APISA / CLACSO / CODESRIA SUMMER INSTITUTE
"INTERNATIONAL HEGEMONY
AND THE SOUTH A TRICONTINENTAL PERSPECTIVE"
OPEN CALL FOR APPLICATIONS TO
PARTICIPATE IN A FOUR WEEK SPECIAL TRAINING PROGRAM
IN RESEARCH AND THEORY
The Africa/Asia/Latin America Scholarly Collaborative
Program recently launched by APISA, CLACSO and CODESRIA
with the support of Sida/SAREC is pleased to announce
its call for applications to participate in the summer
institute on "International Hegemony and the
South: A Tricontinental perspective" to be held
in Havana, Cuba, from November 7 to December 2, 2005.
Each year a Summer Institute will be carried out by
the three social science regional organizations to
train younger scholars on diverse key problems and
challenges facing the Southern nations. The institutes
will take place in consecutive years, one in each
of the three involved continents, with the purpose
to expose their participants to the varied socio-historical
contexts with the final aim to broaden their analytical
perspectives and to improve the quality of their scientific
practices.
1. OBJECTIVES:
The institute will train the participants on various
key issues relevant to the South and on the theoretical
and methodological perspectives more appropriate to
gain a full understanding of the specific situation
of the countries located outside the core of the international
system. A premise of this effort is the glaring inadequacy
of the theories and methodologies developed in the
North, crystallized in the mainstream social science,
to provide the required instruments to attain a sound
understanding of the problems overwhelming the Southern
nations and, if possible, to shed some light on the
likely alternatives to the present situation. More
specifically, the goal of the institutes is the promotion
of a better knowledge and understanding of the theories
and methodological approaches developed in each region
as alternatives to the dominant paradigm, getting
acquainted with the local intellectual atmosphere,
and to foster the realization of comparative research
and studies across the South. The institutes are a
unique opportunity to enhance the understanding of
African, Asian and Latin American problems, as well
as an opportunity to develop long-lasting collaborative
relationships with counterparts from other Southern
countries.
2. ELIGIBILITY:
The program will select, in an open international
competition, 36 graduate students and/or social science
practitioners, 12 for each region. Economy round-trip
air tickets plus all local expenses will be covered
by the summoning institutions.
3. FACULTY AND STAFF:
Two Latin American scholars, one from Africa and another
one from Asia will deliver a one-week lecture course
each. A team of local scholars will complement the
theoretical lectures and organize a discussion on
the main themes previously exposed.
The professors are:
7 Nov. to 11 Nov., 2005: Guillermo CASTRO (Panama),
PhD in Latin American Studies, UNAM. Professor at
Universidad de Panamá, Universidad Santa María
La Antigua, Universidad del Istmo. (Latin America)
14 Nov. to 18 Nov., 2005: Prabhat PATNAIK (India)
Advisory Board of IDEAs. (ASIA)
21 Nov. to 25 Nov., 2005: The African professor
will be announced shortly.
28 Nov. to 02 Dec., 2005: Teothonio DOS SANTOS (Brazil)
Professor at Universidad
Federal Fluminense; Coordinator of UNESCO chair and
of UNU about Global Economy and Sustainable Development
(Latin America)
Course Director: Atilio Boron.
Assitant Director: Gladys Lechini.
Local Coordination: Clara Pulido.
Local Faculty: Silvio Baró, David González,
Clara Pulido, José Luis Robaina, Adalberto
Ronda.
4. REQUIREMENTS
Applicants must:
a) get the support of the corresponding regional social
science organization: CODESRIA for Africa, APISA for
Asia, and CLACSO for Latin America and the Caribbean
on the basis of their active participation in his/her
regions scholarly life.
b) hold a university degree in any of the social sciences.
c) be fluent in the English language. A reasonable
proof shall be provided to the regional supporting
institution. Additionally, a reading and comprehension
test will be administered via internet in association
with the collegial institutions in the three continents.
5. APPLICATION
Applicants should also submit the following:
a) a no more than 5 page proposal, written in English,
dealing with a substantive theme they would like to
deal with during the institute; and
b) a one-page double-spaced letter explaining how
they, and their supporting institutions, would benefit
from this institute.
