Programação

  • Introduction

    A.W. Pereira, Brazil Institute

    anthony.pereira@kcl.ac.uk

    TA: Arthur Murta (arthurmurta@usp.br)

    Class Meetings: Friday 9:00-13:00

    Room D, second floor, IRI-USP

    This course explores some of the major episodes and themes in 20th and 21st century inter-American politics, largely from the vantage point of two of the most important countries in the region, Brazil and the USA. Combining comparative politics and international relations, the module is based on the premise that regional politics still matter in a globalizing world, and are increasingly important in both Brazil and the USA.

    The module is divided into three parts. In the first part of the course, we will look at some overviews of regional political trends, inter-state dynamics, and Brazilian foreign policy. In this section we will consider the possible impact of the Trump presidency on Brazil. In Part II, we will examine four important moments in the history of the Americas: World War II, the Cuban revolution of 1959, the 1964 coup d’état in Brazil, and the 1973 military coup in Chile. These are episodes that created a ripple effect in the region, sparking processes of economic, social, and political change beyond the borders of the country in which they initially took place. In Part III, we will look at inter-American challenges in four important policy areas (trade, democracy, human rights, and drugs), examining how actors inside and outside states have tried to deal with these transnational issues, and how bilateral and multilateral policies have – and have not – changed developments on the ground.


    Teaching Arrangements

    Teaching will consist of six four-hour class meetings every Friday  9:00 to 13:00, starting on 11 May and finishing on 22 June 2017. Please note that there will be no class on Friday 25 May, because the instructor will be attending the Latin American Studies Association conference. The seminar will involve a presentation by the tutor as well as student presentations, discussion, and other forms of interaction.


    Assessment

    1) one short essay (1,500 words) due at 17:00 on Wednesday 13 June. This essay will be worth 30% of the module mark.

    2) the second essay (4,000 words) due at 17:00 on Monday July. This essay is weighted 60% of the module mark. For this essay, answer one of the questions below.

    3) in-class participation. This will be worth 10% of the module mark.

  • Part I: Global and Regional Issues, American States and Foreign Policy

  • Unit 1: Enduring Dilemmas and the Contemporary Conjuncture - 11/05/2018

    What are the most important issues in inter-American politics? How have inter-American politics shifted in the first part of the 21st century? What is the relationship between inter-American and global politics? 

    Required 

    Jorge Domínguez (2016) “The Changes During the International System During the 2000s” in Jorge Domínguez and Rafael Fernandez de Castro, eds., Contemporary US-Latin American Relations (New York: Routledge), pp. 1-29. 

    G. John Ikenberry (2018) “Why the Liberal Order Will Survive” in Ethics and International Affairs, Volume 32, Number 1, pp.17-29. 

    Andrew Hurrell (2018) “Beyond the BRICS: Power, Pluralism, and the Future of Global Order” in Ethics and International Affairs, Volume 32, Number 1, pp. 89-101.  

     

    Recommended 

    Greg Grandin (2010) Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism (New York: Holt Paperbacks), introduction and afterward, pp. 1-9, 239-251. 

    Oliver Stuenkel (2016) Post-Western World: How Emerging Powers are Remaking Global Order. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 1-28. 

    Joshua Simon (2017) The Ideology of Creole Revolution: Imperialism and Independence in American and Latin American Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

  • Unit 2: Understanding Latin American Foreign Policy (The Case of Brazil) - 11/05/2018

    What are the main principles of Brazilian foreign policy? How easy is it for policymakers to adhere to those principles in practice?

    Required

     Celso Lafer (2009) “Brazil and the World” in Ignacy Sachs, Jorge Wilheim, and Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, eds. Brazil: A Century of Change (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press), pp. 101-119.

    Carlos Milani, Leticia Pinheiro, and Maria Regina Soares de Lima (2017) “Brazil’s Foreign Policy and the `Graduation Dilemma’ in International Affairs, Volume 93, Number 3, May, pp. 585-605.

    Matias Spektor (2016) “Brazil: Shadows of the Past and Contested Ambitions” in William Hitchcock, Melvyn Leffler and Jeffrey Legro, eds. Shaper Nations: Strategies for a Changing World (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), pp. 17-35.


