Capitalizing Mail-Order Brides: American Hegemony and a Return to Pre-Feminism

Contrary to popular belief, mail-order marriage is not left behind in history. With technological advancement, globalism, and capitalism, mail-order relationships in the modern world have become a capitalist venture through the form of a global marriage market with Internet websites (Starr & Adams, 2016, pp. 968-969). Currently, the common practice operates internationally in between different nations and ethnicities (Merriman, 2012, p. 87). However, the mail-order bride market is distinct from the regular intercultural dating business: a clear power structure exists between the grooms (capitalist along with mail-order marriage companies) and the brides (commodities). This paper examines how this dating market serves Western men (I will be using this term interchangeably with American men) to reinforce traditional Western masculine hegemony and ethnic dominance in a global setting (Starr & Adams, 2016, p. 972).

Intergalactic Triumph: American Hegemony Represented in Arrival (2016) Movie

<div class="WordSection1"><p>This research examines a Hollywood movie entitled Arrival (2016) to see how American hegemony is represented and maintained in the movie. This is a qualitative research that is conducted under the framework of American studies. The concept of American values, Hegemony by Antonio Gramsci and Soft Power by Joseph Nye are used to answer the research questions. Semiotic film theory is employed to analyze the data in the form of dialogues and movie scenes. The results show the representation of American hegemony are seen in the characters that show American values, the U.S foreign policy, the U.S military supremacy, and the U.S economic field. Meanwhile, the maintenance of American hegemony is represented in American’s destiny to unify the world and also in hegemony through the language.</p><p> </p><p><em>Keywords</em>: American hegemony, manifest destiny, science fiction, representation, soft power</p></div>

Kurdish Politics in the Global Context

Kurds are considered to be one of the largest ethnic groups in the world—with a population of more than 30 million people—who do not have their own independent state. In the Middle East, they are the fourth largest ethnic group after Arabs, Persians, and Turks. The statelessness of such a major group with an increasing ethnic and national consciousness in the post-Ottoman world led to their traumatic insecurities in the hands of majority-led nation-states that used modern technologies of social engineering including displacement, dehumanization, assimilation, and genocidal acts throughout the 20th century. With the memory of such traumatic insecurities, the driving force of contemporary Kurdish nationalism in the Middle East has primarily been the question of state or state-like entities. Yet, Kurds are not a homogeneous group with a collective understanding of security and self-government. Rather, there are political-organizational rivalries within Kurds across Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran. Thus, it is important to understand the multifaceted Kurdish politics in the Middle East within a global-historical perspective where global power rivalries, regional geopolitics, and intra-Kurdish organizational competition are interwoven together. While the opportunities for Kurdish self-determination were missed in the early 20th century, resilient Kurdish political organizations emerged within the bipolar international context of the Cold War. The American hegemony in the post–Cold War era transformed the Kurdish political status in the geopolitics of the Middle East, where the 1991 Gulf War, the 2003 Iraq War, and the broader war on terror provided the Kurds with many political opportunities. Finally, the shifting regional and global alliances in the post–Arab Spring era—where the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has become the global nemesis—created new political opportunities as well as significant threats for the Kurds.

O Período Hegemônico da Década de 1990 e suas Instituições Internacionais: O Caso do Tribunal Penal Internacional l The Hegemonic Period of 1990’s and Its International Institutions: The Case of International Criminal Court

O presente artigo tem como objetivo questionar o enquadramento genérico dado ao Tribunal Penal Internacional como instituição de governança democrática liberal imposta pela hegemonia estadunidense na década de 1990, utilizando os parâmetros conceituais da Teoria Crítica estabelecida por Robert Cox. São levantados três aspectos: os Estados Unidos não aderiram ao Tribunal; a jurisdição do Tribunal foi concebida majoritariamente por países em desenvolvimento; e grande parte de mandados do TPI são expedidos para o continente africano. Para avaliar essa situação, o artigo se dividirá em duas partes. A primeira consiste na apresentação da abordagem teórica e no enquadramento dos Estados Unidos como ator hegemônico do período a partir dos conceitos de Cox. A segunda apresentará uma análise das negociações para a construção do TPI, assim como das relações dos EUA e dos países africanos com o Tribunal. Por fim, chega-se à conclusão de que que o TPI apresenta caráter peculiar e ambíguo na política internacional.Palavras-chave: Teoria Crítica; Hegemonia; Tribunal Penal Internacional.ABSTRACTThis article aims to question the generic framework given to the International Criminal Court as an institution of liberal democratic governance imposed by American hegemony in the 1990s, using the conceptual parameters of the Critical Theory established by Robert Cox. Three aspects are brought to the debate: the United States did not adhere to the Tribunal; the jurisdiction of the Court was conceived mainly by developing countries; and a large number of ICC warrants are sent to the African continent. To assess this situation, the article will be divided in two parts. The first one consists of presenting the theoretical approach and also focused on framing the United States as a hegemonic actor of the period based on Cox's concepts. The second part will present an analysis of the negotiations to the construction of the ICC, as well as the relations of the US and African countries with the Court. Finally, it is concluded that the ICC is in a peculiar situation and ambiguous in international politics.Keywords: Critical Theory; Hegemony; International Criminal Court. Recebido em: 10/04/2021 | Aceito em: 17/08/2021.

