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1371. Resisting Apartheid Towards Palestinian Self-Determination

Author:
Linda Kebichi and Raja Shehadeh
Publication Date:
03-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Raja Shehadeh is one of Palestine’s leading writers. He is also a lawyer and the founder of the pioneer- ing Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq. Shehadeh is the author of several acclaimed books including Strangers in the House, Occupation Diaries, Palestinian Walks, which won the prestigious Orwell Prize, and We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I (Other Press, 2023), which was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award. His most recent book is What Does Israel Fear From Palestine?
Topic:
Apartheid, Interview, Resistance, and Self-Determination
Political Geography:
Middle East, Israel, and Palestine

1372. The Changing Priorities of the U.S. Empire and the Fate of Puerto Rico

Author:
Pedro Cabán
Publication Date:
03-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Puerto Rico’s fate is captive to the changing priorities of the United States. In this essay I will explore how changes in U.S. colonial administration of Puerto Rico appear to closely correspond to changing U.S. national security concerns and geopolitical priorities. For the purposes of this work, I divide the history of Puerto Rico under American colonial rule into three periods: (1) 1898–1945: From the U.S. acquisition of Puerto Rico until the end of World War II. During this period, the United States’ colonial policy focused on using Puerto Rico to contain European expansion into the Caribbean and to protect the Panama Canal. (2) 1946–1991: From the start of the Cold War until the collapse of the Soviet Union. The United States used Puerto Rico as a propaganda tool in its ideological battles with the Soviet Union and its allies, especially Cuba. (3) 1992–Present: From the end of the Cold War to the present. During this most recent phase, Puerto Rico’s strategic importance to U.S. national security comes to an end. The U.S. domestic political and economic situations drive colonial policy.
Topic:
Imperialism, National Security, History, and Geopolitics
Political Geography:
Caribbean, North America, United States of America, and Puerto Rico

1373. Militarism, Insecurity, and the Non- Sovereign Pacific

Author:
Van Jackson
Publication Date:
03-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
This moment is an opportunity for us islanders of the Pacific to shape a common destiny built around peace...” asserted Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka on 10 November 2023.1 Addressing his counterparts at the 52nd Pacific Islands Forum, he advocated for the Pacific to become a “zone of peace,” echoing an ambition he had declared before the United Nations General Assembly only two months earlier.2 Island leaders today dub their region a “Blue Pacific,” a strategic identity that conceives of their people as a mega-continent bound together not just by geography and common cultural referents, but also by shared threats ranging from climate change to great-power competition. Due to its sheer size and deep connections with Asia and the Americas, war in this region would inevitably implicate much of the globe—so would peace. “Our nations,” Rabuka reminded his islander brethren, “...have sovereign rights over 32 million square kilome- ters... only slightly smaller than the combined land areas of Russia, China, and the United States.” Leaders attending the Pacific Islands Forum endorsed Rabuka’s call for establishing a zone of peace, building on a long tradition of peace activism in the Pacific.3 Rabuka and Pacific Island leaders rightfully see their very survival as contingent on the region becoming a beacon of light in a dark world. But foreign continental powers have previously ensured that the Blue Pacific does not act as the expansive, unified, strategically vital site that it must be in order to foster peace. The geopolitical circumstances facing the Pacific directly threaten Rabuka’s vision. This essay argues that the security-first fixation driving the continental powers’ engagement with the Pacific makes the region both less secure and more vulnerable to outside predation. Contrary to Western rhetorical visions of a “free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific,” a large area of the Blue Pacific region does not even exercise national sovereignty.4 This Non-Sovereign Pacific—which includes Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), American Samoa, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, and the semi-sovereign “freely associated” states of Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia—is a reality reproduced and exploited by great-power rivalry.5
Topic:
Security, Sovereignty, Regional Security, and Militarism
Political Geography:
Asia-Pacific and Pacific Islands

1374. The Atlantic Centrality of the Azores

Author:
Jose Manuel Bolieiro
Publication Date:
03-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Human history has centered on strengthening relations between communities and taking advantage of political circumstances based upon economic, social, and cultural factors. These relationships stem from the capacity for mobility that gives human beings their planetary status. The Azores, an archipelago of nine islands in the center of the North Atlantic, have played a decisive role in affirming the international community since the fifteenth century. Inhabited by the Portuguese, these islands proved to be a beneficial support point for the imperialist aspirations of the small European state, which has always shown a great maritime vocation. In the national context, the Azores have, on several occasions, come to the fore in significant events throughout Portugal’s history. In the sixteenth century, following the dynastic crisis initiated by King Sebastião’s death and the legitimate succession of Felipe II of Castile, the Azores were the last bastion of the movement actively seeking to prevent the establishment of a personal union under Spanish monarchy. Although the islands’ resistance was short-lived, the historic feat in defense of Portugal’s sovereignty against the imperialist aspirations of its Iberian neighbor endured in Portuguese collective memory.
Topic:
Development, History, Geopolitics, Autonomy, and Geography
Political Geography:
Portugal, Atlantic Ocean, and Azores

