Psychology in Latin America: A Qualitative Study of Commonalities and Singularities

Psychology in Latin America, its development, and main contributors have not received the attention they deserve among the scientific and professional English-speaking communities. The present study analyzes the contributions to psychology in Latin America made by the recipients of the Interamerican Psychology award in the Spanish or Portuguese category, granted by the Interamerican Society of Psychology. The award, instituted in 1976 and named Rogelio Díaz Guerrero since 2007, recognizes psychologists who have advanced the discipline as a science and profession in the Americas. To date, SIP has granted 26 such awards. This qualitative study identifies commonalities and singularities in the contributions made by the first 26 awardees. The commonalities were organized around three overlapping themes: social responsiveness, intersectionality of psychology and culture, and international engagement. The singularities were systematized into two overlapping themes: development of historically underdeveloped topics, and discipline transformations. Each theme is defined and illustrated accordingly. The commitment to advancing social justice and increasing the relevance of psychology in addressing social issues by the awardees as a whole stands out as an important characteristic of psychology in Latin America.

CHALLENGES TO THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND THE UNITED KINGDOM THROUGH THE PRISM OF THE ACTIONS OF PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN AND PRIME MINISTER BORIS JOHNSON

The United States and the United Kingdom have special political, economic, military and cultural relations. The new American administration is restoring priority to multilateralism and old alliances, and the British authorities have announced an expansion of international engagement. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fight against climate change, the growth of China’s influence, and threats to cybersecurity are the biggest international challenges in the view of both states. The US and the UK urge other states to jointly take responsibility and work out solutions to the world’s most crucial problems. The United Kingdom left the European Union in January 2020 and, in line with the rhetoric of the government, it regained a sovereign foreign policy. US-UK relations could deepen but new troubles appeared, for example the need to negotiate a new trade deal. However, the differences between Joe Biden and Boris Johnson are less important in the face of common interests, as evidenced by the signing of a new Atlantic Charter by both leaders in June 2021 or increasing joint engagement in the Indo-Pacific region.

Women and their rights: From totalitarianism to feminist empowerment in the context of the 20th anniversary of UN1325 on women, peace, and security between victims, leaders, and perpetrators

While analysing the heritage, input, and various implementation contexts of UNSCR 1325 on women, peace, and security, the authors investigate not only various approaches to women’s position and female empowerment in international engagement settings and cooperation models (UN, OSCE NATO, UNCDF), but also look at female empowerment in a global scope from women’s perspectives as victims, leaders, and perpetrators. By considering the need for complex engagement of international actors in stability, development, and crisis initiatives, the authors analyse NATO policy against sexual abuse and exploitation, on women’s financial inclusion, and the MenEngage initiative. While analysing the societal impact of radicalisation, they seek answers for effective reintegration and anti-radicalisation of female terrorists and foreign fighters. Authors examine the evolving gender equity and female empowerment policies of the EU in their foreign and domestic affairs, with particular interest in internal and external security standards for women’s safety.

Subnational activism and conflicts within Jair Bolsonaro’s government: an analysis of the Brazilian states’ actions in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda during 2019

The article analyzes the international engagement of Brazilian subnational governments in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda during the first year of the Bolsonaro’s government with an emphasis on the role of states in supporting the environmental axis. We argue that subnational governments have been strongly active in defending this agenda, unlike the federal government, generating foreign policy tensions. Therefore, the research analyzes the performance of these actors in the scope of the Northeast and the Legal Amazon Consortia.

Foreign-Born Student Affairs Professionals’ Impacts and Experiences: The Missing Piece of Internationalization

This study examined lived experiences of foreign-born student affairs professionals (SAPs) in the United States and Canadian higher education. We sought to understand foreign-born SAPs’ impacts on higher education internationalization and what their professional experiences inferred about the level of international engagement in the field of student affairs. The findings from 35 completed interviews unveiled foreign-born SAPs’ enthusiasm and capacities in contributing to internationalization work, particularly in international student services and international and intercultural education for domestic students and peers. However, their rocky journeys to attain visas to enter and stay in the field of student affairs indicated their misplaced functionalities and signaled a missed opportunity for higher education institutions. It is recommended that higher education institutions recognize the importance of internationalizing the SAP and creating a welcoming and supportive environment to further their internationalization efforts.

