The United States, despite impressive efforts, have not reduced Colombian drug supplies over the recent years. Policy ineffectiveness results from problems in Colombia, including poverty, strong non-state actors, as well as a weak state and society. On the US side, ineffectiveness results from a geographically selective approach, a reliance on coercion, and bilateralism. The US has exacerbated human rights violations, environmental destruction, the displacement of the drug industry within Colombia, and the spread of Colombian problems to neighbouring countries.

The international community criticises the unilateral actions of the US in Iraq. As a reaction, the United States tries to extend their sphere of influence in other regions. The Brazilian author warns that Brazil in particular could be exposed to this increasing pressure. Therefore Brazil has to take the following five measures: strengthening of Mercosur, a Free Trade Area between the Andean Community and Mercosur, a cooperation agreement with the EU, cooperation with other NICs, and lobbying inside the US.

Rezensierte Literatur: Bieber, Christoph (2003): Das Internet als Präsentations- oder Repräsentationsraum. Kommunikation in politischen Online-Versammlungen, in: Gellner/Strohmeier (Hrsg), S. 139-153. Gellner, Winand/Strohmeier, Gerd (Hrsg.) (2003): Repräsentation und Präsentation in der Mediengesellschaft, PIN-Jahrbuch 2003, Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft. Herzog, Roland/Hoffmann, Bert/Schulz, Markus (2002): Internet und Politik in Lateinamerika. Einleitung und Vergleichende Betrachtung, Band 1 der Reihe Internet und Politik in Lateinamerika: Regulierung und Nutzung der neuen Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien im Kontext der politischen und wirtschaftlichen Transformation, Frankfurt am Main: Vervuert Verlag Hoffmann, Bert (2002): Internet und Politik in Lateinamerika. Costa Rica, Band 2 der Reihe Internet und Politik in Lateinamerika: Regulierung und Nutzung der neuen Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien im Kontext der politischen und wirtschaftlichen Transformation, Frankfurt am Main: Vervuert Verlag. Mai, Manfred (2003): Das Parlament in der Mediengesellschaft. Parlamentarische Debatte oder Talk-Show, in: Gellner/Strohmeier (Hrsg.), S. 13-27. Schaper-Rinkel, Petra (2003): Die europäische Informationsgesellschaft. Technologische und politische Integration in der europäischen Politik, Münster: Verlag Westfälisches Dampfboot.

Paraguays vast natural resources, especially water, are a source of geopolitical wealth – and trouble. This articleshows how the interests of the USA in this region put Paraguay in a difficult position and turn the country into a playground for international powers. The need to regain national power and real-life influence by the Paraguayan people is especially emphasized. Even though the article concentrates on Paraguay, it also makes clear that this country is part of an US-masterplan for a new order on the American continent.

Organized drug trafficking and transnationally networked terrorism are transnational threats in Latin America. Security experts see the first as the paramount problem, but regard the second as a mere potential security risk. Latin America’s specific conditions allow limited options for containing non-military threats. Should actors and instruments for containing crime and terrorism be organized on a subregional level, in the Latin American or in the Inter-American context? The author documents promising subregional approaches, especially in the extended Mercosur.

The ideological change within the Chilean military before and after the coup in 1973 is the central issue of this article. Before the developments in the early 1970s, the cardinal mindset of the military leaders was one of a state-run evolution of society. After the coup, this thinking changed rapidly into a neoliberal kind. How could this happen? Which explanations have been and which should be discussed? These questions are answered and it is shown that the military itself played a bigger role than previously thought.

Kurz vor der Wahl am 1. Juli steht Mexiko vor großen Turbulenzen: Parteien beschuldigen sich gegenseitig, Mitglieder oder -läufer der organisierten Kriminalität zu sein. Der Krieg gegen die Drogen, der zuvor noch nationale Einheit heraufbeschwor, wird jetzt zum Instrument der Verleumdung des politischen Gegners. Wie kann angesichts brüchiger Staatlichkeit eine sichere Wahl gewährleistet werden?

