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.

Local governments develop multiple actions to strengthen their management capacities, influenced by various public management paradigms, among which the Open Government perspective stands out in recent years. This article asks if the COVID-19 pandemic deepened the influence of this paradigm regarding the strengthening of the capacities of Argentine municipalities. The information was produced in the PISAC COVID-19 project “State capacities in a post-pandemic municipal agenda”, financed by the National Agency for Scientific and Technological Promotion of Argentina and the Inter-American Development Bank. The main findings show that the pandemic mobilized an increase in actions to strengthen management, with a predominance of digitalization. A prevalence of the approach towards Open Government is not identified. However, it is detected that the municipalities that previously developed tools and technologies linked to Open Government did deepen them.

Ao apresentar os principais elementos do processo histórico de abertura institucional e do fomento à participação social em Governo Aberto no Brasil a partir de 2011, o artigo instiga reflexão crítica acerca de como a instrumentação da ação pública em Governo Aberto foi capaz de fomentar novas abordagens para a governança da participação social nas políticas públicas brasileiras. A partir das dimensões da transversalidade exploradas e da análise detalhada das especificidades dos Planos de Ação Nacional do Brasil na Open Government Partnership – OGP e dos Relatórios de Monitoramento do Independent Report Mechanism – IRM, o artigo lança luz nos efeitos, nas relações de poder e nas dinâmicas de legitimidade e de governabilidade gerados pela instrumentação da ação pública em Governo Aberto, bem como sua influência no desenvolvimento multidimensional e intersetorial brasileiro.

El municipio de Veracruz, siendo parte del Estado de Veracruz, inició en 2018 un programa de innovación conforme a los criterios de transparencia y colaboración ciudadana derivados de la perspectiva de gobierno abierto. A pesar de los retos técnicos y administrativos, aunado a las limitaciones de aislamiento impuesto por la pandemia del Sars-Cov-2, los resultados permitieron avanzar hacia el establecimiento de un ecosistema digital con valor público. El proyecto buscó transformar un conjunto de servicios brindados de modo tradicional para orientar su prestación en línea con el propósito de simplificar trámites, actualizar el catastro, optimizar la recaudación, reducir el gran consumo interno de papel, así como organizar las fiestas del carnaval portuario. Ello ha contribuido a mejorar el servicio municipal en beneficio de una población de más de 600,000 habitantes.  

As with any public intervention, open government strategies need to be informed by evidence in order to assess their performance, their results, and their opportunities for improvement. Since 2017, in Mexico, the Open Government Metric (MGA, by its Spanish acronym) measures the way in which a person may know what government offices do and influence their decisions. Thanks to its design, its scope, and the disaggregation of its results, the MGA allows us to know the state of government openness in the country. In this paper, we explain how the MGA was designed and we detail its methodology. We show how disaggregated information allows for specific diagnoses, analysis of territorial and time variations, and, more importantly, provides inputs for open government agendas based on evidence, focused on the specific challenges of each public office, and with the possibility of being evaluated and monitored.