Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The new international agenda, greater complexity in the interactions, and the more heterogeneous universe of actors are decisive in the new security semantic edges, the debates, and prisms, emerged from the theory of International Relations. The purpose of this study is to analyze the connections between the protagonism that North American academic and political-institutional circles conferred on security imperatives, the designs and hegemonic discourses of the US after the Cold War and to examine how these debates and political designs materialized in the sphere of bilateral relations with Latin America. The article shows how the priorities and key mechanisms of US security policy in Latin America have changed since the end of the Cold War and until 2022. It concludes that despite the transformation of the approaches of several American administrations to this region, Washington was trying to achieve the same goal: to impose its hegemony.

This article considers the growing importance of the concept of science diplomacy originated in developed contexts, which has also gained prominence in Latin American academic and political discussions. The term reflects the articulation between foreign policy, science and technology to contribute to domestic development and foreign relations, and invites to think about the scope and limitations for contexts of lesser relative development. In this framework, the paper aims to map the initiatives of two Argentine ministries around this intersection, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship (MRECIC) and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MINCYT), focusing on those that, either explicitly or implicitly, can be incorporated under the concept of science diplomacy. For this purpose, we work with a body of documents made up of press releases from both agencies between 2019 and 2022 –the period selected as the time frame of the study-, and we evaluate the scope and limitations of the concept of science diplomacy in the Argentine case.

This paper aims to compare three strategic technological projects in Argentina and Spain. From the analysis of primary and secondary sources, it is observed how state powers pressure Argentina and Spain on strategic and cutting edge technologies. The technologies to be addressed are the Pulqui II and Helwan HA-300 fighter planes, the Argentine and Spanish nuclear projects, and the Condor and Capricornio space launchers. This paper explains the politics of state powers seeking to maintain the technological monopoly, and its geopolitics. Using qualitative methodology on primary and secondary sources, the writing compares emblematic technological projects. In the final reflections, the reader will find how both countries have maneuvered based on the interpretation of the international scenario and its pressures, and also how strategic technology policies, and how the international arena imposes limitations on those who seek technological autonomy.

How effective is UN assistance in post-conflict societies? This paper evaluates the performance of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) in Colombia during the period 2015-2019. The programmatic agenda in relation to the construction of peace and sustainable development is analyzed. The evidence shows a positive impact, despite certain weaknesses in the degree of efficacy. All of this, in the midst of a complex sociopolitical scenario in the construction of peace.

Status is an important factor for the emerging powers of the Global South and they seek to increase their international standing by revising the global hierarchy. At the same time, they must choose among international strategies: to imitate, challenge or follow alternatives of international mobility in relation to the great powers. Faced with this dilemma, how much have emerging powers prioritized the Global South and North over time? Knowing that presidential diplomacy is one of the status markers of the contemporary international system, this study tested the following hypothesis: international organizations from the Global South received, on average, more visits from heads of state/government of emerging powers than other types of organization. We monitored the presidential diplomacy of South Africa, Brazil, China and India between 1998 and 2019. The number of visits by heads of state/government was collected through secondary data bases, the Rising Powers Diplomatic Network and China Visits. The hypothesis was tested through descriptive statistics, generating a stable longitudinal metric to monitor the degree of prioritization between destinations in the North or South by the four countries analyzed. The results indicate that the average number of visits to the Global South was higher for South Africa (59.9% of visits), Brazil (55.7%), China (53.3%), but not for India (44.4%). The findings indicate that emerging powers, in general, prioritized destinations in the Global South in comparison to those in the Global North, validating our working hypothesis.

With the 2022 elections of Gustavo Petro in Colombia and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil, the analysis of the return of the pink tide to Latin America has suddenly spread. This paper argues that, actually, the region presents a cycle of oppositions, with governments of different colors alternating since the end of the left turn in the 2010s. To substantiate this point, the article presents data on the alternations and the difficulties of the presidents in maintaining an approval rate higher than the disapproval rate from the beginning of their term. The analysis shows that negative perceptions about the country’s current economic situation and the ability to combat the Covid-19 pandemic are the factors that weigh the most in the government’s assessment. Political polarization and exposure to social networks also take their toll, since there is evidence that ideological alignment conditions opinion and that users of social networks are more critical of the government. Everything described suggests that, whatever the ideological color of who is in power, there will be difficulties in maintaining themselves as such.

