Transcript USA - wilsonhginter

II. An increasingly integrated
Continent
• Key Question:
How do exchanges and cooperation
reinforce continental integration?
A. Reinforcement of Regional
Integration
1. Integration of the Americas based on
regional economic agreements and
free exchange
– MERCOSUR and NAFTA are the 2 motors
of integration on the continent
– Aim to eliminate customs barriers and
facilitate cross-border exchanges of
goods and services
– Level of integration remains far inferior to
the EU
a. NAFTA Exportations and Importations of the
United States
Canada
Japan
19
14
Rest of
the World
37
5
32
6
U.S.A.
19
China
7
13
12
19
17
European
Union
Mexico
Source: in % of exportations & importations, WTO, 2010
Exportations and Importations of Canada
U.S.A.
75
Japan
Rest of
the World
50
10
2
18
3
Canada
11
China
3
1
6
9
12
European
Union
Mexico
Source: in % of exportations & importations, WTO, 2010
Exportations and Importations of Mexico
U.S.A.
78
Japan
Rest of
the World
54
8
1
13
5
Mexico
15
China
1
7
2
5
11
European
Union
Canada
Source: in % of exportations & importations, WTO, 2010
Recap on NAFTA
• NAFTA remains unbalanced by the presence
of Mexico – periphery dominated by the core
• Trade has increased tenfold (x10) in 20 years
but US supremacy is unquestionable
– U.S. – Mexican border is asymmetrical (closed to
migratory flows)
• has permitted a genuine integration of the
North American continent by reducing
tensions between the U.S. & Mexico but it also
reflects the tensions present
• Despite freer trade flows
– the border is closed to population flows
– NAFTA has accumulated growing U.S. influence
– Pre-existing inequalities have worsened
Recent trends since Trump’s
election are weakening U.S. –
Mexican integration
• Trump's Wall of Shame seen by
Mexicans
b. Mercosur
includes 5 South
American countries
in 2017
Mercosur = $340 B
vs.
NAFTA = $2,371 B
Source: WTO 2012
2. Less powerful alternatives to
MERCOSUR & NAFTA
– Andean community (CAN)
• Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
– Pacific Alliance (right-wing/free-trade policies)
– Central American Integration System (SICA)
– Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
• 20 member states
– Bolivian alliance for peoples of the Americas
(ALBA)
Bear testimony to the desire of small States to not
depend exclusively on large regional powers
3. Organization of American
States (OAS)
– Unifies all States of the Western
Hemisphere
– Political and security objective more than
economic
• Promotion of democracy
• Defense of human rights
• Fighting drug trafficking and corruption
– 2 major issues not addressed
• Environmental protection
• Risk management
B. Intensification of Flows
1. Regional economic groups favor
commercial exchanges
– Values within MERCOSUR increased by
10 in 20 years
– Exchanges very unequal & dominated
by Brazil
– NAFTA exchanges similarly dominated by
US supremacy
2. Many exchanges occur
outside of regional groups
– 50% of migrants entering the US come
from the continent
Origins of immigrants to US
– Money earned in US represents 30% of
Haiti’s and Guyana’s GDP and 15% of
Honduras’ and Jamaica’s
– Mexicans living in US transferred record
sum of $24 B towards their country of
origin in 2007
Video: Migrant families divided at Mexican
border, 2’30, Aljazeera
3. The Dynamics of Integration
destabilize territories
– Energy (hydrocarbons) and transportation
networks expanding rapidly
– Twin cities have emerged on most active
borders due to the complementarities
between States (Brazil-Uruguay; USMexico)
– Intensification of mobility in Tri-border area
of Brazil, Argentina & Paraguay
• New language emerging: mix between
Spanish & Portuguese
C. Limits of Integration
1. Continent remains divided between
liberal economic model and antiimperialist tendencies
– Rise to power of politicians with anticapitalist positions demonstrates
defiance of the populations towards free
trade
– Bilateral agreements with the U.S.
numerous (Dominican Republic, Chile,
Mexico, Colombia)
2. Free Trade Area of the
Americas (US initiative)on hold
– Several countries have blocked the
process and created the Union of South
American Nations (UNASUR ) in 2008
• Joins the 12 countries of South America
primary aim: the energy integration of the
region and counterweigh to US hegemony
3. Certain social groups remain
particularly excluded from
integration
– On the national scale, indigenous
populations remain economically &
politically marginalized (even when they
represent the majority, e.g. Guatemala)
– On the continental scale, obstacles to the
free circulation of people are common, e.g.
US-Mexican border
– Video: How has the United states responded
to immigration from Mexico?