    Recommended

    Sean Burges (2017) Brazil in the World: The International Relations of a South American Giant (Manchester: Manchester University Press). 

    David Mares (2011) “Intra-Latin American Relations: The Challenge of Promoting Cooperation While Defending Sovereignty” in Peter Kingstone and Deborah Yashar, eds. Routledge Handbook of Latin American Politics (New York: Routledge), pp. 348-363. 

    Monica Hirst and Lia Baker Valls Pereira (2016) “The Unsettled Nature of US-Brazilian Relations” in Jorge Domínguez and Rafael Fernandez de Castro, eds., Contemporary US-Latin American Relations (New York: Routledge), pp. 106-127. 

    David Mares and Harold Trinkunas (2016) Aspirational Power: Brazil on the Long Road to Global Influence (Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press), pp. 1-21. 

    Laurence Whitehead (2010) “Obama and the Americas: Old Hopes, New Risks” in Abraham Lowenthal, ed. Shifting the Balance: Obama and the Americas (Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press), pp. 165-181.

  • Part II: Key events and periods in the evolution of Inter-American Politics

  • Unit 3: World War II - 18/05/2018

    How did World War II affect inter-American relations? Did Brazil’s role in the conflict have an influence on its international relations and/or domestic politics?

    Required

    Frank McCann, “Brazil’s Options Narrow”, chapter 4 of book manuscript.

    Stanley Hilton, “Brazilian Diplomacy and the Washington-Rio de Janeiro `Axis’ during the World War II Era” in The Hispanic American Historical Review, Volume 59, Number 2, May 1979, pp. 201-231.


    Recommended

    Frank McCann, “Post World War Disappointment”, chapter 7 of book manuscript.

  • Unit 4: Guest lecture: Matias Spektor (FGV-SP) “Corruption and Foreign Policy” - 18/05/2018

  • Unit 5: The Cuban Revolution - 01/06/2018

    How did the 1959 Cuban revolution change inter-American politics?

    Required

    Jorge Castañeda (1993) Utopia Unarmed (New York: Alfred A. Knopf), pp. 51-89.

    Richard Welch (1985) Response to Revolution (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press), chapters 1 and 10, pp. 3-26, 185-193.


    Recommended

    Lars Schoultz (2011) That Infernal Little Cuban Republic: The United States and the Cuban Revolution (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press), chapters 5 and 6, pp. 109-169.

  • Unit 6: The 1964 Coup in Brazil - 01/06/2018

    What were the long-term and immediate causes of the military coup in Brazil? What did it mean for inter-American politics and Brazilian foreign policy?

    Required

    Stanley Hilton, “The United States, Brazil and the Cold War, 1945-1960: End of the Special Relationship” in The Journal of American History, Volume 68, Number 3, December 1981, pp. 599-624.

    Felipe Loureiro (2017) “The Alliance for Progress and President João Goulart’s Three-Year Plan: The Deterioration of US-Brazilian Relations in Cold War Brazil” in Cold War History, pp. 1-19.

    Matias Spektor (2018) “The United States and the 1964 Military Coup” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, pp. 1-19.


    Recommended

    Robert Holden and Eric Zolov, eds. Latin America and the United States (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), Confronting the Fascist Threat, pp. 155-158; the Rio Treaty, the Charter of the OAS, The Menace of Communism, and A Realist Views Latin America, pp. 179-189; Operation Pan-America, pp. 205-206; The Alliance for Progress, pp. 221-223; The US and the Brazilian Coup, pp. 243-247; and Operation Condor, pp. 292-293.

    Anthony Pereira (2016) “The U.S. Role in the 1964 Coup in Brazil: A Reassessment” in Bulletin of Latin American Research, Volume 37, Issue 1, January 2018, pp. 5-17.


  • Unit 7: The Chilean Coup - 08/06/2018

    What was the significance of the coup d’état in Chile on 11 September 1973?

    Required

    Paul Sigmund (1993) The Overthrow of Allende and the Politics of Chile, 1964-1976 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1977), preface and chapters 1, 10, and 13, pp. xi-xiii; 3-13; 202-230; and 275-292.

    Abraham Lowenthal (1976) “The United States and Latin America: Ending the Hegemonic Presumption” in Foreign Affairs, Volume 55, Number 1, pp. 199-213.


