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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 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.
Weltweit brodelt es, Bürger gehen auf die Straße. In Chile will man sich die Ungerechtigkeiten des Bildungssystems nicht länger gefallen lassen. Nur wer zahlt, darf lernen – dagegen wehrt sich vor allem die Jugend mit aller Macht, auch mit der Macht der Neuen Medien. Öffentlichkeitswirksam werden die Proteste inszeniert. Wird die chilenische Regierung weiterhin mit Knüppeln auf Demonstranten einschlagen oder einlenken?
The military in Mexico started out as a revolutionary army that secured the regime of the governmental party PRI. The article discusses the change of this army into a national and hemispheric police force under the influence of the USA. Today, the functions of the Mexican army are a mix of fighting against drugs, organized delinquency, terrorism and counterinsurgency and cooperating with US as well as other Latin American forces.
Der Putsch nach dem Putsch
(2005)
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.
Die vernachlässigte Reform : zum Primat der Politik über das Militär im südlichenLateinamerika
(2005)
Despite many economic and state reforms in South America, no comparable changes have taken place with regard to civil-military relations: Neither do the armed forces have a clearly defined mission of their own nor are they adequately democratically controlled. The article looks at the present civil-military relations from various angles and explicitly deals with examples from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru. It presents the reasons for the lack of civilian control over the military and discusses the resulting consequences for domestic and foreign politics.
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 humid tropics are the region with the highest rate of land-cover change worldwide. Especially prevalent is the deforestation of old-growth tropical forests to create space for cattle pastures and soybean fields.
The regional water cycle is influenced by vegetation cover in various ways. Especially evapotranspiration considerably contributes to water vapor content in the lower atmosphere. Besides active transpiration by plants, evaporation from wetted plant surfaces further known as interception loss is an important supply of water vapor. Changes in interception loss due to change in land cover and the related consequences on the regional water cycle in the humid tropics of Latin America are the research focus of my thesis. (1) In an experimental setup I assess differences in interception loss between an old-growth tropical forest and a soybean plantation. (2) In a modeling study, I examine interception losses of these two vegetation types compared to a younger secondary forest with the use of the Gash interception model, including an uncertainty analysis for the estimation of the necessary model parameters. (3) Studying the water balance of a 192-km² catchment I disentangle the influences of changes in land cover and climatic factors on interception loss.
The three different research sites in my thesis represent a currently typical spectrum for land-cover changes in Latin America. In the first example I study the consequences of deforestation of transitional forest, which forms the transition from the Brazilian tree savanna (cerrado) to tropical rain forest, for the establishment of soybean fields in the southern Amazon basin. The second study site is a young secondary forest within the “Agua Salud” project area in Panama as an example of reforestation of former pastures. The third study site is the Cirí Grande river catchment which comprises a mixture of young and old forests as well as pastures, which is typical for the southern sub-catchments of the Panama Canal.
The experimental approach consists of the indirect estimation of interception loss by measuring throughfall and stem flow. For the first experimental study I measured throughfall as well as stem flow manually. Measurements of the leaf area index of the two land covers do not show distinct differences; hence it could not serve as an explanation for the differences in the measured interception loss. The considerably higher interception loss at the soybean field is attributed to a possible underestimation of stemflow but also to the stronger ventilation within the well-structured plant rows causing higher evaporation rates. This situation is valid only for two months of the rainy season, when soybean plants are fully developed. In the annual balance evapotranspiration at the soybean site is clearly less than at the forest site, accelerating the development of fast runoff components and consequently discharge. In the medium term, a reduction of water availability in the study area can be expected.
For the modeling study, throughfall in a young secondary forest is sampled automatically. The resulting temporally high-resolution dataset allows the distinction between different precipitation and interception events. The core of this study is the sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of the Gash interception model parameters and the consequences for its results. Canopy storage capacity plays a key role for the model and parameter uncertainty. With increasing storage capacity uncertainty in parameter delineation also increases. Evaporation rate as the driving component of the interception process incorporates in this context the largest parameter uncertainty. Depending on the selected method for parameter estimation, parameter values may vary tremendously.
In the third study, I analyze the influence of interception loss on the water balance of the Cirí Grande catchment, incorporating the interlinked effects of temperature, precipitation and changes of the land use mosaic using the SWAT (soil water assessment tool) model. Constructing several land-cover scenarios I assess their influence on the catchment’s discharge. The results show that land-cover change exerts only a small influence on annual discharge in the Cirí Grande catchment whereas an increase in temperature markedly influences evapotranspiration. The temperature-induced larger transpiration and interception loss balances the simultaneous increase in annual precipitation, such that the resulting changes in annual discharge are negligible.
The results of the three studies show the considerable effect of land cover on interception. However, the magnitude of this effect can be masked by changes in local conditions, especially by an increase in temperature. Hence, the results cannot be transferred easily between the different study sites. For modeling purposes, this means that measurements of vegetation characteristics as well as interception loss at the respective sites are indispensable.
La identidad desde los hechos históricos y el comportamiento político de un continente que combina su pasado y su presente para destacar su conformación supranacional, al mismo tiempo que se contrapone a esta. Desde México a Argentina indagaremos las cualidades que unen y separan a estas sociedades latinoa-mericanas, su deseo de alcanzar una integración regional, la correspondencia con la cultura occidental, la vinculación con China y la posición de los Estados Unidos respecto a Latinoamérica.
This book is about inventing successes and good practices of governments that are "closer to the people". Numerous examples throughout Latin America indicate-often despite macroeconomic instability, high inflation, and strong top-down regulation-that subnational actors have repeatedly achieved what their central counterparts preached: sound policymaking, better administration, better services, more participation, and sustained economic development. But what makes some governments change course and move toward innovation? What triggers experimentation and, eventually, turns ordinary practice into good practice? The book answers some of these questions. It goes beyond a mere documentation of good and best practice, which is increasingly provided through international networks and Internet sites. Instead, it seeks a better understanding of the origins and fates of such successes at the micro level. The case studies and analytical chapters seek to explain: How good practice is born at the local level; Where innovative ideas come from; How such ideas are introduced in a new context, successfully implemented, and propagated locally and beyond; What donors can do to effectively assist processes of self-induced and bottom-up change.