The United States and Elections in Africa (2015–2018)

2019 ◽  
pp. 58-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrey Urnov

As a self-proclaimed “Global Leader” the United States have made “the assertion, advancement, support and defense of democracy” throughout the world one of the pillars of their foreign policy. This aim invariably figures in all Washington’s program documents pertaining to Africa. A major component of these efforts is an assistance to regular, free and fair elections. The selection of arguments cited to justify such activities has been done skilfully. In each specific case it is emphasized that the United States do not side with any competing party, stand “above the battle”, work for the perfection of electoral process, defend the rights of opposition and rank and file votes, render material and technical help to national electoral committees. Sounds irreproachable. However, the real situation is different. The study of the US practical activities in this field allows to conclude that Washington has one-sidedly awarded itself a role of a judge and supervisor of developments related to elections in the sovereign countries of Africa, tries to control the ways they are prepared and conducted. These activities signify an interference into the internal affairs of African states. The scale and forms of such interference differ and is subjected to tasks the USA try to resolve in this or that country on the national, regional or global levels. However, everywhere it serves as an instrument of penetration and strengthening of the US influence, enhancing the US political presence in African countries. The right of the US to perform this role is presented as indisputable. Sceptics are branded as opponents of democracy. The author explores the US positions and activities connected with elections in Africa during the last years of B.Obama and first two years of D.Trump presidencies. He shows how their policy have been implemented on the continental level and in regard to several countries – South Sudan, Libya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Nigeria, Somali, Kenya, Uganda.

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 42-52
Author(s):  
H. Obeid ◽  
F Hillani, ◽  
R. Fakih ◽  
K. Mozannar

In recent years artificial intelligence has entered a new era, which gives rise to many hopes for powerful states such as the United States and China. In this paper, we analyze the importance and role of artificial intelligence in technological development in each of the two countries on the one hand, and its influence on China-American relations in terms of technological and geopolitical conflict. To get the right results, we rely on a literature review of dozens of articles published on the phenomenon in order to compare the power of artificial intelligence between the United States and China where we found that the US still has technological strength, especially in the field of artificial intelligence, but we can say that a large force is beginning pose a threat for it which is China that has great technological capabilities so, we can say that the United States should work more in this field. Also, we found that artificial intelligence has a primary goal in both countries, it helps China to achieve its ambitions to be the leader of the world, and this intelligence, on the other hand, provides protection and security to the United States. This paper is divided into three sections. The first section focuses on the importance of artificial intelligence in achieving China’s ambitions, the second section explains the role of artificial intelligence in the US protection service, and the third section describes the technological and geopolitical conflict resulting from the competition in artificial intelligence between these two countries. Keywords: Artificial intelligence, United States, China, Conflict, leader.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 32-49
Author(s):  
Amurabi Oliveira

In this article, I map some of the US-Brazil networks of intellectuals who helped to develop the field of Afro-Brazilian studies in the 1930s. While discussing the emergence and institutionalization of the field, I highlight the role of figures such as Rüdiger Bilden (1893-1980), Melville Herskovits (1895-1963), Donald Pierson (1900-1995), Gilberto Freyre (1900-1987), Arthur Ramos (1903-1949), Ruth Landes (1908-1991), and Edison Carneiro (1912-1972). Together, these scholars from the United States and Brazil were key to the development of Afro-Brazilian studies as an interdisciplinary field.


Author(s):  
Goncharenko A.V.