The electrical properties of the boundary beneath the Deccan Volcanic Province and the western Dharwar craton are imaged by using the magnetotelluric method. The magnetotelluric study was carried out along a 150km long WNW-ESE profile from Belgaum (in the Deccan Volcanic Province) to Haveri (in the western Dharwar craton). Data from 19 magnetotelluric stations spaced 10-15km apart were used. The dominant regional geo-electric strike direction obtained is N20ºE. Two-dimensional (2-D) inversion is done by using the non-linear conjugate gradient scheme for both apparent resistivity and phase. The 2-D resistivity model shows a high electrical resistivity character (>10,000ohm·m) in the western Dharwar craton. Two conductive anomalies are mapped in the crustal region. In the WNW side of the profile, a conductive feature (~200ohm·m) is imaged in the mid-lower crust and, in the central part of the profile another conductive feature is mapped in the lower crust. The robustness of conductive features is tested using linear and non-linear sensitivity analyses. The conductor mapped in the WNW part of the profile is considered as a deep-seated fault representing a boundary or a rift related feature beneath the Deccan Volcanic Province and the western Dharwar craton. A zone of enhanced conductivity (<50ohm·m) at an approximate depth of 10-30km may represent the presence of the rift in the region. This conducting feature on the Western side of the E-W trending Kaladgi Basin can be interpreted as the extension of the Kaladgi Basin further west. A wellcorrelated geological cross-section is also derived to interpret the resistive features mapped in this study. The electrical resistivity nature of the crust is compared with other regions of the world.

A state of the art of the Barremian Konservat-Lagerstätte of la Pedrera de Meià site (Southern Pyrenees) is compiled here including the acquisition of new geological data. The relevance of this site, together with the nearby la Cabroa site, is due to its paleobiotic richness and the fact that 113 holotypes and paratypes of flora and fauna have already been defined. Since its discovery at the end of the 19th century and its exploitation as a lithographic limestone quarry, the site has been the object of paleontological interest by national and foreign research teams that are summarized here (including the catalogue of 224 publications). A survey of the existing type specimens in collections all over Europe is also provided, being France and Germany, the countries where more fossils are hosted other than Spain. The geological frame of this site is also reviewed, by revisiting unpublished geological mappings (mainly that of Krusat, 1966) and integrating it in a comprehensive map that includes 4 revisited outcrops of lithographic limestone which could be potential paleontological sites. Previous stratigraphic sections did allow the precise framing of paleontological data and findings, that now can be allocated in new stratigraphic sections accounting for 50m and that contain a minimum of 40.000 laminae, being a minimum estimation of the years represented in the la Pedrera de Meià site.

Western Anatolia is one of the most rapidly extending and seismically active regions in the world. The circa N-S extension since the Early Miocene caused the formation of E-W trending major grabens and intervening horsts, having earthquake potentials with magnitude ≥5. The E-W oriented Büyük Menderes graben cross-cuts the broadly N-S oriented Bozdoğan and Karacasu grabens, of which the boundary faults of the latter are the source of seismic activity. Geomorphic indices, including drainage basin asymmetry, mountain front sinuosity, valley-floor width to valley height ratio, stream length-gradient index and normalized channel steepness index, were used to evaluate the boundary fault segments of the Bozdoğan and Karacasu grabens. The results indicate that both grabens are tectonically active and therefore regions of earthquake potential, consistent with the epicenters of earthquakes. Thus, it can be inferred that fault segments of second-order grabens, which are crosscut by the boundary faults of seismically active main depressions, are apparently reactivated by ongoing tectonism and may represent seismic activity. This suggestion applies also for similar basins located in the western Anatolia.

Thank you reviewers