cultural-geographical region has not.</h2>

Welsh coal and the informal empire in South America, 1850–1913

ABSTRACTCoal was crucial to the growth of several South American states between 1850 and 1913, being used for their expanding railway networks, to generate power for their emerging industries, and by the steamships in which much of their overseas trade was conducted. Lacking indigenous sources of sufficiently high quality, Argentina and Brazil in particular came to rely heavily on Welsh coal for their energy needs. While playing a crucial role in the economic development of such countries, Welsh coal and its distribution network of coaling stations also helped in protecting the trade between Britain and South America, allowing the Royal Navy to have access to the most suitable coal for its purposes at distances varying from almost 4000 to 10,000 miles from its point of origin. This paper explores various aspects of the development of this trade and argues that, in discussions of the development of the informal empire, the significance of (Welsh) coal should not be overlooked, as has tended to be the case in some modern works.

Keeping the Germans Out of the Straits: The Five Ottoman Dreadnought Thesis Reconsidered

This article contests Sean McMeekin’s claims concerning Russian culpability for the First World War. McMeekin maintains that Ottoman rearmament, particularly the purchase of several battleships released onto the global arms market by South American states, threatened to create a situation where the Russian Black Sea Fleet would be outclassed by its Ottoman opposite number. Rather than waiting for this to happen, the tsarist regime chose to go to war. Yet, contrary to McMeekin’s claims, the Ottoman naval expansion never assumed threatening dimensions because the Porte was unable to purchase battleships from Chile or Argentina. As a result, it provided no incentive for Russia to go to war in 1914.

¿Es posible un derecho constitucional latinoamericano?

The article analyses the obstacles which currently exist to build a common constitutional law in Latin America, in spite of the existence of numerous important common characteristics. Not all Latin American states have adopted a democratic regime, representative of that of which is required by the Charter of the Organization of the American States nor do they respect human rights as established by the American Convention on Human Rights and by the Inter-America Democratic Charter, like Cuba and Venezuela. The South American states which have adopted a democratic regime, are government represented, protect personal property rights and economic freedom are not included in the «new Latin American Constitution.» The Constitutions of Bolivia and Ecuador establish that the State will govern and plan the economy, promoting community economy, which in turn prevents the practise of economic freedom and, as a result, a common Latin American constitutional right.

China Tax Treaty and Policy Development and Updates

China has risen as a key global economic development engine and player over the past three decades. An outgrowth of its great economic advances is China’s gradually escalating move from being a passive norm taker to being a driver of the discourse in various international arenas, such as China’s continual efforts in reforming its international tax policies and outreaches. Since China concluded its first two tax treaties with Japan (1983) and the United States (1984), China’s tax treaty network has expanded to a system of 99 tax treaties (as of June 30, 2013), and two arrangements with its own special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macau.First, Chinese tax treaties are characterized and inspired by the hybrid influence of the UN Model and Commentaries, OECD Model and Commentaries and China’s indigenous features in terms of economic and political orientations. On one hand, China concluded different specific tax treaty provisions with developed (typically OECD members) and developing countries (South American, African and Southeast Asian states). Second, there emerges a general re-evaluation of China’s treaty position given its emergence as a growing capital exporter rather than a mere capital receiver or importer. One driver for this change is China’s weighty foreign exchange reserves, which invites the use of conduits for Chinese capital to be reinvested in China via overseas investments. Another force is that enterprises controlled by Chinese capital go abroad to invest in a myriad of enticing acquisitions and profitable businesses, putting China at the front of international tax policy negotiations. Third, with China’s reconstruction of a tax legal system, especially after the re-entry to the WTO (2000) and the enactment of the Enterprise Income Tax Law (EIT Law) (2007), tax treaties concluded thereafter exhibit noteworthy differences from those contracted in the 1980s and 1990s. For example, GAAR, CFC rules, abolishment or removal of certain tax incentives, and tax holidays were all directly raised in recent tax treaty negotiations and implementations. Fourth but not least, the evolution of tax treaties between OECD Member countries and China witnesses a broader scope of source taxation, especially comparing with those non-OECD countries or countries with less sophisticated tax regimes. This claim can be substantiated by provisions relevant to BEPS, tightened compliance requirements, and adoption of anti-abuse rules. This trend is worthy of closer observation and factoring in.

