APISA / CLACSO / CODESRIA SUMMER INSTITUTE

"INTERNATIONAL HEGEMONY AND THE SOUTH A TRICONTINENTAL PERSPECTIVE"

OPEN CALL FOR APPLICATIONS TO PARTICIPATE IN A FOUR WEEK SPECIAL TRAINING PROGRAM IN RESEARCH AND THEORY

The Africa/Asia/Latin America Scholarly Collaborative Program recently launched by APISA, CLACSO and CODESRIA with the support of Sida/SAREC is pleased to announce its call for applications to participate in the summer institute on "International Hegemony and the South: A Tricontinental perspective" to be held in Havana, Cuba, from November 7 to December 2, 2005.

Each year a Summer Institute will be carried out by the three social science regional organizations to train younger scholars on diverse key problems and challenges facing the Southern nations. The institutes will take place in consecutive years, one in each of the three involved continents, with the purpose to expose their participants to the varied socio-historical contexts with the final aim to broaden their analytical perspectives and to improve the quality of their scientific practices.

1. OBJECTIVES:
The institute will train the participants on various key issues relevant to the South and on the theoretical and methodological perspectives more appropriate to gain a full understanding of the specific situation of the countries located outside the core of the international system. A premise of this effort is the glaring inadequacy of the theories and methodologies developed in the North, crystallized in the mainstream social science, to provide the required instruments to attain a sound understanding of the problems overwhelming the Southern nations and, if possible, to shed some light on the likely alternatives to the present situation. More specifically, the goal of the institutes is the promotion of a better knowledge and understanding of the theories and methodological approaches developed in each region as alternatives to the dominant paradigm, getting acquainted with the local intellectual atmosphere, and to foster the realization of comparative research and studies across the South. The institutes are a unique opportunity to enhance the understanding of African, Asian and Latin American problems, as well as an opportunity to develop long-lasting collaborative relationships with counterparts from other Southern countries.

2. ELIGIBILITY:
The program will select, in an open international competition, 36 graduate students and/or social science practitioners, 12 for each region. Economy round-trip air tickets plus all local expenses will be covered by the summoning institutions.

3. FACULTY AND STAFF:
Two Latin American scholars, one from Africa and another one from Asia will deliver a one-week lecture course each. A team of local scholars will complement the theoretical lectures and organize a discussion on the main themes previously exposed.

The professors are:

• 7 Nov. to 11 Nov., 2005: Guillermo CASTRO (Panama), PhD in Latin American Studies, UNAM. Professor at Universidad de Panamá, Universidad Santa María La Antigua, Universidad del Istmo. (Latin America)
• 14 Nov. to 18 Nov., 2005: Prabhat PATNAIK (India) Advisory Board of IDEAs. (ASIA)
• 21 Nov. to 25 Nov., 2005: The African professor will be announced shortly.
• 28 Nov. to 02 Dec., 2005: Teothonio DOS SANTOS (Brazil) Professor at Universidad

Federal Fluminense; Coordinator of UNESCO chair and of UNU about Global Economy and Sustainable Development (Latin America)

Course Director: Atilio Boron.
Assitant Director: Gladys Lechini.
Local Coordination: Clara Pulido.
Local Faculty: Silvio Baró, David González, Clara Pulido, José Luis Robaina, Adalberto Ronda.

4. REQUIREMENTS
Applicants must:
a) get the support of the corresponding regional social science organization: CODESRIA for Africa, APISA for Asia, and CLACSO for Latin America and the Caribbean on the basis of their active participation in his/her region’s scholarly life.

b) hold a university degree in any of the social sciences.

c) be fluent in the English language. A reasonable proof shall be provided to the regional supporting institution. Additionally, a reading and comprehension test will be administered via internet in association with the collegial institutions in the three continents.

5. APPLICATION
Applicants should also submit the following:

a) a no more than 5 page proposal, written in English, dealing with a substantive theme they would like to deal with during the institute; and

b) a one-page double-spaced letter explaining how they, and their supporting institutions, would benefit from this institute.