1375. Phosphate Mining in the South Pacific: Time for Scholars to Pay Attention

Author:
Nancy E. Wright
Publication Date:
03-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Within the fields of international relations (IR) and comparative politics, phosphate mining and small South Pacific islands have been substantially neglected both on the global scene and in literature. Increased concerns and native islanders’ advocacy regarding climate change have brought small islands, including those of the South Pacific, closer to the forefront of IR scholarship. Still, the legacy of neglect persists. The islands’ individual and collective actions on climate change have not been as effective regarding phosphate mining, despite considerable resistance to continued mining activity in remaining phosphate reserves. This article describes this continuity of neglect as it traces key phases in the history of South Pacific phosphate mining in Nauru, Banaba in Kiribati, and Makatea in French Polynesia. These three islands with their differing sovereignty statuses—Nauru as a sovereign state, Banaba as an island of the sovereign state of Kiribati, and Makatea as an island of the French overseas collectivity of French Polynesia—offer a spectrum for analysis. This essay explores the role of state sovereignty, as identified by the Westphalian system, in shaping autonomy and self-determination over resources within the borders of a state, especially a post-colonial state. This next section explains the Westphalian system of state sovereignty and its failure to overcome the external control imposed by legacies of colonialism and resource extraction. In other words, legal sovereignty does not necessarily translate to de facto sovereignty.
Topic:
International Relations, Sovereignty, Natural Resources, Mining, Extractivism, and Phosphates
Political Geography:
South Pacific

1376. Saudi Arabia and Iran: The Rivalry that Remade the Middle East

Author:
Hassan Hassan
Publication Date:
03-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Observers often liken Iran’s strategic policy thinking to the intricate and patient process of crafting a Persian rug.1 The analogy illustrates how Tehran’s strategies, like the rug’s final inscriptions, only become clear upon completion, as seemingly random daily actions gradually reveal a coherent pattern. The comparison is apt for Iran’s traditional approach to power projection but may also be appropriate considering recent changes that have affected both Iran’s coveted rug market and the country’s regional and international outlook. Iran has successfully emerged from a series of geopolitical challenges beginning with the war against Iraq in the 1980s, followed by the U.S. invasion of neighboring Iraq in 2003, and culminating in popular uprisings after 2011—which were backed by its adversaries and threatened its allies in the region. In spite of Iran’s emergence from such challenges, factors such as the sanctions imposed by the United States under the Donald Trump presidency have crippled the Iranian economy and undermined Tehran’s ability to project power effectively.2 In the four decades following the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic, Iran has been a prominent player in regional conflicts, particularly against Iraq and Saudi Arabia on the other side of the Persian Gulf. 3 Iran has largely maintained the upper hand in the wake of these confrontations, contrary to expectations after the eruption of the Arab uprisings in 2011.4 The Islamic Republic outlasted Saddam Hussein’s 1980-1988 war, extended its influence via proxies across multiple nations, and cemented its presence in four Arab capitals, namely in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. This apparent dominance peaked on 14 September 2019, when two major Saudi oil facilities—the Abqaiq oil processing facility and the Khurais oil field—were attacked using drones. 5 The attack roughly halved Saudi Arabia’s oil production and affected around 5 percent of the global oil supply. 6 Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility. Although Iran denied any involvement, Saudi Arabian officials and the United States nonetheless suggested that drones and cruise missiles of Iranian origin were used.
Topic:
Geopolitics, Rivalry, Regional Power, and Regional Politics
Political Geography:
Iran, Middle East, and Saudi Arabia

1377. The Evasion of Liberal Democracy in the Proxy Warfare Narrative

Author:
Mansoor Moaddel
Publication Date:
03-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
Much of the thinking about the current political instability in the Middle East has been shaped by sectarianism and proxy warfare between the Islamic Republic and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is said that the 1979 Iranian Revolution triggered this conflict and pressed on through the mo- bilization of the proxies connected to these regimes. This mobilization was reinforced by the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and the outbreak of the Arab Spring movement in 2011.1 In this narrative, the members of the ordinary public appear as passive bystanders in the making of their country’s future. Considering the current shift in values among the Middle Eastern publics toward secular politics, gender equality, and expressive individualism, this argument tends to obscures the region’s political reality.2 It is true that the ruling mullahs in Iran revived sectarianism. They created the Lebanese Hezbollah in the early 1980s, virtually all the Shia political parties in Iraq before the 2003 invasion, and, more recently, the militant Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah and a militia in Syria to defend the Assad regime. Although Yemeni Ansar Allah, known as the Houthis, belong to a different Shia sect and their raison d’être is a product of recent history, the militant group has lately received extensive aid from the Islamic Republic. Expanding its global influence, Iran also founded Al-Mustafa International University in Qom in 2008. By 2020, the university had 45,000 students and 3,500 teaching staff, ran 50 journals, administered 31 educational institutions, established an online school with 20,000 students from 132 nations, and had produced 40,000 graduates—many of whom served in the Fatemiyoun and Zainebiyon brigades in Syria.3 Moreover, to display its commitment to anti-Western, Islamic supranationalism, every year the regime organized demonstrations against the United States and Israel among Iranian pilgrims during the rites of Hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.4 In 1987, these demonstrations turned deadly as violence broke out between the pilgrims and Saudi security forces during which hundreds were killed.5 In a belligerent response, Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic Republic, called Saudi leadership “bloodthirsty,” “tyrants,” and “American lackeys.”6
Topic:
Sectarianism, Democracy, Rivalry, and Regional Politics
Political Geography:
Iran, Middle East, and Saudi Arabia

