State In South America Research Articles

The Cold War, National Security, and the Military State in South America (1959-1980)

Este artículo tiene como objetivo principal comprender el concepto y la experiencia de la guerra fría en Sudamérica en los años sesenta y setenta del siglo XX –dado que fue en el Cono Sur en donde se desarrollaron con más eficacia los regímenes llamados de Seguridad Nacional– y, al mismo tiempo, penetrar en el modo en que esos regímenes crearon un tipo de Estado de carácter netamente militar. Para este trabajo se ha inspeccionado documentación y fuentes orales en distintos lugares –Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Israel–, durante varios años, con fines diversos, ligados todos ellos al estudio del fenómeno militar y, tras el análisis de parte de esa información para este artículo, se concluye que, en la guerra total y permanente contra el comunismo, la autoridad del Estado militar, fundado en origen para proteger del autoritarismo a la sociedad civil, se volvió despótica y el Estado deificado, tiránico.

Beyond exotic goods: Wari elites and regional interaction in the Andes during the Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000)

A common feature of successful ancient states was the role of elites in maintaining and regulating socioeconomic structures and, in particular, emphasising their own social difference. The Wari (AD 600–1000) are considered the earliest expansive state in South America, and excavations have demonstrated the rich variety of exotic goods imported from across the region into the polity's heartland. Here, the authors argue that the importation of raw materials, plants, animals and people from distant regions was crucial for defining and sustaining Wari social differentiation and ideology. They emphasise the importance of studying material provenance and their archaeological contexts in order to understand the role of exotic goods in legitimising ruling groups in ancient states.

The Foreign Press about the Change of Attitude of Soviet Power to Orthodoxy in 1943 (According to TASS)

The article analyzes a selection of materials of the foreign press, made by the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) in 1943 on the reaction to the change in the attitude of the Soviet government to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). It is presented in one of the files of the state archive of the Russian Federation (SARF). In the collection mentioned, there are notes and articles of various editions of the countries of Europe, and also the States of North and South America, Africa, Australia. The claimed problems have not been seriously analyzed from the scientific point of view so far. The author notes that the negative and positive assessments of the transformation of the religious policy of the USSR were clearly divided into the two camps: the countries that supported the USSR in 1943 and the countries that had opposite views. The rhetoric of the press in the United States, Canada and England differed significantly from that one in Europe as a whole, and even more in Nazi Germany, Italy and Romania. The press of countries that were far away from the events, for example, the States of South America or Australia, reflected a neutral attitude to what was happening. Against this background, all actions of the Soviet authorities were assessed as superficial, temporary, and “fake”. According to the critics, they were forced. In reality, there was no question of freedom of religion in the USSR. In turn, the press of the allied countries relatively highly appreciated the changes in the policy of the Soviet state. It is obvious that the problems stated in the title of the article require further serious scientific analysis, which implies a large volume of work with foreign media of the time under consideration and with archival sources. Keywords: religion, Orthodoxy, freedom of religion, Patriarch, Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, mass media

Chile’s soft misplaced regional identity

This article analyses Chile’s foreign policy, utilizing a multilayered identity model, one that covers the country’s most stable identity layer as a sovereign state, an intermediate layer in which processes of identification between Chile and its peers unfold, as well as the most superficial layer in which key entrepreneurs advance new identities. Chile’s identity is examined through the lens of role theory, in order to unpack this country’s sense of being a misplaced state in South America. Chile’s role behaviour as a soft case of misplacement is triggered at the most superficial layer and partly permeates the intermediate layer of identity, despite the country’s historical experiences which have given rise to a sense of uniqueness in South America. Thus, this article shows how Chile’s role-play has tended to increase and/or offset its sense of misplacedness in South America in the period starting from 1990 and continuing into the new century.

