Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Iowa, 1995. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 308-320).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1966. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Catholic Theological Union, 1983. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [230]-235).

No description available.

All nation's foreign policy attempts to create social, economic, and political conditions in the world that most favor that nations interests. This thesis outlines the major decision points in U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, analyzing the reasoning behind the decisions and their impact. Recent U.S. counter-insurgency efforts have offered a different justification for intervention, and this thesis explores the authenticity of these new justifications in light of recent terrorist events.

Nowadays, the G77 is a key factor in North-South negotiations at the UN to achieve global commitments. On the understanding that neoliberalism is an economic rationale that strongly influences the relationship between North and South, this research explores the influence of a primordial neoliberalism in Latin American interest in taking part in the G77 at the First United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Utilising the ideas of Michel Foucault to analyse discourses of the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) since its incorporation into the G77 establishment, this work claims that the neoliberal rationale in part lies behind the mechanism that leads Latin American countries to take part in the G77 at the UNCTAD I. This mechanism is the need for development and the consequent concept of “developing country” reinforced by the G77 at the UN negotiations. In particular, the lack of natural resources in international markets due to the world wars produced the need for surveillance of non-industrialised countries. This surveillance, called here “Police of Development”, was supported by knowledge of natural resources provided by the ECLA, and reinforced the differentiation of countries. This differentiation promoted the need for industrialisation and the need for development. Thus, in a context of lack of financing and deterioration of the international terms of trade of natural resources, Latin Americans seeking development present themselves as “developing” countries in their international negotiations through the G77. The idea of development encourages the production and export of natural resources, which is necessary for a continuous availability of raw materials in international trade to maintain the expansion of markets, a basic precept of neoliberalism.

Given the potential political, economic and reputational costs for violating international norms of sovereignty, we should expect to only rarely observe the adoption by states of risky foreign policies like destabilization (which is defined as the policy of changing the balance of power between a target government and its domestic opposition, with the aim of effecting the downfall of that target government.) Yet, history demonstrates that states regularly adopt destabilization as a foreign policy. My research addresses this puzzle: Why, given the high potential costs of violation of international norms, do policymakers opt to do so anyway? I argue that the answer lies in the breadth and intensity of conflicts of interest between destabilizing states and their targets. To illustrate my theoretical argument, I hypothesize the following: When policy makers perceive a broad and intense conflict of security, economic and ideological interests, they will adopt destabilization as a policy. In this dissertation, I look at US relations with Latin American states during the Cold War. To demonstrate my hypothesis, I perform three comparative case studies. Each comparison examines two cases which are similar in most ways except, notably, the breadth of conflict of interest perceived by the US. In each negative case, I demonstrate that two, but not three types of conflicts were present and the US did not destabilize the target government, but instead chose different policy options. In the affirmative case, I demonstrate that all three types of conflicts were present, and the US destabilized the target government. I then briefly explore South African policy toward its neighbors, to illustrate that my theoretical explanation is plausible outside of the context of US-Latin American relations. I conclude with a brief discussion on extension of the theory and implications of this study for foreign policy analysis.

This thesis examines the development of state-narco networks in post-transition Bolivia. Mainstream discourses of drugs tend to undertheorise such relationships, holding illicit economies, weak states and violence as synergistic phenomena. Such assumptions fail to capture the nuanced relations that emerge between the state and the drug trade in different contexts, their underlying logics and diverse effects. As an understudied case, Bolivia offers novel insights into these dynamics. Bolivian military authoritarian governments (1964-1982), for example, integrated drug rents into clientelistic systems of governance, helping to establish factional coalitions and reinforce regime authority. Following democratic transition in 1982 and the escalation of US counterdrug efforts, these stable modes of exchange between the state and the coca-cocaine economy fragmented. Bolivia, though, continued to experience lower levels of drug-related violence than its Andean neighbours, and sustained democratisation despite being a major drug producer. Focusing on the introduction of the Andean Initiative (1989-1993), I explore state-narco interactions during this period of flux: from authoritarianism to (formal) democracy, and from Cold War to Drug War. As such, the thesis transcends the conventional analyses of the drugs literature and orthodox readings of Latin American narco-violence, providing insights into the relationship between illicit economies and democratic transition, the regional role of the US, and the (unintended) consequences of drug policy interventions. I utilise a mixed methods approach to offer discrete perspectives on the object of study. Drawing on documentary and secondary sources, I argue that state-narco networks were interwoven with Bolivia’s post-transition political settlement. Uneven democratisation ensured pockets of informalism, as clientelistic and authoritarian practices continued. This included police and military autonomy, and tolerance of drug corruption within both institutions. Non-enforcement of democratic norms of accountability and transparency was linked to the maintenance of fragile political equilibrium. Interviews with key US and Bolivian elite actors also revealed differing interpretations of state-narco interactions. These exposed competing agendas, and were folded into alternative paradigms and narratives of the ‘war on drugs’. The extension of US Drug War goals and the targeting of ‘corrupt’ local power structures, clashed with local ambivalence towards the drug trade, opposition to destabilising, ‘Colombianised’ policies and the claimed ‘democratising mission’ of the Bolivian government. In contrasting these US and Bolivian accounts, the thesis shows how real and perceived state-narco webs were understood and navigated by different actors in distinct ways. ‘Drug corruption’ held significance beyond simple economic transaction or institutional failure. Contestation around state-narco interactions was enmeshed in US-Bolivian relations of power and control.

This dissertation is a study of the tensions between the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) political party, nongovernmental organizations (NGO), and indigenous social movement struggles for territorial autonomy. This study takes a multiscale approach by examining (1) the emergence of competing indigenous leadership organizations, (2) state repression of civil society groups, and (3) strategic indigenous-NGO alliances to preserve Native Community Lands (Tierra Comunitaria de Orígen, TCOs). At the community level, the study examines new organizations of state-aligned indigenous groups that represent extractive interests and threaten social movement cohesion. At the national level, this paper analyzes the controversial road project in the Isiboro-Sécure Indigenous Territory and National Park (TIPNIS) and similar state efforts to erode legal protections for native lands in the interests of extractivism. Analyzing the academic and public debates over indigenous politics in the Amazon, this study explores the struggle between the state and lowland indigenous groups over popular hegemony and the ability to shape international perception over indigeneity, socialism, and resource exploitation. The findings support lowland indigenous social movement claims of state repression but situate this criticism within a path dependent world system dominated by global capital.

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / This paper will show that the trade in psychoactive substances has in fact been a major facilitator of the process now known as globalization. Not only has the drug trade fed off of globalization, globalization feeds off of and is driven by it. The perspective I will take here is a historical one. My thesis, that the drug trade has been an influential force on what is known as "globalization," is a reevaluation of the relationship between three historical processes: 1} The development over several centuries of a global system for the production, trade, and distribution of drugs 2} The "cold war" for economic and geopolitical hegemony between capitalist and communist power structures 3} The development and expansion of a global economic system, known in its current liberal phase as "globalization" / 2031-01-02