In addition to the application letter and proposal, applicants should also send two copies of

a) An updated Curriculum Vitae with the standard professional and personal references, including scientific discipline and nationality, and a list of recent publications and ongoing research activities in which the applicant is involved.

b) a xerox copy of the highest university degree and of the page of the passport containing identity data.

c) a supporting letter from the applicant’s social science institution giving approval for his/her attending to the institute. This statement of institutional support should be done on the institutional letterhead and must carry the official stamp.

d) the above mentioned 5 page proposal and the one-page letter, all written in English.

In order to receive the Institute’s Certificate applicants should prepare a revision of the original proposal, enriched with the lectures and reading materials of the course. This will supposedly take the form of an essay of 15/20 pages long, which would eventually be published as South/South Occasional Papers.

6. APPLICATION DEADLINE
The deadline for the receipt of applications is September 15th, 2005.
Applications found to be incomplete or which arrive after the deadline will not be taken into consideration.

An independent Selection Committee charged with screening all applications received will meet shortly afterwards, and the names of the selected applicants will be displayed in the web pages of each one of the involved regional organizations. Additionally, an e-mail with the copy of the Committee’s verdict will be sent to each applicant.

Latin American and Caribbean applicants should send their applications to
CLACSO
2005 South- South Summer Institute
Callao 875, 3º (1023) Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA
Tel: (54 11) 4811-6588 / 4814-2301; Fax: (54 11) 4812-845
E-mail: stordoni@campus.clacso.edu.ar
Website: www.clacso.org

Asian applicants should send their applications to
APISA
APISA Secretariat,
2005 South-South Summer Institute
Strategic Studies and International Relations Program
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, MALAYSIA
Tel: 603- 89213647; Fax: 603-89213332
E-Mail: secretariat@apisanet.org
Website: www.apisainfo.org

African applicants should send their applications to
CODESRIA
2005 South South Summer Institute
BP 3304, CP 18524, Dakar, SENEGAL
Tel: (221) 825 9822: Fax: (221) 824 1289
E-mail: south.institute@codesria.sn
Website: www.codesria.org

ANNEX
The following is the concept paper explaining the rationale and the guiding ideas underlying the current summer institute. Applicants are supposed to prepare their 5-page proposal on the basis of this document.

INTERNATIONAL HEGEMONY AND THE SOUTH: A TRICONTINENTAL PERSPECTIVE
One of the key problems, if not the single most important one, facing the countries of the South is the persistence of a highly unequal international distribution of resources that has been accentuated over the last quarter of a century. A second crucial question confronted by the countries of the South has been the challenge of the state-building process against the background of the erosion of sovereignty provoked by international hegemony.

Immediately after the demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the bipolar order, high expectations were placed on the so-called "peace dividends" that would help to finance the economic reconstruction and development of the countries in the South. Unfortunately, these expectations proved unrealistic, as the preexisting system of economic polarization became even more acute in the last decade of the twentieth century. Growing international inequalities deepened the gap separating the countries of the North from those of the South, and the tendencies towards unilateralism in the world arena, with all its detrimental consequences for the underdeveloped nations, acquired unprecedented importance, both in military as in economic terms. A recent literature has also underlined how the impact of a renewed international hegemonic structure, led by economic and political forces such as the "international financial institutions", has deeply penetrated the domestic agenda of states and determined new forms of international subordination and domestic class conflicts.

Despite this new structural framework of international life, several authors have elaborated on the different ways in which growing popular reactions against the inequities of neoliberal globalization have also become a factor to be taken into account. International social movements whose discontent and activism for change have crystallized at several anti-globalization fora (Porto Alegre and Mumbay, among others) and new international South-South coalitions like IBSA – India, Brazil and South Africa Alliance - as well as Doha and Cancun Conferences of the WTO, suggest that the international hegemonic structure is damaged and the cracks are important. The fact, nevertheless, is that a tremendous vertical structure has been imposed over international life. This new situation is reflected in the growing literature on "empire" or, as other authors have named it, on "neo-imperialism" or "international hegemony." Despite the quarrels regarding the most appropriate name for the phenomenon, the fact is that the asymmetrical network of social, political, and cultural relations that characterize the international system today prevents the peripheral countries from implementing sovereign decisions in crucial areas of governance.