How Pedro Quiñonez Lost His Soul: Suicide, Routine Violence, and State Formation in Nineteenth-Century Paraguay

Abstract This article uses judicial records of suicide cases from mid-nineteenth-century Paraguay to explore how inhabitants of the country experienced postcolonial state formation. The Republic of Paraguay, founded in 1813, was a marginal, autonomous state in South America, forged from a former Spanish colonial frontier province and dominated by autocratic regimes until its near destruction in the Triple Alliance War (1864–1870). Conventional historical wisdom suggests that unlike other countries in Latin America at the time, matters of nationhood and state sovereignty in Paraguay were largely resolved. Stable autocratic regimes, muted social inequalities among a common peasantry, and ethnolinguistic bonds born of the indigenous-origin vernacular Guaraní allegedly provided for this resolution. However, this article disrupts such received wisdom and finds that state formation in Paraguay by the mid-nineteenth century was still very much an unsettled, ongoing affair, especially in the intensely local contexts of the countryside. Its narrative follows the 1865 suicide of the retired militia officer Pedro Quiñonez and what a local judge did and wrote to condemn his soul. In fact, this and dozens of other cases of suicide reviewed in the article reveal a social world of servitude, racialized denigration, and routine violence that were part and parcel of everyday people’s incorporation into ñane retã—the Guaraní-language expression for the nation-state—and the consequent slippery ambivalence that Pedro and others manifested in their relation to this polity.

La educación secundaria en cinco países de América del Sur

In this paper I focus on the Secondary Education in few countries of South America in order to identify recurrences among the problems, their possible interpretations, and their current processes of reforms. I analyse the changes of secondary education in four countries that are members of the MERCOSUR: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, and I also take into account one country which is located in same region: Bolivia. Thus, I track the recent trajectories of government policies on secondary education, which have been modified by these five States of South America. For this purpose, first, I analyse the global level and the regional contexts in which educational reforms have taken place in the last decades. Second, after mention few historical characteristics of education development in Latin America –in general– and in these five nations –in particular–, I look at the reforms of secondary education in this region doing a normative analysis of the government policy documents of these five countries. This analysis shall allow us to define a period starting in the ‘1990s and continuing until the second decade of the current century, in which we can identify normative changes in the countries studied and also recognize some of their actual scope and limitations. Third, recognizing the complexity of current global networks and the dynamic of interaction, we approach the secondary education reform challenging the assumption that globalization leads to homogenization and results in the international convergence of educational systems. Finally, we discuss the meaning of secondary education for all from a regional perspective in order to identify current convergences in academic forms of secondary school and the constraints of their implementation according to academic traditions and the educational local settings.

Latin Women Take the Helm

Latin Women Take the Helm

Isolation in Eudora Welty's "A Curtain of Green"

Eudora Welty was a product of the South America’s rich oral tradition. She was a brilliant and gifted story teller. Her most celebrated medium was the short story, and her main subject was the family, though she personally never married. The present paper presents Welty’s association with her native state in South America, which reflected in her all writings – a brief summary of the short story “A Curtain of Green” - concept of ‘isolation’ in “A Curtain of Green”- Welty’s points of view in projecting the concept ‘isolation’ in the short story. Mrs. Larkin is seen living in isolation since the death of her husband. She spent most of the day in her garden to get rid of the memories of the sudden and tragic death of her husband. Her human relations, love and affection with her husband are pointed out. The role of Jamey, a black coloured boy in Mrs. Larkin’s isolated life is discussed. Key words: Eudora Welty, short stories, a curtain of green, isolation, point of view, human relations.

The Fall of the Moche: A Critique of Claims for South America’s First State

AbstractThe Moche archaeological culture of the North Coast of Peru has been reified into a political system and claimed as the first state in South America. While some recent scholarship has reduced the size of the proposed state, the idea of Moche as a distinct political, social, or ethnic entity remains. In this article we demonstrate that even by the “classic” neoevolutionary theory of the 1960s—1980s the criteria for Moche statehood were not met. We suggest that neoevolutionary models for one or more Moche states are inadequate for understanding an archaeological culture that endured for more than six centuries, and we offer suggestions for directions for future research.