LA VARIABLE REGIONAL EN EL PROCESO DE DIÁLOGO COLOMBIANO

As part of the dialogue process between the Colombian government and the FARC, weexamine the impact of policies on the borders Uribe South American states as regionalvariable that contributes to shaping an environment conducive to the start of that process.The working hypothesis argues that the complexity of the situations of shared bordersecurity helped clarify the need for dialogue.

ICT Variables for Development in South America Through Federal Lenses

From the perspective of the information revolution and based on the methodology put forward by the Telecommunications Law Indicators for Comparative Studies (TLICS) Model published in 2011 and 2012, this paper builds on the federative indicator used by the literature on dependence of economic development on ICT to answer the following research question: What indicators better represent the institutional federative background in South America for the ICT comparative research? Six sets of federative indicators on revenue, fiscal transfer, regulatory power, judicial centralization, planning, and media content regulation are put together to compare South American federal environment as a groundwork for the ICT comparative research. The empirical universe of the paper encompassed eleven countries that formed a potpourri of eight officially unitary countries – Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, and Uruguay –, and three federal countries – Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela –, that account all countries in South America apart from Guiana. The article is organized in three main parts. A brief description of the ICT federative indicators of the TLICS model is performed in the first part. The second part applies these variables to the aforementioned South American states. The third part delves into the comparison of the states analyzed by means of categorizing the differences and commonalities revealed by those indicators. To test the association between federalism as the explanatory variable and each of the outcomes proposed by the TLICS model, we used the following tests of significance: (i) Fisher exact test, to test the association between the federal status of a country and decentralized features in the given group of states; (ii) the relative risk of a country categorized as federal to have decentralized/interdependent ICT variables relative to the chance that a unitary country shows the same features; (iii) logistic regression, to predict the probability of a federal country to present decentralized/interdependent ICT variables. Using Fischer exact test, only ICT tax was significantly associated with a country being classified as federative in the telecommunications (p = 0.024) and e-commerce (p = 0.033) sectors. Calculating the logistic regression pinpointed tax as the only outcome with significant association to the institutional variable of federalism in telecom, broadcast, and e-commerce sectors. In terms of relative risk, the chance of a federal country having decentralized tax is 8 times greater than the chance of a non-federal country having decentralized tax in the telecommunications sector, and 7 times greater in the e-commerce sector. As a main outcome, based on data collected from the institutional background of those countries, we found clusters of commonalities between federal and unitary countries that support the assumption that the sole reference to a single federative category, as opposed to the use of atomized indicators, cannot provide a real picture of their institutional background for ICT and development comparative purposes.

Constructing Regionalism in South America: The Cases of Transport Infrastructure and Energy within UNASUR

This paper seeks to contribute to the study of contemporary South American regionalism focusing on the emergence and development of sectoral cooperation and policy coordination within the Union of South American Countries (UNASUR). To do so the paper analyzes two policy areas -- transport infrastructure and energy integration -- from the inception of cooperation in 2000 until 2014, addressing two questions: (i) why regional cooperation has emerged despite the absence of economic interdependence and market-driven demand for economic integration, and (ii) why policy outcomes are evident in some areas (i.e., transport infrastructure) while limited in others (i.e., energy). Bringing together insights from rationalist and constructivist approaches in IR and IPE, it is argued that the emergence of regional cooperation as well as the sharp variation in policy outcomes between areas can be largely explained by the articulation of a regional leadership and its effect on the convergence of state preferences. The paper shows how the Brazilian leadership, incentivized by the effects of the US-led FTAA negotiations and the financial crises that hit the region in the late 1990s, made state preferences converge towards a regionalist project encompassing all South American countries by making visible the mutual benefits of cooperation on transport infrastructure and energy. Furthermore, the paper illustrates how in spite of significant changes in South American states’ cooperation preferences the Brazilian leadership was able to adapt the cooperation process in the transport infrastructure sector to the new circumstances of regional politics permitting not only the institutionalization of sectoral cooperation, but also the implementation of several infrastructure transnational projects. In the case of energy, instead, the emergence of a second regional leadership project – pursued by Chavez’s Venezuela – and the deep divergence of state preferences led energy cooperation into a gridlock.