Foreign Policy Blogs

Latin America & The Caribbean

History and Investment Collides in Latin America

History and Investment Collides in Latin America

Brazil’s economy has slowed over the last year, but Brazil is still one of the strongest BRICS nations and is still considered in a virtual boom phase by many investors, even if the numbers do not accord with the zeal many have for a growing Brazil. One of the main goals of many BRICS nations […]

read more

The G20 on Syria: Who Represents the Victims of Chemical Attacks?

The G20 on Syria: Who Represents the Victims of Chemical Attacks?

In family courts, judges do not tend to take the position of either parent in cases that involve the health and custody of children. Judges take the position of the child as if they were of mature age and speaking to their own personal benefit and well being. We need to be reminded that over […]

read more

Argentina’s “Dead Cow” Bounce

Argentina’s “Dead Cow” Bounce

Argentina’s economy is on pace for five percent growth in 2013, and the country’s stock market is trading near all-time highs. What happened to the economic basket case that is inching toward sovereign default? It’s still there, but as I argue in a recent piece for Nearshore Americas, a number of factors have converged to […]

read more

Cartes prepares Paraguay potential

Cartes prepares Paraguay potential

Paraguay has long been one of the poorest, least developed and most isolated countries in Latin America, dating back from when the country gained independence from Spain in 1811. The landlocked nation is expected to grow by 10 percent this year – due in large part to soy and beef exports – but nearly a […]

read more

The Barbaric Side of Justice

The Barbaric Side of Justice

Claims by families of workers who simply went to other countries to lay brick, and ended up executed or sentenced to hang like pre-French revolutionary rogues are not stories from past times and past societies. In many cases, the people legally licensed to protect society with limited powers to execute their duties go beyond their […]

read more

Why Albert Hirschman Remains So Popular in Latin America

Why Albert Hirschman Remains So Popular in Latin America

Latin America has the dubious honor of being a testing ground for many economic experiments. In the 1970s Milton Friedman convinced Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to “cut the tail of the dog” and undertake painful reforms to curb hyperinflation. In the 1980s Harvard wunderkind Jeff Sachs helped the Bolivian government introduce a variety of market […]

read more

Haiti: Police Open Fire on Protesters killing 3, injuring 4

Haiti: Police Open Fire on Protesters killing 3, injuring 4

A third victim, 24-year-old Rolcy Ametis, the police shot in the head, neck and hip on Wednesday, July 17, 2013, while protesting the controversial death of Judge Jean Serge Joseph, succumbed to his injuries at State University Hospital late Friday July 19, confirmed officials. Among the seven victims of the forceful intervention of U.N. peacekeepers […]

read more

Brazil’s Vulnerable Public Security Strategy

Brazil’s Vulnerable Public Security Strategy

By Karina Junqueira de Almeida Over the past week, several incidents have brought to light the vulnerabilities of Brazil’s security system. Pope Francis’s arrival showed the world the contrast between the heavily armed state military force that surrounded Palacio da Guanabara, the government’s administrative building where all authorities were waiting for the pope and its […]

read more

The Myth of the Eternal Boom: BRICS and the Predictable Slowdown

The Myth of the Eternal Boom: BRICS and the Predictable Slowdown

Last week, The Economist in their article “The Great Deceleration” discussed the slowdown in the BRICS economies in recent months. The assumption was that countries such as China, India, Russia and Brazil were to grow indefinitely as a reflection of a new world economy, showing their clout during the 2008 great recession by saving the […]

read more

Mexico Adopts Some Nasty US Habits

Mexico Adopts Some Nasty US Habits

Within one week, Mexico has demonstrated its ability to adopt some characteristics previously credited solely to its northern neighbour: obesity and workplace violence. Last week the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) announced that Mexico has a 32.8 percent adult obesity rate, inching just past the 31.8 obesity rate in the U.S. The news […]

read more

Spy vs. Whistleblower: Latin America Opens its Doors to Snowden

Spy vs. Whistleblower: Latin America Opens its Doors to Snowden

Bradley Manning’s consequence for sending classified information to Wikileaks over incidents in Iraq where American soldiers killed 24 innocent Iraqis were reaffirmed today. Manning’s possible life sentence was maintained as charges of “aiding the enemy” were upheld. Manning sent videos to Wikileaks showing gun camera footage of American gunship pilots with permission of their commanders […]

read more

U.S. Immigration Reform: The Inevitable vs. the Status Quo

U.S. Immigration Reform: The Inevitable vs. the Status Quo

The 2008 economic crisis showed Americans two truths about immigration that was only openly known by immigrants to the United States. One issue was the fact that even with illegal immigration, there is a strong second generation of the children of immigrants and those who had come to the U.S. when they were very young […]

read more

For Greater Glory (2012)

For Greater Glory (2012)

“Viva Cristo Rey!” That rallying cry (which translates as “Long live Christ the King!”) was made by the Cristeros (soldiers of Christ) during the conflict in Mexico in the late 1920s. That war started a few years after the Mexican government outlawed religion in the 1917 constitution. The film begins in 1926 when Mexican President Calles […]

read more

Protests and the Politics of Futility

Protests and the Politics of Futility

Recently a peaceful election took place in Iran. While the moderate candidate won this past election and there was not a repeat of the protests that took place in 2009, the reality is that the moderate candidate was part of a group of chosen conservative candidates that were permitted to run by religious officials. The […]

read more

The Missing Context in Coverage of Protests in Brazil

The Missing Context in Coverage of Protests in Brazil

Comparison to Turkey is a bit of stretch: to the extent that the protestors in Brazil have expressed clear objectives, the authoritarianism of their president isn’t one of them. More importantly, the regional context is different. When it comes to Turkey there is at least some reason to associate protests with the Arab Spring, a […]

read more