– Why do some people try to immigrate to the
United States from Mexico?
III. The Americas: Between
Tensions and Appeasement
Key Question:
How have tensions recently evolved on
the American continent?
A. The Rejection of US Domination
1. US Hegemony of Latin America is longlived
– US foreign policy, legacy of the Monroe
Doctrine 1823 accompanied by the support of
military regimes and banana republics
(named after the support of the US firm – The
United Fruit Company) during the Cold War
– Roosevelt Corollary
•
“walk softly and carry a big stick”
2. US Military Presence
– Major US influence in the Caribbean basin
• Guantanamo Bay military base
• 1961 embargo against Cuba lifted in 2014
• Numerous Military interventions in last 50 years
– Panama, Grenada, Nicaragua, etc…
• US army active in the struggle against drug
trafficking
3. Anti-American Attitudes persist in
several South American countries
– Impact of the world crisis on economies highly
dependent on US consumer markets reinforced
anti-imperialist axis embodied by Hugo Chavez
Venezuela
– Attempts to impose U.S.
Economic models resisted
e.g. water privatization
project in Cochabamba, Bolivia
– Stability of American democracy continues to
serve as a model and a powerful pole of
attraction
B. Sources of tension: drugs and
access to resources
1. The Americas are confronted with
major social inequalities which lead to
violence
– Highest rates of homicide in the world
•
El Salvador, Honduras & Venezuela
– Armed gangs (maras) seminate violence
from LA to Central America
– Property and access to land – major
factors of dispute and violence in Bolivia
& Paraguay
Maras: Violence common to many
countries
Country
Estimated number of members
per country
Honduras
60,000
El Salvador
20,000
USA
20,000
Guatemala
14,000
Nicaragua
4,500
Mexico
3,000
Costa Rica
2,600
Panama
1,380
Belize
100
Source: Clare Ribando Seelke, Gangs in America, Congressional Research Service, 2011
2. Drug Trafficking – source of
violence
– Impotence of Mexico to control drug
cartels (criminal organizations) explains
high crime rate in cities along the US
Mexican border
• Ciudad Juarez, Tijuana
And in Central America
• Guatemala, El Salvador
• Video: Busting Bad; Capturing El Chapo
3. Control of resources generates
some conflict
– Oil is cause of tensions between US and
Canada (Arctic) and between Venezuela
and Guyana
– Bolivia demands access to the sea from
Chile
– Argentina continues to demand its rights
over the Falkland Islands from the UK –
fishing waters
C. National and International
Tensions towards appeasement
1. In 1980’s democratization swept away
many Latin American dictatorships
supported by the U.S.
– Peace treaties put an end to civil wars (El
Salvador, Guatemala)
– Columbia remains only country confronted
with an internal armed conflict (FARC)
– Return to democracy favored the rise to
power of former guerilla soldiers (Nicaragua,
Uruguay) or indigenous peoples (Bolivia,
Peru)
2. International tensions on the
continent are rare
– Last conflict took place in 1995 on the
contested militarized border between
Peru and Ecuador
– 2008 Colombian incursion in Ecuador
during an offensive against the FARC led
to diplomatic relations being cut off
between the 2 countries
Ecuador vs. Peru
The region’s development has thus brought friction as well as progress. In
1995, an outbreak of intensive fighting between Ecuador and Peru led
both countries to mobilize their military forces and prompted a regional
diplomatic effort that included stationing a four-nation military observer
force in the disputed area. In 1998, that territorial dispute, which
originated in seventeenth-century Spanish colonial edicts, was definitively
settled, but 1999 and 2000 saw the reemergence of a series of other longstanding disputes and the advent of a number of new controversies in
Central America and in the northern part of South America. These
disputes, and a few other latent ones, generally fall into one of two types:
arguments over land boundaries that date from colonial times, and the
much more modern maritime delimitation controversies that stem from
changes in international maritime law and rivalries over the rich
resources, real and imagined, of the world’s oceans.
Source: “Boundary Disputes in Latin America”, U.S. Institute of Peace, 2003
3. In contrast with the U.S., Latin
America is the region which spends
the least on national defense
– Latin American States are tied by no
military alliance
– Armies in Chile, Brazil, Argentina &
Uruguay have worked together in
maintaining the peace missions (e.g.
Haiti) where political instability remains
strong
Reading
• One required reading text: « Why is South
America’s Left in Retreat? » Le Monde
Diplomatique (distributed in class)
• Five optional reading Texts on blog (1 page each)
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Bolivia no longer landlocked
Haiti peacekeeper forces
Mexican border factories
Mexican drug gang hires
BBC Video: Latin America’s economic boom explained