1378. False Dawn: Lebanon’s Economic Crisis Amidst Improved Saudi-Iranian Relations

Author:
David Wood
Publication Date:
03-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
On 17 October 2019, furious protests erupted across Lebanon as citizens came to a shocking realization: the country’s leaders had destroyed the economy. Decades of corruption and mismanagement had emptied the state’s coffers, trig- gering a domestic banking collapse and frittering away many Lebanese residents’ life savings. Now, almost five years later, the situation has only grown worse. The Lebanese lira (LBP) has been devalued to the point of irrelevance, crashing from 1,507.5 LBP for 1 USD to over 140,000 LBP in March 2023. House- holds give up essentials like health insurance to pay for diesel power generators and solar panels, as public electricity provisions—along with many other key state services—barely function.1 Meanwhile, the country’s leaders stubbornly resist implementing much-needed economic reforms, blaming the economic crisis on a wide range of factors, from Syrian refugees to general instability in the Middle East. A regularly proffered excuse emphasizes the role of competition between Iran and Saudi Arabia, whose rivalry has periodically played out on Lebanese soil. This theory argues that Lebanon is a “penetrated society,” inextricably tied to and paralyzed by geopolitical competition, including the Saudi–Iranian con- frontation.2 Thus, Lebanese leaders cannot resolve their disputes until these two regional heavyweights, amongst other foreign powers, reconcile their conflicting interests in Lebanon. Regional competition overlays a domestic political structure already prone to deadlock, which rigidly apportions power between Lebanon’s frequently feuding sectarian communities. Accordingly, various Lebanese politicians hoped that improved Iranian-Saudi relations—facilitated in March 2023 by Chinese mediation—would lead to a breakthrough in their ability to tackle Lebanon’s economic meltdown. Yet, this optimistic reading overestimates the extent of Tehran and Riyadh’s cautious détente, which is unlikely to translate into constructive engagement in Lebanon any time soon. It also downplays the true obstacle to Lebanon’s economic reform process: corruption in the country’s own political and financial elite.
Topic:
Corruption, Diplomacy, Economic Crisis, and Regional Politics
Political Geography:
Iran, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon

1379. Resurgence of Military Coups in Africa: Can the African Union and Regional Organizations Defend and Consolidate Democracy?

Author:
Joshua O. Bolarinwa
Publication Date:
03-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:
This research evaluates the contemporary increase in military coups in Africa and analyses the effectiveness of the African Union (AU) and other regional institutions in safeguarding and promoting democratic government following existing frameworks and policies. The African Union’s framework for Unconstitutional Changes of Government (UCG) and its subsequent execution have faced significant problems in response to the recent revival. The African Union has garnered commendation for its stance in opposition to military coups. Nevertheless, it has been noted that the organization has exhibited inadequate engagement and delayed responsiveness in addressing instances of the unconstitutional exercise of power. Numerous historical figu-res have exhibited a proclivity for disregarding established institutions that have played a pivotal role in facilitating their ascent to positions of authority.
Topic:
Democracy, Coup, African Union, Military, and Regional Organizations
Political Geography:
Africa

1380. The Future of Japan-Africa Cooperation: TICAD

Author:
Habib Badawi
Publication Date:
03-2024
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Institution:
Brazilian Journal of African Studies
Abstract:
Africa will remain relevant to Japan as a necessary means to achieve some of its long-term political, economic, and strategic goals. Additionally, Japan seeks to expand its relations with the continent. However, it is diffi-cult to view Japan’s participation in Africa as part of an integrated policy or a well-thought-out long-term strategy, but only as a set of goals and some of the tools and mechanisms used to achieve those goals. This is largely reflected in Japan’s failure to prioritize its economic and political interests in its relationship with Africa. While Japan views Africa primarily through an economic lens, it has other major political interests. As Japan strives to bolster the dynamism of its ongoing development, production, and trade through a manufacturing and trade strategy designed to adapt to circumstances and mitigate crises, the nation has concurrently hei-ghtened its ambition for strategic hotspots, including resources and wealth. This is evident in its keen interest in the African continent and the ongoing competition between European and American powers for control over it.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Development, International Cooperation, Economy, Trade, Strategic Interests, and Resources
Political Geography:
Africa and Japan