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A timely look at Venezuela's controversial president Hugo Chavez
In the past few years, South America has witnessed the rise of leftist governments coming into power on the heels of dramatic social and political unrest. From Hugo Chávez in Venezuela to Evo Morales, the indigenous head of state of Bolivia, and Michelle Bachelet, the first woman president in Chile, the faces of South American politics are changing rapidly and radically. In this timely and insightful analysis, acclaimed journalist and Latin American authority, Nikolas Kozloff explores the continent's new path and its affect on the U.S. New initiatives, such as Telesur, the satellite network with links to Al Jazeera, an oil-exporting consortium, and a regional currency, are coalescing South America into an emerging global player. With access to top political brass and a lively reportage style, Kozloff shows how we can secure and protect our ties with our close neighbors.
Acting as the planet's air conditioner, the rainforest sucks up millions of tons of greenhouse gases and stores them safely out of the atmosphere. South America's deforestation threatens to unleash a kind of "carbon bomb" that will add to our already deteriorating climate difficulties. As he travels across Peru and Brazil, recognized South America expert Nikolas Kozloff talks to locals, scientists and activists about the rainforest and what should be done to avert its collapse. Drawing on his expertise of South American politics, Kozloff argues that cooperation between the world's countries is essential in turning back the tide of climate change and that the fate of the planet depends on our response to environmental problems within the southern hemisphere.
Audacious, provocative, and bombastic, few world politicians are as colorful as Hugo Chávez, now making international news for his plans to nationalize U.S. owned businesses and his bold opposition to Washington's economic and trade policies. As Venezuela gains importance as the fifth largest oil exporter in the world, this firebrand leader is quickly moving to the public spotlight by uniting much of South America against the Bush administration and wielding oil as a "geopolitical weapon." To create this rich and objective portrait, Nikolas Kozloff--one of the few American journalists who has spent years in the Andean region--has profiled Chávez's top advisors, leaders of his movement, and other key figures in both Venezuela and the U.S. The result is a timely, exhaustive analysis of Chávez as a political leader, and a nuanced examination of the president moving to the center of the global stage. Includes a new afterword by the author, with insights into Chávez's reelection in relation to wider hemispheric politics.
This is the riveting and frightening story of ambitious, tempestuous and avowed anti-American Hugo Chávez, who is making waves through South America and being widely compared to Fidel Castro. Ex-paratrooper, outspoken socialist, and brash personality, Chávez is known for his stance against big business, fearless threats to the Bush administration, social reforms that have violently polarized his country, and claims that he will soon unite South America. As gas prices rise to unprecedented highs, Venezuela's importance surges as the fifth largest oil exporter in the world. Nikolas Kozloff's access to top advisors, members of the opposition, and leaders of Chávez's own political movement allow him to present a comprehensive portrait of Chávez as he runs for re-election and moves into the global spotlight.
Something that has been needed for decades: a leftist foreign policy with a clear moral basis Foreign policy, for leftists, used to be relatively simple. They were for the breakdown of capitalism and its replacement with a centrally planned economy. They were for the workers against the moneyed interests and for colonized peoples against imperial (Western) powers. But these easy substitutes for thought are becoming increasingly difficult. Neo-liberal capitalism is triumphant, and the workers' movement is in radical decline. National liberation movements have produced new oppressions. A reflexive anti-imperialist politics can turn leftists into apologists for morally abhorrent groups. In Michael Walzer's view, the left can no longer (in fact, could never) take automatic positions but must proceed from clearly articulated moral principles. In this book, adapted from essays published in Dissent, Walzer asks how leftists should think about the international scene--about humanitarian intervention and world government, about global inequality and religious extremism--in light of a coherent set of underlying political values.
This book outlines significant traits of radical leftist identity politics. In this type of discourse, arguments are organized around global friend/enemy schemes in ways that are at odds with the right/left matrix of democracy. This is shown by combining discourse analysis of how leftist critics argue in public debates centred on their reactions to the Charlie Hebdo massacre in 2015 and theoretical discussions on leftist identity politics orbiting around Schmitt, Marcuse and Mouffe. It is argued that the friend/enemy approach sacrifices the egalitarian and libertarian core values of the Left, leading it to adopt positions used to brand the reactionary Right. It also holds that leftist identi...
Bronze Medal Winner, 2016 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Awards: Best Regional Non-Fiction - Europe. Finalist, 2016 Next Generation Indie Book Awards: Travel. An engaging and informative chronicle of a hiking and wildlife research expedition along the Carpathian and Sudety Mountains, from Romania to Germany, some 800 miles as the crow flies. (This volume, Part 1, covers the first half of the journey, through Romania and Ukraine.) On the trail of wolves, we are led deep into the misty hills, enchanting forests, and intriguing history of this fabled landscape, where encounters with wolves, bears, and lynx; werewolves, vampires, and witches; lumberjacks, shepherds, and outlaws; poets, tyrants, and saints; deities, demons, and sirens—and such ancient peoples as Proto-Indo-Europeans, Dacians, and Rus’, and such imposing historical figures as Attila the Hun, Vlad the Impaler, and Volodymyr the Great—provide broad insight into the natural, historical, and mythological forces that have shaped, and continue to shape, the nations, cultures, and psyches along the way. 63 beautiful color photographs also emblaze this memorable trek.
The Rhetoric of Soft Power: Public Diplomacy in Global Contexts provides a comparative assessment of public diplomacy and strategic communication initiatives in order to portray how Joseph Nye's notion of "soft power" has translated into context-specific strategies of international influence. The book examines four cases--Japan, Venezuela, China, and the United States--to illuminate the particular significance of culture, foreign publics, and communication technologies for the foreign policy ambitions of each country. This study explores the notion of soft power as a set of theoretical arguments about power, and as a reflection of how nation-states perceive what is an increasingly necessary ...
Over the past fifty years Brazil’s evangelical community has increased from five to twenty-five percent of the population. This volume’s authors use statistical overview, historical narrative, personal anecdote, social-scientific analysis, and theological inquiry to map out this emerging landscape. The book’s thematic center pivots on the question of how Brazilian evangelicals are exerting their presence and effecting change in the public life of the nation. Rather than fixing its focus on the interior life of Brazilian evangelicals and their congregations, the book’s attention is directed toward social expression: the ways in which Brazilian evangelicals are present and active in the common life of the nation.