In addition to the application letter and proposal,
applicants should also send two copies of
a) An updated Curriculum Vitae with the standard professional
and personal references, including scientific discipline
and nationality, and a list of recent publications
and ongoing research activities in which the applicant
is involved.
b) a xerox copy of the highest university degree and
of the page of the passport containing identity data.
c) a supporting letter from the applicants social
science institution giving approval for his/her attending
to the institute. This statement of institutional
support should be done on the institutional letterhead
and must carry the official stamp.
d) the above mentioned 5 page proposal and the one-page
letter, all written in English.
In order to receive the Institutes Certificate applicants
should prepare a revision of the original proposal,
enriched with the lectures and reading materials of
the course. This will supposedly take the form of
an essay of 15/20 pages long, which would eventually
be published as South/South Occasional Papers.
6. APPLICATION DEADLINE
The deadline for the receipt of applications is September
15th, 2005.
Applications found to be incomplete or which arrive
after the deadline will not be taken into consideration.
An independent Selection Committee charged with screening
all applications received will meet shortly afterwards,
and the names of the selected applicants will be displayed
in the web pages of each one of the involved regional
organizations. Additionally, an e-mail with the copy
of the Committees verdict will be sent to each applicant.
Latin American and Caribbean applicants should send
their applications to
CLACSO
2005 South- South Summer Institute
Callao 875, 3º (1023) Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA
Tel: (54 11) 4811-6588 / 4814-2301; Fax: (54 11) 4812-845
E-mail: stordoni@campus.clacso.edu.ar
Website: www.clacso.org
Asian applicants should send their applications to
APISA
APISA Secretariat,
2005 South-South Summer Institute
Strategic Studies and International Relations Program
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, MALAYSIA
Tel: 603- 89213647; Fax: 603-89213332
E-Mail: secretariat@apisanet.org
Website: www.apisainfo.org
African applicants should send their applications
to
CODESRIA
2005 South South Summer Institute
BP 3304, CP 18524, Dakar, SENEGAL
Tel: (221) 825 9822: Fax: (221) 824 1289
E-mail: south.institute@codesria.sn
Website: www.codesria.org
ANNEX
The following is the concept paper explaining the
rationale and the guiding ideas underlying the current
summer institute. Applicants are supposed to prepare
their 5-page proposal on the basis of this document.
INTERNATIONAL HEGEMONY AND THE SOUTH: A TRICONTINENTAL
PERSPECTIVE
One of the key problems, if not the single most important
one, facing the countries of the South is the persistence
of a highly unequal international distribution of
resources that has been accentuated over the last
quarter of a century. A second crucial question confronted
by the countries of the South has been the challenge
of the state-building process against the background
of the erosion of sovereignty provoked by international
hegemony.
Immediately after the demise of the Soviet Union and
the end of the bipolar order, high expectations were
placed on the so-called "peace dividends"
that would help to finance the economic reconstruction
and development of the countries in the South. Unfortunately,
these expectations proved unrealistic, as the preexisting
system of economic polarization became even more acute
in the last decade of the twentieth century. Growing
international inequalities deepened the gap separating
the countries of the North from those of the South,
and the tendencies towards unilateralism in the world
arena, with all its detrimental consequences for the
underdeveloped nations, acquired unprecedented importance,
both in military as in economic terms. A recent literature
has also underlined how the impact of a renewed international
hegemonic structure, led by economic and political
forces such as the "international financial institutions",
has deeply penetrated the domestic agenda of states
and determined new forms of international subordination
and domestic class conflicts.
Despite this new structural framework of international
life, several authors have elaborated on the different
ways in which growing popular reactions against the
inequities of neoliberal globalization have also become
a factor to be taken into account. International social
movements whose discontent and activism for change
have crystallized at several anti-globalization fora
(Porto Alegre and Mumbay, among others) and new international
South-South coalitions like IBSA India, Brazil and
South Africa Alliance - as well as Doha and Cancun
Conferences of the WTO, suggest that the international
hegemonic structure is damaged and the cracks are
important. The fact, nevertheless, is that a tremendous
vertical structure has been imposed over international
life. This new situation is reflected in the growing
literature on "empire" or, as other authors
have named it, on "neo-imperialism" or "international
hegemony." Despite the quarrels regarding the
most appropriate name for the phenomenon, the fact
is that the asymmetrical network of social, political,
and cultural relations that characterize the international
system today prevents the peripheral countries from
implementing sovereign decisions in crucial areas
of governance.