Fostering autonomy in learners with special needs: a specialized e-learning course

International engagement has become a priority and is regarded as a means to improve the quality of students’ education and their future social and professional success. It may, however, pose a major challenge for some higher education students. One of the vulnerable groups is that of learners with special needs, and particularly Deaf, deaf and hard of hearing students. These learners are limited in their chances to interact in spoken/written foreign languages and in the learning opportunities they can join. This, by extension, has an unfavourable impact on their possibilities of engaging in study abroad. Based on the experience with a newly launched e-learning course “Online English for International Mobilities”, the present paper discusses the need for building effective FL learning strategies in Deaf, deaf and hard of hearing students in connection with the process of academic internationalisation. The main argument is for the need to foster students’ ability to self-regulate, reduce their teacher dependency and reliance on directed learning, and to encourage them to take responsibility for their own learning. Secondly, the paper provides a comparison of two pilot runs of the course from the perspective of (online) classroom dynamics and cooperation. While the course is built to be as autonomous as possible and benefits from the advantages of the e-learning format, great importance is given to group dynamics and cooperation via discussion forums and online chats. It also takes advantage of the considerable benefits of individualized, personalized feedback being provided by teachers on selected assignments.

Iraqi premier’s post-poll chances depend on Sadrists

Significance This comes as local press report that powerful Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr might be prepared to lift his election boycott, on certain conditions. Sadrist backing was crucial to the appointment of incumbent Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. Impacts Kadhimi will try to reinforce his image as a statesman through high-profile international engagement and investment deals. Sadr’s indecision or desire for a longer campaign period could potentially lead to a delay of the polls from October. Developments in Iran-US nuclear deal return talks in Vienna will be important to the security situation in Iraq.

Conclusion

Regulatory disputes place significant demands on international courts and tribunals. At present the production of regulatory standards in the work of international courts and tribunals can be viewed in terms of an ordering of plural domestic and international legal orders rather than a process of constitutionalisation. Yet the new body of regulatory rubrics appearing across the jurisprudence addressed in this book and beyond marks a significant development globally. Collectively, these standards will set the terms for States’ exercise of public power with effects for populations beyond their own. However, international courts’ and tribunals’ contribution to the elaboration of global regulatory standards needs to be understood as part of a wider process involving intergovernmental negotiations and the administrative implementation of relevant norms. Public information and international engagement is essential. Meantime, transparent articulation of reasons for international adjudicatory decisions is needed, together with ongoing reflective interaction between judges, practitioners and the broader scholarly community.

‘All things are in flux’: China in global science

Since 1990, a large and dynamic global science system has evolved, based on grass roots collaboration, and resting on the resources, infrastructure and personnel housed by national science systems. Euro-American science systems have become intensively networked in a global duopoly; and many other countries have built national science systems, including a group of large- and middle-sized countries that follow semi-autonomous trajectories based on state investment, intensive national network building, and international engagement, without integrating tightly into the global duopoly. The dual global/national approach pursued by these systems, including China, South Korea, Iran and India, is not always fully understood in papers on science. Nevertheless, China is now the number two science country in the world, the largest producer of papers and number one in parts of STEM physical sciences. The paper investigates the remarkable evolution of China’s science funding, output, discipline balance, internationalisation strategy and national and global networking. China has combined global activity and the local/national building of science in positive sum manner, on the ground of the nationally nested science system. The paper also discusses limits of the achievement, noting that while China-US relations have been instrumental in building science, a partial decoupling is occurring and the future is unclear.