{"title":"A Pious Paradox","authors":"Jacob Wesoky","doi":"10.26443/firr.v14i2.169","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26443/firr.v14i2.169","url":null,"abstract":"The divergent trajectories in the legalization of same-sex marriage amidst disparate levels of religiosity challenges conventional wisdom about the relationship between religion, state, and society. Contrary to the conventional belief that higher religiosity in countries fosters conservative views and resistance to progressive social reforms, Argentina and Chile present an intriguing anomaly. Utilizing data from the World Values Survey and examining the historical, political, and social contexts of each country, this paper seeks to understand why Argentina, with its higher religiosity and constitutional favoritism towards Catholicism, became the first Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriage in 2010, while Chile, less religious but more socially conservative, followed much later in 2021. The paper explores the divergent pre and post-dictatorship economic philosophies, governmental structures, sociopolitical landscapes and the distinct roles of the Catholic Church in 21st century Chilean and Argentine politics. It argues that in Argentina, individual political views and a vibrant civil society have developed independently of religious beliefs, fostering a political culture more open to progressive social reform. Conversely, Chile’s entrenched neoliberal policies and the Catholic Church’s sustained influence in Chilean civil society align with more conservative social values, impeding similar progress. These findings challenge the assumption that higher levels of religiosity necessarily correlate with social conservatism and underscore the complex interplay between religion, government, and social values. This research not only illuminates the nuanced dynamics at play in the legal recognition of same-sex marriage in Latin America but also suggests broader implications for understanding the impact of religiosity on political and social attitudes globally.","PeriodicalId":417989,"journal":{"name":"Flux: International Relations Review","volume":"5 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140367141","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The New People in Canton","authors":"Bruce Yao","doi":"10.26443/firr.v14i2.163","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26443/firr.v14i2.163","url":null,"abstract":"In 1784, American merchant and soon-to-be United States consul to China—Samuel Shaw— embarked upon a six-month journey to Canton aboard the Empress of China. Backed by the United States Government and fellow capitalists, Shaw’s voyage marked the beginning of relations between the newly independent United States and China. This paper will explore the motivations behind Shaw’s voyages by analyzing relevant primary documents alongside the context in which they were produced. Central to this paper’s arguments are Shaw’s journals , which are some of the only surviving documents from the earliest American trade delegations to China. Using these sources, this paper concludes that while trade with China was profitable, the profits involved were negligible in the context of the gruelling journey across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Rather, this paper argues that the voyage to China was driven by a newly independent nation’s deeply rooted desire to project its sovereignty to the wider world. In other words, the Empress of China was guided by an ideal that reverberates across American history and popular imagination: independence.","PeriodicalId":417989,"journal":{"name":"Flux: International Relations Review","volume":"42 17","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140368510","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Different Words, Same Results","authors":"Isabel Siu-Zmuidzinas","doi":"10.26443/firr.v14i1.153","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26443/firr.v14i1.153","url":null,"abstract":"In 2007, Ecuadorians elected Rafael Correa, a left-wing leader who based much of his platform on calls for decolonial reform and the indigenous cosmology of buen vivir. Representing the opposite side of the political spectrum, Brazilians elected right-wing politician Jair Bolsonaro, whose platform included social conservative and anti-environmental rhetoric. Both leaders can be understood as populists, which refers to the phenomena whereby leaders build a multi-class coalition via a personalistic party, have charismatic personalities, and have a redistributive agenda within the existing social bounds. Populism is an ineffective mechanism to address the demands of civil society, which is ultimately detrimental to democracy, as highlighted by the case studies of Ecuador and Brazil. This paper focuses on the impact of populism on one aspect of democracy, the dispersal of power and the limitation of domination by one person or a small group.","PeriodicalId":417989,"journal":{"name":"Flux: International Relations Review","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139221176","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"changements climatiques comme enjeu de sécurité","authors":"Sarah Booghs","doi":"10.26443/firr.v14i1.149","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26443/firr.v14i1.149","url":null,"abstract":"Au coeur des enjeux socio-politiques et des conflits régionaux, le Sahel est aujourd’hui confronté aux conséquences du changement climatique. Cet article explore l’intersection entre le changement climatique et deux types de conflits régionaux : les tensions agro-pastorales et les activités des organisations terroristes. En s’appuyant sur diverses études et rapports, l’analyse met en lumière le rôle exacerbant des facteurs climatiques dans les conflits préexistants, sans les considérer comme leur unique origine. Néanmoins, il souligne l’influence significative du changement climatique en tant que facteur aggravant, suggérant un impact important sur l’évolution future du Sahel.","PeriodicalId":417989,"journal":{"name":"Flux: International Relations Review","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139223646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Grave New World","authors":"Reyanna Bridge","doi":"10.26443/firr.v14i1.154","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26443/firr.v14i1.154","url":null,"abstract":"The shift to multipolarity has China and Russia rising to compete against the American hegemonic world order that has dominated the international scene since the end of the Cold War. However, given this competition, Africa has re-emerged as a theatre in which these tensions are unfolding. China, Russia