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07-20-2007

Rogue States: A Timely Concept and Its Application to Latin America

Rogue states are perhaps new as a term in international politics, but they are not a novelty per se. They have existed throughout the different periods of history, generally displaying the same characteristics: The system of government is dictatorial and tend more towards totalitarianism than towards authoritarianism; their rhetoric and foreign policy are fervently anti-American; unlike other dictatorships, they are obsessed with international politics; they are constant practitioners of melodrama and expert users of propaganda.
By Pablo Brum
 

Rogue states are perhaps new as a term in international politics, but they are not a novelty per se. They have existed throughout the different periods of history, generally displaying the same characteristics: The system of government is dictatorial and tend more towards totalitarianism than towards authoritarianism; their rhetoric and foreign policy are fervently anti-American; unlike other dictatorships, they are obsessed with international politics; they are constant practitioners of melodrama and expert users of propaganda. At the beginning of the last century, the world’s premier rogue state was the German Empire, the Second Reich. The Second World War was the necessary conflict to eliminate the totalitarian regimes of Germany and Italy, but perhaps it is Japan that most resembled a rogue state. There were numerous rogue states during the Cold War, which brings us to Latin America. Cuba’s communist regime clearly had a rogue phase. Today’s world shares a trait with 1914: it is quite favorable to the emergence of rogue states. The most powerful of them all is Russia.Another regime that presently constitutes a rogue state is Communist Korea and the third and most dangerous is Iran. Latin America has its own rogue state to deal with, and it could not be worse positioned to do so. It is Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela.

Pablo Brum holds a BA in International Studies at Universidad ORT, Uruguay. His graduate thesis was on “Bi-Lateral Relationaship Between Uruguay and China: From Democratic Restortation to the Present Time”. Between October 2006 and April 2007 he was intern at Mexican Representation at ALADI (Latin American Association of Integration) and during 2006 he was honorary assistant of the Coordination of International Studies at Universidad ORT, Uruguay.

Pablo Brum
Pablo Brum
Investigador Asociado del Centro para la Apertura y el Desarrollo de América Latina (CADAL). Es licenciado en Estudios Internacionales por la Universidad ORT, Uruguay. Entre sus publicaciones en CADAL se encuentran: “El Examen Periódico Universal: Oportunidad inesperada en el Consejo de Derechos Humanos”, “Evaluando a la Alta Comisionada de Derechos Humanos de Naciones Unidas”; y “Rogue States: Acerca de un concepto interesante y su aplicación a América Latina”.
 
 
 

 
 
 
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