From la guerra sucia to ‘A Gentleman’s Fight’: War,Disappearance and Nation in the 1976–1983 Argentine Dictatorship

Analysing the last Argentine dictatorship in the light of contemporary re‐examinations of war, this article argues that the 1976–1983 dictatorship can be understood as a shift in war(s), from la guerra sucia to the Falklands/Malvinas conflict, from a limitless and unsustainable internal war to a bracketed external war. That external war is shown to be an attempt to re‐found a nation imploding through disappearance. Drawing on the history of disappearance in Argentina reveals that, despite obvious differences, there are many continuities between the dictatorship and other regimes, emphasising the dangers of a politics that encourages a nation ‘re‐malvinizada’.     

Argentine–Chilean Relations in the Shadow of the Debt Crisis

In the history of the relations between Argentina and Chile, the period between 1984 and 1989 is arguably the most interesting and the least studied. In Argentina, the civilian government of Alfonsín faced, on the other side of the Andes, the military regime of Pinochet. While the two countries were affected by the Debt Crisis and timidly cooperated on it, the two presidents never met. And if Chilean exiles in Argentina played a major role in the Chilean transition to democracy, Chilean rebels caused troubles in Argentina's civil–military relations. New sources have been uncovered and this article provides a broad reading of this complex period.     

Czechoslovakia and its Position within the Solidarity Network of Chilean Communism: A Reflection on the Coup and Resistance against Pinochet from a Country with Worn-out Revolutionary Ideals

The article will analyse the development of the Chilean cause in the politics of Eastern Europe countries since 1973, focusing on the Czechoslovak case. On the one hand, it will prove that during the communist government Czechoslovakia played an important role in the international campaign for the resistance against the dictatorship at a worldwide level. On the other hand, it posits that the propaganda aimed at Czechoslovakia, which sought to kindle society's belief in the revolutionary ideals strongly affected after the Soviet invasion in 1968, turned out to be much less effective.     

Democracy in Latin America: Issues of Governance in the Southern Cone

This article explores academic debates on transitions and democratic development, and outlines ideas relating to the governance issues considered by the papers in this special section. It presents a discussion of recent debates on democracy and transition in Latin America and concludes on the need to conceptualise the state in the region after the return to democracy. In so doing, it analyses issues of governance and highlights the role of the political class in building a democratic state.     

The Attachment of Demonstrators to Institutional Politics: Comparing LGBTIQ Pride Marches in Argentina and Chile

Focusing on LGBTIQ demonstrations in Argentina and Chile, we study protesters' attachment to institutional politics, defined as their emotional and attitudinal connection with the political system. We show that Argentine LGBTIQ demonstrators are on average more attached to institutional politics than Chilean ones. This can be explained neither by differences between Argentines and Chileans in general, nor by demonstrators' individual characteristics. Instead, expanding the political process model, we argue that achieving a substantial part of the LGBTIQ agenda in Argentina, and limited success in Chile, contributed to build a stronger attachment to the political system among Argentine LGBTIQ demonstrators than their Chilean counterparts.     

Debates about Ethnicity,Class and Nation in Allende’s Chile (1970–1973)

In 1964, Salvador Allende signed the ‘Cautín Pact’ with leftist Mapuche organisations in Temuco in which they pledged to support Allende’s presidential campaign and he vowed to introduce important socio‐economic reforms to benefit Mapuche communities and to respect their culture and religion. As has been argued in previous studies, there were limitations to the implementation of these reforms in practice. This article suggests, however, that even so, an important space was opened up for – and by – Mapuche people within the government’s left‐wing nationalist project. This shift was also reflected in the works of intellectuals closely linked to the Unidad Popular.     

Economic Constraints and Strategic Choices: The Case of the Frente Amplio of Uruguay’s First Year in Office

The article analyses the economic constraints and strategic choices that shaped the economic policies of the Frente Amplio of Uruguay’s first year in office. It argues that the economic strategy of the Frente Amplio’s administration can be described as the adoption, completion and correction of the incomplete free market reforms enacted by previous right of centre administrations and that this strategy can be explained as the product of two interrelated factors: first, a pragmatic compromise between partially conflicting visions of economic development; and, second, a political strategy that has sought to consider the demands of the different socio‐political constituencies which make up the coalition.     

Civil-Military Affairs and Security Institutions in the Southern Cone: The Sources of Argentine-Brazilian Nuclear Cooperation

This paper analyzes the conditions in which the governments of Argentina and Brazil founded security institutions in the early 1990s, while they were democratizing. It advances the hypothesis that international cooperation in the security field is often linked to the evolution of civil-military relations. Civilian leaders in both countries established institutions and sought international participation deliberately to achieve civilian control and gain leverage over the military establishment, which they sorely distrusted. The need to stabilize civil-military relations at home was therefore the prime motivating force behind the emergence of security institutions in the Southern Cone. Three mechanisms were at work: omnibalancing, policy handling, and managing uncertainty. These mechanisms are derived from three different schools of thought: realism, organizational-bureaucratic models, and theories of domestic political institutions. Besides explaining the sources of nuclear bilateral cooperation, this argument also serves as a critique of two prominent theories in international relations that attempt to explain cooperation and peaceful relations among democracies: neoliberal insti-tutionalism and democratic peace theory.     