and America are returning to the predatory relationships they engaged in during the Cold War, with African states becoming allies or environments for extraction and exploitation. Economic interest is central to these relationships. These hegemons are building corridors to promote their economic stability through access to lucrative resources and weapons deals, with politically unstable, conflict-ridden and resource-rich African states most susceptible to this fleecing. This paper applies a Marxist geopolitical lens to explain this phenomenon and why alternative theories, namely Neorealism, fail to fully appreciate the internal and multifaceted reasonings for these dynamics","PeriodicalId":417989,"journal":{"name":"Flux: International Relations Review","volume":"93 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139224582","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Drug Trade in Peru","authors":"David Mickelson","doi":"10.26443/firr.v14i1.146","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26443/firr.v14i1.146","url":null,"abstract":"This paper covers the effectiveness of the United States’ anti-narcotics policy against Peruvian Coca farming in the 1980s. It finds that a supply-side oriented approach to targeting drug use, which made use of extradition, interdiction and eradication of relevant “players” was an ineffective strategy at curbing global cocaine use. It also highlights how this policy failed to account for or curb the emergence of the Shining Path, as well as Peru’s bureaucratic inefficiencies which, through organizations like ENACO, continued to make illicit coca production highly profitable for farmers.","PeriodicalId":417989,"journal":{"name":"Flux: International Relations Review","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139227088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ruination of Sacred Space in Hawaii","authors":"Bianca Cialone","doi":"10.26443/firr.v14i1.152","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26443/firr.v14i1.152","url":null,"abstract":"The planned construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii reflects the island’s long and historical struggle with colonialism, particularly within the astronomy industry. This paper seeks to investigate the relationship between colonialism and Indigenous space in Hawaii by framing Mauna Kea as a site of colonial ruination. Rather than mere defunct “memorialized monuments”, Ann Stoler defines ruination as the physical and psychological debris left over from periods of colonization and how they seep into the present social and political present of those subject to colonialism. Manifested through the discourse, ideology, and violence behind the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope, this paper posits that Mauna Kea is an example of an active site of ruination of Indigenous space as a result of Hawaii’s past with colonialism and empire.","PeriodicalId":417989,"journal":{"name":"Flux: International Relations Review","volume":"93 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139218316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“This is Not A Song, It’s An Outburst”","authors":"Alexander O’Neill","doi":"10.26443/firr.v14i1.148","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26443/firr.v14i1.148","url":null,"abstract":"Challenging traditionally-conceived narratives surrounding the dialectic of Apartheid, many Afrikaners became facilitators of in-state resistance alongside their black peers after becoming disillusioned with the South African regime’s foreign policy initiatives during the 1970s and 1980s. Afrikaner men were conscripted to fight in their country’s dirty wars in Rhodesia and Angola, which destabilized the regime’s legally-enshrined white privilege and fueled resistance expressed through musical movement. This idea connects to tactics used by the American government to assert racialist sovereignty as a tenet of stratifying South Africa’s domestic society through soft power. This paper demonstrates through semantic and musical deconstructions how and why Paul Simon’s “Graceland” project and the Voëlvry punk movement worked to dismantle tenets of racial governance at the grassroots level in South Africa. From the usage of the English language to the usage of Western instrumentation with “reclaimed” rhythm, these cases show a broader yet calculated transgression from mediatic expressions of Apartheid through moral entrepreneurship.","PeriodicalId":417989,"journal":{"name":"Flux: International Relations Review","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139221343","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Nuclear Peace in the Middle East","authors":"David Mickelson","doi":"10.26443/firr.v14i1.141","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26443/firr.v14i1.141","url":null,"abstract":"This paper raises and refutes a number of counterarguments against Saudi nuclearization, and through an argument centred around Waltzian conceptions of neorealism, argues that it could stabilize the Middle East whilst fulfilling KSA’s foreign policy goals in the event Tehran nuclearizes as well. It analyzes key details, such as the effect of nuclearization on the Gulf’s immediate paradigm, the possibility of a nuclear cascade amongst other prominent Islamic nations, as well as the consequences of nuclearization on Saudi-American relations.","PeriodicalId":417989,"journal":{"name":"Flux: International Relations Review","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139224778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Lessons from Montréal","authors":"Aden Gil","doi":"10.26443/firr.v14i1.155","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26443/firr.v14i1.155","url":null,"abstract":"The 1986 Montréal Protocol was an unprecedented success in the United Nations campaign to tackle climate change. The Protocol was the first piece of UN legislation to achieve universal ratification and successfully stopped the deterioration of the ozone layer. This paper analyzes how two key factors - consumer action and a narrow legislative focus - allowed for the Protocol to successfully regulate multi- national corporations at a global level. Further, the paper discusses the failures of the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Accords when considering the capacity in which the protocols regulate corporations and induce significant environmental change, and last, provides recommendations for future UN climate negotiators.","PeriodicalId":417989,"journal":{"name":"Flux: International Relations Review","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139219360","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}