Towards great ethno-civilizations and spiritual empires? How the European New Right imagines a post-liberal world order

Far-right parties and pundits are often portrayed as parochial nationalists obsessed with the idea of national sovereignty. Opposed to a liberal world order, they prefer a rogue world of nation-states on the loose. This essay seeks to complicate that narrative. It suggests that alongside political parties with a nationalist agenda, an increasing number of voices on the radical Right are now pushing for a re-spiritualized world order in which cultures, civilizations, and empires are to set the scene. This vision of global order echoes Christopher Coker’s recent claim that “we now live in a world in which civilization is fast becoming the currency of international politics.” But, why does this strand of the far-right prefer civilizations to nation-states? To ponder this question, this essay zooms in on the European New Right and more precisely two of its main luminaries, Alain de Benoist and Aleksandr Dugin. It shows how the New Right stretches back to classical geopolitics to imagine a future polycentric world order in which large civilizations are set free from American hegemony. The empires of the future are no longer underpinned by nation-states but by ethnopluralism—a “blossoming variety” of local, ethnic, agrarian polities.

War and Grand Strategy in the Age of American Hegemony

This chapter summarizes the main findings and conclusions of the book, discusses the cross-national generalizability of the informational theory of strategy adjustment, considers directions for future research, and reflects on the implications of this book for American foreign policy in the 2020s.

‘Europudding’ or European co-production? The archaeology of the television series Eurocops (1988–94)

This chapter examines the case of Eurocops, a crime TV show produced by the European Coproduction Association – composed by one private and six public service broadcasting (PSB) channels of seven European countries – from 1988 to 1994 (71 episodes). Although it is one of the first European co-productions of its kind, Eurocops was a critical and commercial fiasco: what were its faults? Following Ib Bondebjerg’s methodology, this article aims at exploring the failure of this ‘Europudding’. The first section places Eurocops in the media landscape of the late 1980s and explains why this series can be considered as a ‘Europudding’ trying to enforce Europe’s cultural sovereignty against the North American hegemony. The second section analyses how the decentralized PSB production of Eurocops implied the use of an inconsistent narrative structure making the single episodes appear as part of a loose ‘collection’ of crime fiction. This partly explains the lukewarm critical reception of this television programme. The third section examines the cultural meaning of the series and is based on the analysis of the 48 episodes we had access to (through the INA French archives). The lack of transnational ‘encounters’ or dialogues – compared to other more recent cop shows such as The Team, The Killing and The Bridge – reveals the absence of a strong European identity at the time of production.

IS THE SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANIZATION MAKING A “NATO OF THE EAST”?

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is the largest regional origination in which Russia and China are founding members and recently Iran’s bid for full membership has been approved during the 21st summit of the SCO. These countries are against American hegemony and covertly and overtly demonstrate their concerns. SCO has been conducting military exercises regularly since 2002. Improving Strategic partnership between China and Russia, the presence of Iran, and military exercises of the SCO are matters of concern for the West. Some western scholars labeled it as “NATO of the East” and assessed it as an emerging military bloc. According to official documents and statements, SCO is a political and security organization based on cooperation and partnership and follows a non-interference policy. Does SCO contain components of a military alliance? Is SCO a military bloc or on the way to becoming in the future? This paper evaluates the SCO according to the theoretical concept of a military alliance besides comparative analysis of the SCO with NATO.

India’s Interplay with Liberal International Order: Potentials and Constraints

India’s limited partnership with the liberal international order (LIO) of the post-Second World War period had seen a substantial transformation after the end of the Cold War through its economic integration with the world economy. At this critical time of liberal internationalism triggered by the relative decline of American hegemony, rise of the non-Western powers and the tendency of populism in the West, India’s role in the emerging order has been a fundamental imperative. The rationale for its comprehensive partnership with liberal order rests on four main considerations: the looming threat on the liberal order and India’s role; consistency of India’s political principles with that of liberal order; the concern for national interest, identity and global role; and finally, the absence of any viable alternative order. In spite of these promising values and necessities, India’s deeper integration has been constrained by three major factors. The first reason relates to the very concept of the LIO, which is slightly Western-oriented. The second reason corresponds to India’s core identity and its governing view with regards to the world—of non-alignment, sovereign autonomy, non-interference and civilisational identity. Finally, its maximum assimilation within the liberal order continues to be hindered by ‘domestic setbacks’.