Recent Advances in Moche Archaeology

The discovery of the royal tombs at Sipan in 1987 propelled Moche archaeology to the forefront of Andean studies. In the last decade, the study of Moche political organization and ideology through public architecture, cultural remains, funerary patterns, and iconography has forced the revision of previous conceptions about Moche state formation, urbanism, and the functioning of this complex society. Major advances in iconography, internal organization of urban centers, temples and domestic architecture, craft production, and mortuary patterns are embedded in a new chronology that supports a longer development and a more gradual collapse. The recognition of Moche as the first state in South America is still valid, but its monolithic character is rejected in favor of several autonomous polities. The number and size of potential Moche states are currently debated, as is the role of warfare and ideology in Moche state formation.

Unravelling Geopolitical Traditions with an Extroverted Scholarship

Abstract Notes 1. It should be recalled that geopolitics and political geography more generally were condemned at one stage as an ‘intellectual poison’ and a ‘moribund backwater’ by Richard Hartshorne and Brian Berry respectively in the 1950s and 1960s. 2. L. Hepple, ‘Geopolitics, Generals and the State in Brazil’, Political Geography Quarterly 5/4 (1986) pp. S21–S36; L. Hepple, ‘The Geopolitics of the Falklands/Malvinas and the South Atlantic: British and Argentinian Perceptions, Misperceptions and Rivalries’, in J. Child and P. Kelly (eds.), Geopolitics of the Southern Cone and Antarctica (Boulder, CO: Westview Press 1988) pp. 250–282; L. Hepple, ‘Metaphor, Geopolitical Discourse and the Military in South America’, in T. Barnes, and J. Duncan (eds.), Writing Worlds: Text, Language and Discourse in Geography (London and New York: Routledge 2002) pp. 136–154; L. Hepple, ‘South American Heartland: The Charcas, Latin American Geopolitics and Global Strategies’, Geographical Journal 170/4 (2004) pp. 359–367. 3. Hepple, ‘Geopolitics, Generals and the State’ (note 2) p. 87. 4. Hepple, ‘Metaphor, Geopolitical Discourse’ (note 2). 5. Hepple, ‘Geopolitics, Generals and the State’ (note 2) p. 88. 6. Hepple, ‘The Geopolitics of the Falklands/Malvinas’ (note 2). 7. Although Les did acknowledge generously the pioneering work by retired US Colonels Dr. Jack Child and Dr. Howard Pittman in first writing about South American geopolitics in English in the late 1970s and early 1980s. See, for example, J. Child, Geopolitics and Conflict in South America (New York: Praeger 1985). Their work, however, is very different in spirit and tone to Hepple's scholarship. 8. M. Bassin, ‘Race Contra Space: The Conflict between German Geopolitik and National Socialism’, Political Geography Quarterly 6 (1987) pp. 115–134; H. Heske, ‘Karl Haushofer: His Role in German Geopolitics and in Nazi Politics’, Political Geography Quarterly 6 (1987) pp. 135–144; N. Smith, ‘Isaiah Bowman: Political Geography and Geopolitics’, Political Geography Quarterly 3 (1984) pp. 69–76. 