The article researches the position of the United States on the issue of naval arms restriction in the early 20-ies of the XX century. There are outlined causes, the course and the consequences of the intensification of Washington’s naval activity during the investigated period. It is explored the process of formation and implementation of the US initiatives to limit naval weapons before and during the Washington Peace Conference of 1921–1922. The role of the USA in the settlement of foreign policy contradictions between the leading countries of the world in the early 20-ies of the XX century is analyzed. In the early 20’s of the XX century there have been some changes in the international relations system and the role of the USA in it. Despite the isolation stance taken by Washington, the White House continues its policy of «open doors» and «equal opportunities», promoting the elimination of unequal agreements between foreign countries with China, and attempts to influence the position of European countries and Japan in the naval contest issues and limitation of naval weapons. Taking full advantages, which were giving the United States’ the richest country and world creditor status, the US Department of State has stepped up its US impact in the Asia-Pacific region. The new Republican administration succeeded in offsetting the failures of the Paris Decisions of 1919–1920 and began to СУМСЬКА СТАРОВИНА 2019 №LIV 75 construct a new model of international relations in which the United States would occupy a leading position. The success of US diplomacy at the Washington Peace Conference of 1921– 1922 contributed to this. However, the conflict between the former allies within the Entente was only smoothed out and not settled. The latter has led to increasing US capital expansion into Europe due to the significant economic growth in the country. Despite the fact that the Republicans’ achievements in US foreign policy on local issues have been much more specific than trying to solve the problem of a new system of international relations globally, these achievements have been rather relative. Leading countries in the world were still making concessions to the White House on separate issues, but in principle they were not ready to accept the scheme of relations offered by the States. That is why American foreign policy achievements have been impermanent. Key words: the


Author(s):  
Halyna Shchyhelska

2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of Ukrainian independence. OnJanuary 22, 1918, the Ukrainian People’s Republic proclaimed its independence by adopting the IV Universal of the Ukrainian Central Rada, although this significant event was «wiped out» from the public consciousness on the territory of Ukraine during the years of the Soviet totalitarian regime. At the same time, January 22 was a crucial event for the Ukrainian diaspora in the USA. This article examines how American Ukrainians interacted with the USA Government institutions regarding the celebration and recognition of the Ukrainian Independence day on January 22. The attention is focused on the activities of ethnic Ukrainians in the United States, directed at the organization of the special celebration of the Ukrainian Independence anniversaries in the US Congress and cities. Drawing from the diaspora press and Congressional Records, this article argues that many members of Congress participated in the observed celebration and expressed kind feelings to the Ukrainian people, recognised their fight for freedom, during the House of Representatives and Senate sessions. Several Congressmen submitted the resolutions in the US Congress urging the President of United States to designate January 22 as «Ukrainian lndependence Day». January 22 was proclaimed Ukrainian Day by the governors of fifteen States and mayors of many cities. Keywords: January 22, Ukrainian independence day, Ukrainian diaspora, USA, interaction, Congress


Author(s):  
Kenneth Bo Nielsen ◽  
Alf Gunvald Nilsen

The chapter examines the fairness claim of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act (LARR), 2013. The author uses the utilitarian fairness standard proposed by one of the most influential American constitutional scholars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Frank Michelman, whose study of judicial decisions from an ethical perspective by introducing the concept of “demoralization costs” has shaped the interpretational debate on takings law in the United States. Michelman’s analysis is particularly relevant for the land question in India today since there is a widespread feeling that millions of people have been unfairly deprived of their land and livelihoods. The chapter looks at the role of the Indian judiciary in interpreting the land acquisition legislation since landmark judgments affect the morale of society. It concludes that using Michelman’s standard would help in bringing about greater “fairness” than what the new legislation has achieved.