The strategic importance of foreign influence and
control hindering the good performance and legitimacy
of democratic governments in Africa, Asia and Latin
America requires a new thinking that is unavailable
in the conventional the social sciences.
The Role of the International
Financial Institutions.
Over the last 25 years, democratic policy making in
Third World countries has been faced with enormous
difficulties. The fact is that if countries are not
sovereign in international affairs, they can hardly
honor popular sovereignty at home, a situation which
contributes to de-legitimizing democratic processes
within the national borders. As posed in the previous
section, a crucial instrumental role is played by
the international financial institutions (IFIs). Institutions
like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank,
and the World Trade Organization, and, in our regions,
the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development
Bank and the African Development Bank play a dual
role of paramount influence in domestic political
processes. One is the economic role, promoting orthodox
policies of structural adjustment and stabilization;
the other is a political role, disciplining national
governments into the canons of the Washington Consensus.
Thus, no matter the repeated statements of these IFIs
declaring the merely technical, "non-political"
nature of their mission and interventions, the fact
is that they do play an important role in ensuring
that pliant states will follow the right policy, taming
contentious governments, or in helping to control
the pressures coming from the popular movements in
the region.
Moreover, the IFIs have become main agents of knowledge
production in their intent on imposing their intellectual
project, their ideology (historical success is equal
to free market economy plus liberal democracy!) and
the interests of the forces that drive them on the
countries of the South. This is done through all sorts
of warnings, pressures, and threats that are exercised
through the staff of the IFIs, the members of their
board of directors (where the United States has a
decisive veto power) and a network of commercial and
investment banks, international consulting offices,
"country risk" experts, Wall Street "gurus,"
the financial press around the globe, the bureaucracies
of the other IFIs, the major mainstream economists,
and the technocratic and political counterparts of
all this international power ensemble in the South.
Thus, a poor, heavily-indebted country has little
chances of resist the "policy recommendations"
of such a formidable coalition.
As a conclusion, it can be asserted that the IFIs
fulfill an important role in reproducing the asymmetries
of an extraordinarily unequal international system,
facilitating a huge transfer of natural resources,
rents, incomes, and riches from the South to the North.
The contemporary plunder of the South is conducted
no longer as in the old times but with "white
gloves", and the main characters in the tragedy
are no longer the despotic chieftains or military
tyrants of yesteryears but a much more deadly army
of "experts" and "economists"
who, in taking over the country, run it like their
exclusive space, filling vital cabinet posts and the
key economic agencies of the government with their
own clones.
A Research Agenda
Therefore, it is urgent and important to rethink the
role of the IFIs in the international system. Yet,
the dominant scholarly literature on this issue pays
little or no attention to this matter. If the Third
World countries want to find alternative paths to
development, the role and the functions of the IFIs
should be subjected to an in-depth critique as the
precondition for the construction of alternative policies.
Some signals and hints of alternative policies, however,
have to be advanced if a counter-balance to the IFIs
is to be effectively promoted in the South. For instance,
a few countries are trying to build new coalitions
in order to advance positions of autonomy in the international
scene. Despite the lack of a concerted strategy in
the South, some countries and a host of international
social movements are changing the face of the debate.
Thus, the project our organizations are proposing
intends, in a first phase, to develop a critical approach
on the following themes:
a) A comparative analysis across the three regions
of the impacts of Washington Consensus on economic
growth, social justice, poverty reduction, the domestic
policy process and democratic governance.
b) A review of the policy alternatives tried at the
regional, national, and local levels and how scholars
in the Third World have reflected and theorized on
them.
c) An examination of the role of current trade negotiations
and their likely impact on the current world economy
d) In the face of the blatant injustice prevailing
in the international system and the bankruptcy of
the existing multilateral organizations, how can the
Southern countries promote the establishment of a
new, more democratic, global order?
e) A preliminary assessment of the coalition-making
process (of social movements) as well as of the states
(like the Buenos Aires Consensus, 2003) will be provided
in order to evaluate the weight of the counter-hegemonic
forces.
September 10, 2005.
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