Fracas in Caracas: Latin American Diplomatic Resistance to United States Intervention in Guatemala in 1954

The Eisenhower Administration claimed a diplomatic triumph—and a mandate to overthrow the elected government of Guatemala—after the Tenth Inter-American Conference held in Caracas, Venezuela, in March 1954, when 17 nations voted for an American resolution condemning international Communism. This article disputes the official story and some recent scholarly depictions of the conference. Caracas was the scene of intense Latin American opposition to the American agenda. Vote-buying was rampant as Washington made hundreds of millions of dollars worth of concessions to individual countries. Nonetheless, amendments pushed through by Latin American diplomats transformed the interventionist American resolution into a strong statement against intervention. The American “triumph” was actually a fiasco that called into sharp relief the difference between United States and Latin American understandings of the inter-American system, demonstrating Latin American diplomatic resistance to intervention and the limits of diplomacy's potential to constrain the actions of the most powerful American state.     

The Impact of the AIDS Epidemic on the Schooling of Orphans and Other Directly Affected Children in Sub-Saharan Africa

This is the second of two articles that assess the available evidence concerning the impact of the AIDS epidemic on teachers and the schooling of orphans and other directly affected children in sub-Saharan Africa. The two main conclusions of this article are, firstly, that current and future projections of orphan country populations are likely to be serious overestimates. And secondly, while the impact of losing one or both parents on educational attainment is often much less than has been suggested, Ministries of Education need to act decisively in order to mitigate the impact of the epidemic on the schooling of these children.     

The Indian states and the new Constitution

Ben Affleck's film ARGO is a good film, but not all the details are accurate. This article is by Martin Williams, the British diplomat who, contrary to the picture painted in the film, personally escorted to safety the Americans who had escaped when the Iranian Revolutionary guards took over the US Embassy. He sets that episode in the broader context of his personal experience of working during a complicated period during which initially there were major commercial opportunities for British firms, and then the power of the Shah started to wane, and finally he was overthrown. The installation of a very different regime entirely changed the approach which diplomats needed to adopt in Tehran.     

Metaphors and Mantras: a comment on Shultz and Vogt's discussion of terrorism,intelligence, and war

Author: HOUGHTON, DAVID PATRICK; US Foreign Policy and the Iran Hostage Crisis; Reviewer: Gabriel Ben-dor; Author: MALCOLM, NOEL; Kosovo: A Short History; Reviewer: Robert P. Hager; Author: HATINA, MEIR; Islam and Salvation in Palestine: The Islamic Jihad Movement; Reviewer: Ami Pedahzur; Author: WHITE, JONATHAN R.; Terrorism - An Introduction; Reviewer: Ami Pedahzur; Author: CABRITA, JOAO M.; Mozambique: The Tortuous Road to Democracy; Reviewer: E. Ike Udogu