9. D. Livingstone, The Geographical Tradition (Oxford: Blackwell 1992). 10. L. Hepple, ‘Géopolitics de Gauche: Yves Lacoste, Hérodote and French Radical Geopolitics’, in K. Dodds and D. Atkinson (eds.), Geopolitical Traditions: A Century of Geopolitical Thought (London and New York: Routledge 2000) pp. 268–301. See also P. Claval, ‘Hérodote and the French Left’, in K. Dodds and D. Atkinson (eds.), Geopolitical Traditions: A Century of Geopolitical Thought (London and New York: Routledge 2000) pp. 239–267; P. Girot and E. Kofman (eds.), International Geopolitical Analysis: A Selection from Hérodote (London: Croom Helm 1987). 11. Hepple, ‘Géopolitics de Gauche’ (note 10) p. 285. 12. Y. Lacoste, Vive la nation: destin d'une idée géopolitique (Paris: Fayard 1998). 13. Hepple, ‘Géopolitics de Gauche’ (note 10) p. 297. See also J. Fall, ‘Lost Geographers: Power Games and the Circulation of Ideas within Francophone Political Geographies,’ Progress in Human Geography 31 (2007) pp. 195–216. 14. L. Hepple, ‘Classics in Human Geography Revisited: Hepple, L. W. 1986: The Revival of Geopolitics’, Political Geography Quarterly 25/3 (2001) p. 430. 15. Although see G Ó Tuathail, ‘The Critical Reading/Writing of Geopolitics: Re-reading/Writing Wittfogel, Bowman and Lacoste’, Progress in Human Geography 18 (1994) pp. 313–332; and G. Ó Tuathail, Critical Geopolitics: The Politics of Writing Global Space (London: Routledge 1996). 16. D. Atkinson, P. Jackson, D. Sibley, and N. Washbourne, ‘On Cultural and Critical Geographies’, in D. Atkinson, P. Jackson, D. Sibley, and N. Washbourne (eds.), Cultural Geography: A Critical Dictionary of Key Concepts (London: I.B. Tauris 2005) pp. vii–xviii. 17. In terms of Anglo-French collaboration, a new journal L'espace Politique (<http://www.espacepolitique.org>) and a forthcoming conference in Reims in April 2008 entitled ‘International Political Geography Colloquium’ offers some promise in terms of intellectual cross-fertilisation. 18. Hepple, ‘Classics in Human Geography Revisited’ (note 14) p. 430. Also note the translations of Hepple's work: L. Hepple, ‘La geopolitica de las Falklands/Malvinas y el Atlantico Sur: Percepciones, percepciones erroneas y rivalidades britanicas y argentinas’, in J. Child and P. Kelly (eds.), Geopolitica del Cono Sur y La Antartida (Buenos Aires: Pleamar 1991) pp. 231–244; L. Hepple, ‘La restauracion de la geopolitica’, Geopolitica (Buenos Aires) 45 (1991) pp. 7–19; L. Hepple, ‘Metaphora, discurso geopolitico, y los militare en America el Sur’, Geopolitica (Buenos Aires) 45 (1992) pp. 45–50. 19. K. Dodds, ‘Geopolitics, Cartography and the State in South America’, Political Geography Quarterly 12 (1994) pp. 361–381; K. Dodds, Geopolitics in Antarctica: Views from the Southern Oceanic Rim (London: Wiley 1997). 20. Hepple, ‘The Geopolitics of the Falklands/Malvinas’ (note 2). 21. Hepple, ‘Geopolitics, generals and the State’ (note 2). 22. Hepple, ‘Classics in Human Geography Revisited’ (note 14).