    Recommended

    Naomi Klein (2007) The Shock Doctrine (London: Allen Lane) chapters 3-4, pp. 75-115. 

    Peter Kornbluh, ed. (2004) The Pinochet File (New York: The New Press), introduction and chapters 3-4, pp. xi-xx and 161-273.

  • Part III: Contemporary Policy Issues

  • Unit 8: Trade and Economic Integration - 08/06/2018

    What are the most significant recent changes in patterns of trade in the region? What policy options in trade and regional integration do countries in the region face?

    Required

    Grigore Pop-Eleches (2011) “International Economic Relations/International Development Institutions” in Peter Kingstone and Deborah Yashar, eds. Routledge Handbook of Latin American Politics (New York: Routledge), pp. 364-379.

    Li Xing and Steen Christensen (2012) “The Rise of China and the Myth of a China-Led Semi Periphery Destabilization” in Li Xing and Steen Christensen, eds. The Rise of China: The Impact on Semi-Periphery and Periphery Countries (Aalborg: Aalborg University Press), pp. 31-58.


    Recommended

    Olivier Dabène (2014) The Politics of Regional Integration in Latin America: Theoretical and Comparative Explorations (London: Palgrave Macmillan), chapters 1, 9 and conclusion, pp. 3-36, 195-220.

  • Unit 9: The Defense of Democracy - 15/06/2018

    What is the track record of regional institutions and states in defending democracy in the post-Cold War period? How robust is the contemporary system of democracy protection?

    Required

    Craig Arcenaux and David Pion-Berlin (2007) “Issues, Threats and Institutions: Explaining OAS Responses to Democratic Dilemmas in Latin America” In Latin American Politics and Society, Volume 49, Number 2, Summer, pp. 1-31.

    Russell C. Crandall (2008) The United States and Latin America After the Cold War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), chapter 3, pp. 27-37.


    Recommended

    Thomas Legler, Sharon Lean, and Dexter Boniface, eds. (2007) Promoting Democracy in the Americas (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press), chapters 1-3, 6 pp. 1-62, 107-129.

     

  • Unit 10: Human Rights - 15/06/2018

    How has the inter-American human rights system evolved, and how effective is it?

    Required

    Victor Abramovitch (2009) “From Massive Violations to Structural Patterns: New Approaches and Classic Tensions in the Inter-American Human Rights System” in Sur Volume 6 Number 11, December, pp. 7-37.

    Par Engstrom (2017) “Reconceptualizing the Impact of the Inter-American Human Rights System” in Direito e Praxis, pp. 1-27.

    Par Engstrom and Andrew Hurrell (2010) ‘Why the Human Rights Regime in the Americas Matters”, in Mónica Serrano and Vesselin Popovski (eds.) Human Rights Regimes in the Americas, (New York: United Nations University Press), chapter 2, pp. 29-55.


    Recommended

    Robert K. Goldman (2009) “History and Action – the Inter-American Human Rights System and the Role of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights” in Human Rights Quarterly, Volume 31, pp. 856-887. 

    Inter-American Human Rights Network (2016) Reflective Report: Strengthening the Impact of the Inter-American Human Rights System Through Scholarly Research (London: April), pp. 1-11.

  • Unit 11: Drugs - 22/06/2018

    Does contemporary drug policy make sense? Is there a viable alternative to the status quo?

    Required

    Paulo Abramovay (2012) “Drug Policy and the March of Folly” in Sur Volume 9, Number 16, June, pp. 191-199.

    Peter Andreas and Angelica Duran Martínez (2011) “The Politics of Drugs and Illicit Trade in the Americas” in Peter Kingstone and Deborah Yashar, eds. Routledge Handbook of Latin American Politics (New York: Routledge), pp. 380-392.


    Recommended

    Guzman Castro (2014) From Punishment to Markets: Social Movements, the State and Legal Marijuana in Uruguay, unpublished paper online.

    John Collins et al (2012) Governing the Global Drug Wars (London: LSE IDEAS Report), online.

    Thiago Rodrigues (2015) Drug Trafficking and Security in Contemporary Brazil (Rio: XII Forte de Copacabana Conference on International Security), online.

  • Unit 12: Summary and conclusions/Presentations of outlines of final essays - 22/06/2018