Author(s):  
Anna Igorevna Filimonova

After the collapse of the USSR, fundamentally new phenomena appeared on the world arena, which became a watershed separating the bipolar order from the monopolar order associated with the establishment of the US global hegemony. Such phenomena were the events that are most often called «revolutions» in connection with the scale of the changes being made — «velvet revolutions» in the former Eastern Bloc, as well as revolutions of a different type, which ended in a change in the current regimes with such serious consequences that we are also talking about revolutionary transformations. These are technologies of «color revolutions» that allow organizing artificial and seemingly spontaneous mass protests leading to the removal of the legitimate government operating in the country and, in fact, to the seizure of power by a pro-American forces that ensure the Westernization of the country and the implementation of "neoliberal modernization", which essentially means the opening of national markets and the provision of natural resources for the undivided use of the Western factor (TNC and TNB). «Color revolutions» are inseparable from the strategic documents of the United States, in which, from the end of the 20th century, even before the collapse of the USSR, two main tendencies were clearly traced: the expansion of the right to unilateral use of force up to a preemptive strike, which is inextricably linked with the ideological justification of «missionary» American foreign policy, and the right to «assess» the internal state of affairs in countries and change it to a «democratic format», that is, «democratization». «Color revolutions», although they are not directly mentioned in strategic documents, but, being a «technical package of actions», straightforwardly follow from the right, assigned to itself by Washington, to unilateral use of force, which is gradually expanding from exclusively military actions to a comprehensive impact on an opponent country, i.e. essentially a hybrid war. Thus, the «color revolutions» clearly fit into the strategic concept of Washington on the use of force across the entire spectrum (conventional and unconventional war) under the pretext of «democratization». The article examines the period of registration and expansion of the US right to use force (which, according to the current international law, is a crime without a statute of limitations) in the time interval from the end of the twentieth century until 2014, filling semantic content about the need for «democratic transformations» of other states, with which the United States approached the key point of the events of the «Arab spring» and «color revolutions» in the post-Soviet space, the last and most ambitious of which was the «Euromaidan» in Ukraine in 2014. The article presents the material for the preparation of lectures and seminars in the framework of the training fields «International Relations» and «Political Science».


English Today ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
Carmen Ebner

Having studied attitudes towards usage problems such as the notorious split infinitive or the ubiquitous literally in British English as part of my doctoral thesis, I was intrigued by the sheer lack of scientific studies investigating such attitudes. What was even more intriguing was to discover that the same field and the same usage problems seem to have received a different treatment in the United States of America. While my search for previously conducted usage attitude studies in Great Britain has largely remained fruitless, besides two notable exceptions which I will discuss in detail below (see Section 3), a similar search for American usage attitude studies resulted in a different picture. Considerably more such studies seem to have been conducted in the US than in Great Britain. On top of cultural and linguistic differences between these two nations, it seems as if they also hold different attitudes towards studying attitudes towards usage problems. Now the following question arises: why do we find such contradictory scientific traditions in these two countries? In this paper, I will provide an overview of a selection of American and British usage attitude studies. Taking into account differences between the American and British studies with regard to the number of usage problems studied, the populations surveyed and the methods applied, I will attempt to capture manifestations of two seemingly diverging attitudes towards the study of usage problems. By doing so, I will provide a possible explanation for the lack of attention being paid to usage attitudes in Great Britain.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 226-238
Author(s):  
Daria V. Stanis ◽  
Konstantin P. Kurilev

This article discusses one of the key components of the mechanism of formation of the ruling elites in the United States - economic. Representatives of large business, financial circles and political clans, capable of fighting for power and possessing the necessary resource base and tools, form elite groups. The authors focus on the study of US large business as a supplier of cadres for the American political elites that determine US domestic and foreign policy. In their work, the authors set the following tasks: to analyze the mechanism of the formation of political elites in the USA; to consider the experience of Trump Organization in the context of the acquisition by her leader of the highest political status in the USA in 2016 and the prospects for his re-election to this post in 2020; to assess the role of large business in the formation of political elites in the United States. To achieve the objectives, the authors used a few methods of political science: structural, systemic, functional, comparative and historical methods. The methodology of economic science was also involved: the method of scientific abstraction, the method of normative and functional analysis. The study, in its conceptual basis, is based both on the theory of political elites and on the economic theory of competition.


2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (7) ◽  
pp. 101-108
Author(s):  
Хлопов О.А

The article reveals the reasons for the formation and change of the US policy towards African countries during the period of the activity of the President D. Trump. The author analyzes the features and reveals the directions of US policy towards the African continent: economic cooperation, assistance programs in the field of strengthening the socio-political stability of military security and the fight against terrorism. Under the new administration of J. Biden, the United States will have to reckon with the changes taking place in Africa and revise a number of principles of selective engagement with African countries.


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