The Soldier and the State in South America: Essays in Civil–Military Relations. Edited by Patricio Silva. New York: Palgrave, 2001. 212p. $59.95.

This nice, tight volume offers a novel approach to looking at the civil–military issues that have been a major focus of political science and Latin American studies over the past four decades. Using 10 short essays by predominantly Europe-based scholars (Frederick Nunn of the United States, Celso Castro of Brazil, and Francisco Rojas Arevana of Chile are the exceptions), this collection stretches the evaluative process of civilian–military interactions in the region. Not merely accepting the bureaucratic–authoritarian model of Guillermo O'Donnell or others, it uses a much broader measure of the relationships in society to evaluate the health of Latin America today. It is a short collection that would be an excellent challenge for new graduate students in the subfield of civil–military relations or Latin American politics.

The Soldier and the State in South America: Essays in Civil-Military Relations

Preface Notes on the Contributors The Soldier and the State in South America: Introduction P.Silva Foreign Influences on the South American Military: Professionalization and Politicization F.M.Nunn War, Society and the State in the Southern Cone, 1800-1870 H.Vogel The Army as a Modernizing Actor in Brazil, 1870-1930 C.Castro Military Governments: Continuity and Change in Twentieth Century South America G.Philip Forging Military-Technocratic Alliances: The Ibanez and Pinochet Regimes in Chile P.Silva Mourning and Mistrust in Civil-Military Relations in Post-dirty War Argentina A.Robben Political Orientations and Factionalism in the Brazilian Armed Forces, 1964-1985 K.Koonings Civil-Military Relations in Post-Authoritarian Chile F.R.Aravena In Permanent Retreat?: The Modest Future Role of the Armed Forces in South America P.Cammack References Index

The Soldier and the state in South America: essays in civil-military relations

The Soldier and the state in South America: essays in civil-military relations

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:Lockhart, Of Things of the Indies: Essays Old and New in Early Latin American HistoryBarman, Citizen Emperor: Pedro II and the Making of Brazil, 1825–91Harding, A Refuge in Thunder: Candomblé and Alternative Spaces of Blackness in BrazilBuffington, Criminal and Citizen in Modern MexicoOchoa, Feeding Mexico: The Political Uses of Food since 1910Clarke, Class, Ethnicity, and Community in Southern Mexico: Oaxaca’s PeasantriesRovira, Women of Maize: Indigenous Women and the Zapatista RebellionAssies, The Challenge of Diversity: Indigenous peoples and reform of the state in Latin AmericaTulchin and Garland, Social Development in Latin America. The Politics of ReformGelles, Water and Power in Highland Peru: the Cultural Politics of Irrigation and DevelopmentStarn, Nightwatch: the Politics of Protest in the AndesPayne, Uncivil Movements: The Armed Right Wing and Democracy in Latin AmericaSilva, The Soldier and the State in South America: Essays in Civil‐Military RelationsRoniger and Sznajder, The Legacy of Human Rights Violations in the Southern Cone, Argentina, Chile, and UruguaySmith, Inevitable Partnership: Understanding Mexico‐US RelationsRoniger and Sznajder, (eds.) Constructing Collective Identities and Shaping Public Spheres: Latin American PathsLarraín, Identity and Modernity in Latin AmericaCaister, Mexico City: A Cultural and Literary Companion

Geopolitics, cartography and the state in South America

Abstract This paper attempts to explore some neglected elements in existing accounts of the field in South American geopolitics. These neglected elements are explored in terms of linking this geopolitical field to a critical discussion of cartography, geography and the development of the state of South America. In addition, the role and contribution of ‘critical geopolitics’ is discussed. The paper concludes by suggesting that ‘critical geopolitics’ as an intellectual project needs to broaden its existing Anglocentric base.

Water Resources and Irrigation Agriculture in Pre-Hispanic Peru

Many environmental problems in the Americas have traditionally been related to the needs of enlightened water-resource management. In many cases the management centres upon provision of adequate supplies of usable water to facilitate agicultural development, and irrigation systems have been developed in many areas. The most extensive and advanced system of irrigation in ancient America occurs in Coastal Peru, which ranks amongst the most arid regions of the world. Despite the environmental constraints of extreme water shortage, the coastal area of Northern Peru was to witness the rise of the most powerful pre-Incaic state in South America, the Kingdom of Chimor, and the evolution of the largest pre-Hispanic city on the continent, Chan Chan. This area thus offers an inviting prospect of studying the links between water resources and irrigation agriculture to an extent perhaps not possible elsewhere. This paper focuses on the environmental problems inherent in creating and operating the extensive irrigation systems in the area, and it highlights the extremely well developed understanding of hydraulic principles of canal design exhibited by the irrigation engineers.