The strategic importance of foreign influence and control hindering the good performance and legitimacy of democratic governments in Africa, Asia and Latin America requires a new thinking that is unavailable in the conventional the social sciences.

The Role of the International Financial Institutions.
Over the last 25 years, democratic policy making in Third World countries has been faced with enormous difficulties. The fact is that if countries are not sovereign in international affairs, they can hardly honor popular sovereignty at home, a situation which contributes to de-legitimizing democratic processes within the national borders. As posed in the previous section, a crucial instrumental role is played by the international financial institutions (IFIs). Institutions like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization, and, in our regions, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the African Development Bank play a dual role of paramount influence in domestic political processes. One is the economic role, promoting orthodox policies of structural adjustment and stabilization; the other is a political role, disciplining national governments into the canons of the Washington Consensus. Thus, no matter the repeated statements of these IFIs declaring the merely technical, "non-political" nature of their mission and interventions, the fact is that they do play an important role in ensuring that pliant states will follow the right policy, taming contentious governments, or in helping to control the pressures coming from the popular movements in the region.

Moreover, the IFIs have become main agents of knowledge production in their intent on imposing their intellectual project, their ideology (historical success is equal to free market economy plus liberal democracy!) and the interests of the forces that drive them on the countries of the South. This is done through all sorts of warnings, pressures, and threats that are exercised through the staff of the IFIs, the members of their board of directors (where the United States has a decisive veto power) and a network of commercial and investment banks, international consulting offices, "country risk" experts, Wall Street "gurus," the financial press around the globe, the bureaucracies of the other IFIs, the major mainstream economists, and the technocratic and political counterparts of all this international power ensemble in the South. Thus, a poor, heavily-indebted country has little chances of resist the "policy recommendations" of such a formidable coalition.

As a conclusion, it can be asserted that the IFIs fulfill an important role in reproducing the asymmetries of an extraordinarily unequal international system, facilitating a huge transfer of natural resources, rents, incomes, and riches from the South to the North. The contemporary plunder of the South is conducted no longer as in the old times but with "white gloves", and the main characters in the tragedy are no longer the despotic chieftains or military tyrants of yesteryears but a much more deadly army of "experts" and "economists" who, in taking over the country, run it like their exclusive space, filling vital cabinet posts and the key economic agencies of the government with their own clones.

A Research Agenda
Therefore, it is urgent and important to rethink the role of the IFIs in the international system. Yet, the dominant scholarly literature on this issue pays little or no attention to this matter. If the Third World countries want to find alternative paths to development, the role and the functions of the IFIs should be subjected to an in-depth critique as the precondition for the construction of alternative policies. Some signals and hints of alternative policies, however, have to be advanced if a counter-balance to the IFIs is to be effectively promoted in the South. For instance, a few countries are trying to build new coalitions in order to advance positions of autonomy in the international scene. Despite the lack of a concerted strategy in the South, some countries and a host of international social movements are changing the face of the debate. Thus, the project our organizations are proposing intends, in a first phase, to develop a critical approach on the following themes:

a) A comparative analysis across the three regions of the impacts of Washington Consensus on economic growth, social justice, poverty reduction, the domestic policy process and democratic governance.

b) A review of the policy alternatives tried at the regional, national, and local levels and how scholars in the Third World have reflected and theorized on them.

c) An examination of the role of current trade negotiations and their likely impact on the current world economy

d) In the face of the blatant injustice prevailing in the international system and the bankruptcy of the existing multilateral organizations, how can the Southern countries promote the establishment of a new, more democratic, global order?

e) A preliminary assessment of the coalition-making process (of social movements) as well as of the states (like the Buenos Aires Consensus, 2003) will be provided in order to evaluate the weight of the counter-hegemonic forces.

September 10, 2005.