Für Stefan Zweig war Brasilien 1941 "ein Land der Zukunft". Die Realität sieht anders aus: Bis heute ist es ein Land der Gegensätze, geprägt vor allem durch jenen von Arm und Reich. Was Gini-Koeffizienten nüchtern in Zahlen ausdrücken, kann man in Metropolen mit hypermodernen Zentren und Favelas an Berghängen auf engstem Raum erleben. Vor allem die Verteilung von Land resultiert in Auseinandersetzungen. Experten analysieren im Thema die Lage eines Staates, der in seinen Widersprüchlichkeiten gefangen ist.

The driving question of this compilation thesis is whether quotas for political assemblies represent an effective tool for breaking down gender inequality in the political sphere. To put it differently, focus is on the possibilities for policy-makers to engineer equality. As a response to persistent patterns of male dominance in political decision-making, approximately 100 countries, both democratic and authoritarian, have adopted these affirmative action measures. The introductory section presents an argument as to why we should focus on certain impacts in order to be able to answer the question about the effectiveness of quotas. It suggests that the point of departure for empirical assessments of quota policies should be the normative arguments for supporting the reform, and the effects that normative theorists and quota advocates expect from these measures. The three studies that make up the core of the thesis build on previous empirical research on quotas, and examine some of their possible effects at both the elite level and mass level. Study I theoretically scrutinizes how the procedures for selecting women to political office shape these women's legislative autonomy, and thereby their possibilities to substantively represent women. The study identifies mainly two factors as important: a large body selecting the candidates and a rule-bound and thus bureaucratized selection procedure. Study II empirically tests the claim that women elected through quotas are more likely to suffer from institutional constraints in the legislature, and thereby have a harder time working for the benefit of women, than other female representatives. By conducting a comparative case-study of two Mexican state legislatures, no support is found for this hypothesis. Quotas have also been justified because of their likely impacts on female citizens' perceptions about politics. Study III addresses this issue by performing a statistical analysis on the impacts of quotas on Latin American women's political attitudes and behavior. In contrast to previous research on the topic, the study finds little proof of positive impacts of quotas on women's political engagement. Taken together, the thesis does not provide a clear-cut answer to the question as to whether it is possible to engineer equality within politics. However, it sheds new light on the complexities of quota impacts, and it qualifies and nuances the picture for those who expect quotas to be an overall solution for problems of gender inequality.

The overall aim of this thesis is to analyse the social consequences of a transnational corporation(TNC) from the global North investing capital in the global South, and the communal processes that evolve in response. The study highlights the TNC’s construction of leadership and domination in the areas in which it settles, as well as the forces of popular resistance to the TNC’s exploitation of the region’s natural resources and the resulting socio-environmental conditions. The study is based on empirical fieldwork (including 22 interviews) carried out in Uruguay and Argentina related to the establishment of a pulp mill by Botnia/UPM. The analyses focus on discursive processes whereby the TNC establishes itself in the community. The found patterns are discussed in the thesis based on the following themes: “Making the TNC indispensible” ; “Dominating the spaces of communication” ; “Controlling the narratives” ; “Contradictions of external and internal colonialism” and “Establishing and maintaining hegemony”. All of these have to do with socio-political and discursive strategies and circumstances whereby the TNC—symbolically and materially— becomes a powerful force in the country and community where it establishes itself. This creates certain social positions, and gives rise to tensions within a number of areas. In relation to these processes, the thesis also highlights the formation and mobilization of resistance against the changing social, cultural and economic conditions created through the arrival of the TNC. What appears to be crucial for the deployment of a successful counter-force is the creation of spaces for organisation, for practices of resistance and to sustain democratic values and practices. This makes the social movement an autonomous voice that incarnates disobedience against thestate, the juridical international apparatus and the hegemonic practices of TNCs.