The British media and the middle east

I would like to begin by considering some general aspects of the business of reporting and commenting on Middle Eastern affairs. What is it like? How well has it been done? How well is it being done today? Here at the outset I must admit to a strong prejudice which places the press, steam radio, and television in order of preference as media of information on current affairs. I believe, for example, that a television documentary is more likely than not to give a misleading and unbalanced impression of the situation in an area which is necessarily remote from the experience of the vast majority of people in this country. This has little to do with the talent of the television journalists; in fact, the more brilliant they are, the more insidious may be the effect. But what is it like to be a correspondent in the Middle East? First of all there are some very considerable and obvious advantages. One of these is the public interest that the area represents, and that because nothing can be more demoralizing than working in a region which is regarded, probably quite unfairly, as boring or unimportant. This interest has been fairly continuous since the Second World War, with two relatively fallow periods in 1959-60 and 1970-72. (I recall a former colleague, Kim Philby of The Observer, writing in 1959 that we foreign correspondents must not grumble at the lack of incident because 'we have had a good innings'.) The result is that, although there will always be some correspondents who are bored or unhappy with their work in the Middle East, they are rare; most of them find it absorbing. Here it is relevant to point out that the size and scale of the Middle East is an advantage. So much variety and interest are packed into a relatively small region. The area that I covered included Turkey and Iran as well as Arabia and extended as far south as Khartoum and west to the Maghreb. (There was a bit of a struggle here; 'French North Africa' had previously been the province of Paris correspondents, but they showed increasing reluctance to go there after independence while, at the same time, communications with the eastern Arab World improved. It was therefore possible to persuade editors that it was worthwhile sending Cairo or Beirut correspondents from time to time to Algiers, Rabat, and Tunis.) Even so, the whole area could be included in one of the larger states of South America. Latin American correspondents are often obliged to report on a coup in Chile from Buenos Aires. Such a handicap does not apply in the Middle East. On the other hand, we cannot ignore the disadvantages and difficulties of Middle East reporting. These can arise at both ends: from the management of the media and from local conditions and attitudes. As regards management, there was always the question of editorial policy, and here a distinction cannot be avoided between the 'quality' and the popular press. For me, the hallmark of a quality paper is that it should trust its correspondents and not allow editorial bias to overrule their judgement. This is why I would deny the right to quality status aspired to by one famous daily with peculiarly partisan views on the Middle East. On the other hand, the Financial Times has proved to be one of the very best sources of information and analysis of Middle Eastern affairs. Its owners doubtless hold strong

German Military Influence in Argentina, 1921–1940

From the 1890s until the Second World War the armed forces of Argentina underwent an extensive modernizing and professionalizing process, as did those of other major states of South America. During this period, foreign influence was exerted on the Argentine military establishment, which actively sought assistance from Europe and the United States. Germany was the dominant external actor and the strongest foreign military influence in Argentina.

Guyana's Alternative to Socialist and Capitalist Legal Models

We are building a vigorous economic democracy which is not a copy of either Eastern communism or Western capitalism. With these words Guyana's Prime Minister, L. F. S. Burnham, introduced his government's first economic plan to his complex multi-racial community of some 680,000 people in February 1966.' He spoke on the eve of independence from Great Britain, following a period of experimentation with autonomy under the supervision of the Colonial Office and the British Governor.2 Burnham chose the opportunity to declare his government's intention to introduce to South America a unique program for development. Guyana excites attention throughout the common law world because of its attempt to erect a new edifice upon a legal tradition stemming from England, although still influenced also by the Dutch colonists who brought with them to the new world in the seventeenth century the customs of Holland formulated in Roman-Dutch law.' Because of the English influence Guyana is governed today quite differently from the other states of South America where the Romanist systems of Spain and Portugal prevail. Many of Guyana's leaders have eaten their dinners at London's Inns of Court where they absorbed the traditions of the common law. They declare themselves currently determined to retain the humanistic values and forms of the English common law while creating a new society. The aim, so the Prime Minister says in conversation, is to imbue old institutions with new content rather than to revolutionize familiar forms.'