20世纪70年代中越关系剧变分析

在国际关系史上,恐怕鲜有如20世纪70年代中越关系的变化那样出人意料,中越两国在短短十年时间就从肝胆相照的兄弟变为彼此不共戴天的敌人,是什么因素促成了这一剧变的发生呢?本文认为20世纪70年代中越关系之所以会发生急剧变化,与如下四个方面的原因密不可分:(1)中越出于国家利益考虑,推行各自倾向性政策;(2)中越两国在与之密切联系的四对三角关系中的互动;(3)历史与现实的困惑;(4)精英认知的不同.     

Going Down on Good Neighbours: Imagining América in Hollywood Movies of the 1930s and 1940s (Flying Down to Rio and Down Argentine Way)

During the Good Neighbor Era of the 1930s and 1940s, the USA sought to normalise relations with Latin America in order to promote hemispheric unity, particularly so after the outbreak of the Second World War, which provoked anxiety about transatlantic trade routes and South American attitudes towards the Axis. An Office of the Co-ordinator of Inter-American Affairs was established, which in turn set up a Motion Picture Division. The Division pressed for a Latin American specialist to monitor and control representations of Latin America via the Production Code Administration. The attempt to promote positive portrayals of Latin Americans assisted a boom in musical comedies dealing with North Americans visiting their southern neighbours. This article examines an early precursor, Flying Down to Rio (1933), and a full-blown Good Neighbor movie, Down Argentine Way (1940). The article uncovers, behind the optimistic projection of neighbourliness, hidden tensions and deep-rooted anxieties about American identities.     

Control Mechanisms: Pornography,Theatre and Subversion in Santa Fe Province during the Last Argentine Military Dictatorship

This paper examines a case of cultural repression during the last dictatorship in Argentina (1976–1983). It studies actions carried out by law enforcement officers in response to a denunciation against a group of teachers in a small town in Santa Fe that had participated in a play characterised as ‘pornographic’, and who were finally accused of left-wing propaganda and ‘subversive’ activities. This case offers an opportunity to review the relationship between immorality, pornography, communism and ‘subversion’. Since the Cold War, these issues have been used in Latin America to construct an internal enemy and create governmental mechanisms and regulations for detecting and controlling its actions, and penalising the population in general.     

From Utopia to Pragmatism: the Heritage of Basismo in Local Government in the Greater Buenos Aires Region1

Abstract – Contemporary municipal politics and administration in the poor outer suburbs of Buenos Aires is heavily influenced on one hand by the heritage of grassroots Peronist activism of the 1970s and on the other by the exigencies of contemporary neo-liberalism. The paper explores the tensions between these pressures.     

20世纪70年代中马建交的背景与意义

20世纪70年代,国际格局发生了重大变化,以美苏为代表的东西方对立的两极格局向中—美—苏大三角关系演变。作为西方阵营跟随者的东盟国家纷纷调整各自的对华政策,双方关系大致经历了从对抗、中立到接近的过程。马来西亚作为东盟的创始会员国之一,率先实现与中国建交。本文主要分析中国与马来西亚建交的历史背景、过程和重要意义。     

Introduction: Nationalism,the Left and Hegemony in Latin America

This article contributes to debates about fascist influences among Argentina’s guerrilla groups of the 1970s. From the overall perspective of developments in Argentine nationalism, it traces back the history of the far‐right Alianza Libertadora Nacionalista and Tacuara and assesses their significance as the nuclei from which later guerrillas came. Based on police reports and periodical publications from the period in question (c.1937–c.1973), it makes some generalisations about the collective biographies of militants. While not contradicting the widely held view that originally fascist groupings played a role in the emergence of Argentine guerrillas, the article introduces some nuances into this argument. Particular emphasis is given to the role of Peronism and the Cuban Revolution as facilitators of changes in Argentine nationalism.     

DPRK Troop Dispatches and Military Support in the Middle East: Change from Military Support to Arms Trade in the 1970s

The DPRK now trades in arms with the Middle East. However, in the October War (1973) the DPRK first began military cooperation with the Middle East by sending troops and providing unrequited military support. This switch was made to win support within the UN from these Middle Eastern countries, and so to counteract the US presence in the UN. Failing this, the DPRK withdrew from the UN in 1976. The DPRK then turned to arms trading both to build up its foreign currency reserves and to help liberate developing countries from US control.     

From Sarmiento to Borges: The Construction of an Intellectual Lineage in the Magazine Punto de vista under the Argentine Dictatorship

This article analyses the revision of the Argentine intellectual tradition demonstrated in the magazine Punto de vista throughout its first nineteen issues, published during the last Argentine dictatorship (1976–1983). From Sarmiento and the generation of 1837 to Borges and the Sur generation, the reassessment of Argentine intellectuals' legacies set out by editors of Punto de vista was an explicit attempt to insert the magazine into a recognised intellectual lineage. At the same time, it responded to a search for identity prompted by the critical and repressive context in which the magazine was first published.     

Equal in Poverty,Unequal in Wealth: Ethnic Stratification in Chile,the Mapuche Case

How does ethnic status affect social stratification in Chile? Despite a rich theoretical debate in the literature on social stratification, there is a shortage of empirical approaches to this phenomenon in Latin America. This research note seeks to bridge the analytical gap by describing the social exclusion of indigenous people in Chile. From a case study in La Araucanía region and using statistical techniques to give equal weightings to indigenous and non‐indigenous groups (specifically Mapuches and non‐Mapuches), we attempt to show that given equal socio‐demographic conditions, the incomes of both groups are similar in the low and middle strata, and differentiated in the higher strata.