Marine Corps University Press, National Defense University
Abstract:
In 2010 and 2021, Haiti was struck by a massive earthquake and both times it left the nation in the grips of a humanitarian crisis. The U.S. military responded to both events with a large-scale, interorganizational relief effort to provide aid to the affected areas. Though the disaster in 2010 created unprecedented challenges, the U.S. Southern Command met those challenges and applied their lessons to its response to the 2021 earthquake 11 years later.
Topic:
Disaster Relief, Humanitarian Aid, Natural Disasters, Armed Forces, and Earthquake
Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts Amherst
Abstract:
Drawing on feminist political economy and social reproduction theory, we propose an accounting framework for understanding the distributional role of household production, employment, remittances, and government social transfers in the social reproduction of the Cuban people. We apply this quantitative framework to available data and produce estimates for 2016. Our findings demonstrate that households—both domestic and diasporic—were the largest contributors to social reproduction in Cuba. Our empirical exercise provides insight for a qualitative conceptualization and analysis of the changing distribution of social reproduction in Cuba, especially regarding changes in state provisioning and employment. Results reveal how the actual distributional arrangements underlying Cuban social reproduction differ from the official commitments and goals of the Cuban Revolution and signal several potentially unsustainable self-reinforcing dynamics.
Topic:
Political Economy, Employment, Private Sector, and Remittances
After nearly three decades, Brazil’s military has re-emerged into the country’s political life with the arrival of Jair Bolsonaro as president. This dossier analyses the composition of Brazil’s armed forces, their relationship to US imperialism, and the militarisation of the public sector. Brazil’s military is characterised by a conservative and liberal ideology, a state that regulates the demands of private interests, and a strong anti-communist vision, aspects allow us to better understand its behaviour and its drive to openly dispute the direction of Brazilian society.
Topic:
Imperialism, Regional Cooperation, Hegemony, Democracy, and Oligarchy
Political Geography:
Latin America, Caribbean, North America, and United States of America
Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP), Columbia University
Abstract:
Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries are among the most vulnerable in the world to climate change, experiencing at least one extreme weather-related event per country, on average, every three years over the past two decades. As signers to the Paris Agreement, LAC countries established nationally determined contributions (NDCs), pledging to significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030 and become net zero by 2050. Over the last two years, many LAC countries, including the six largest economies—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru—have updated or submitted new NDCs, raising their climate mitigation ambition. While public opinion surveys show support for climate-related policies among citizens in the region, the transition to a low-emissions economy is extremely challenging, and even out of reach, for LAC countries under current policies.
Financing this transition is a key question for the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference. As part of the ongoing research on energy transition at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, this report analyzes the challenges of climate mitigation in LAC countries. The region has a unique composition of emissions: the Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector accounts for 40 percent of the region’s total emissions, almost double the global average. Deforestation and land-use change, which drive this sector’s emissions, release vast quantities of nitrous oxide and methane emissions in addition to carbon dioxide. Another characteristic of the region is its heavy dependence on fossil fuel revenues, which raises transition costs and risks of financing a low-carbon future.
Topic:
Climate Change, Carbon Emissions, Energy, Green Transition, and Mitigation