Contexto Internacional, journal: special issue on foreign policy and social demands in Latin America

Contexto Internacional

CALL FOR PAPERS
SPECIAL ISSUE 2016

Connecting foreign policy and social demands in Latin America

Latin America has witnessed a double movement of political and economic liberalization which, in association with the increment of international flows in the aftermath of Cold War, raised plenty of questions about the historical impermeability of foreign policy formulation to social inputs. To the extent that decisions on international affairs have triggered redistributive effects over income as well as political power, and so a variety of stakeholders’ interests were confronted at the national level, foreign policy grew more and more ‘politicized’. Claims have spread wide for foreign policy to be treated as if it actually were a public policy, that is to say, one subject to public scrutiny, bringing into practice political accountability and social responsiveness to an entirely new and diverse set of interests and demands. Within the regional ambit, the emergence of the so-called Latin American ‘Pink Tide,’ not to mention the promulgation of several new democratic constitutions, the rise of left-wing nationalisms and the consolidation of a participatory stance all over the continent, are factors that wield pressure on decision makers, in the sense that they would better leave behind a somewhat anachronistic and bureaucratically insulated model of foreign policy making to embrace new perspectives and procedures that are more akin to contemporary democracy. US contested hegemony and the resulting reconfiguration of the world order is – one would claim – the very basis on which the Global South is now articulating its political bids and concerns, a fact that will demand from diplomatic corps in the region not only greater activism and professionalism (which do vary strongly from country to country), but also more legitimacy from the domestic and international viewpoints. Those are issues which can be seen, after all, as leading the region into more democratic and socially representative foreign policies.

Contexto Internacional: journal of global connections will publish in 2016 a special issue organized by Dawisson Belém Lopes (Professor of International and Comparative Politics at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil) and Carlos Aurélio Pimenta de Faria (Professor of Social Sciences and International Relations at the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, Brazil) on the phenomenon of ‘foreign policy politicization’ in Latin America. The editors are looking for manuscripts – be it case studies, comparative or conceptual-theoretical research articles – that examine the transformations/changes in the processes and institutional frameworks of foreign policy making settings recently observed in the region in order to meet the political demands of their countries’ populations.

Contributions on topics relating to intra and intergovernmental coordination, inter-sectorial articulation, market and civil society agents, and the efforts for narrowing the gaps between societal and governmental views and positions in foreign policy making, may be of great interest and heuristic value, as we still know very little about how those processes work in South America, Central America, the Caribbean, and Mexico. Editors are interested in papers that address one or several of the following questions

What and whose interests are currently being represented by foreign policy makers in Latin America?
What are the main cleavages that take place inside domestic constituencies concerning foreign policy agendas and how do they impact foreign policy making?
What are the new roles being played by presidents and their pundits in foreign policy making which clearly contradict long-established diplomatic traditions?
How does Latin American Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) diverge from conventional FPA and other mainstream approaches?
How can we address conceptually and normatively the politicization of foreign policy making in the region in response to state-centric perspectives in FPA?

Evaluation process will proceed in three stages. Abstracts of up to 300 words can be submitted by August 15th. 2015 to contextointernacional@puc-rio.br.  Full papers of pre-selected proposals are due on October 30th 2015. Approved papers will be submitted to scientific arbitration, in a double-blind process. Publication of all manuscripts is conditional to reviewers’ and editorial’s approval. Manuscripts should be original and unpublished, and should follow the general instructions available at: http://www.scielo.br/revistas/cint/iinstruc.htm.

Questions should be sent by email to contextointernacional@puc-rio.br (subject: Special Issue on Foreign Policy and Social Demands).

Important dates:
Abstract Submission: August 15th. 2015
First round acceptance by August 31st.2015
Paper submission: October 30th.2015
Second round acceptance (evaluation by editorial committee) by November 30th. 2015
Peer review process: up to 120 days