Sébastien Dubé is an Assistant Professor and Director of the grasp’s program in Worldwide Relations and Transborder Research at Universidad Arturo Prat’s Instituto de Estudios Internacionales in Santiago de Chile. With a Ph.D. in Political Science from Université de Montréal, Sébastien brings a singular perspective formed by his background as a French-speaking Canadian. His experience spans worldwide relations, Latin American politics, and geopolitics, and his profession displays a dedication to numerous educational experiences, having taught in 5 international locations and three languages. He has labored in each private and non-private universities in Chile and Colombia. Sébastien’s analysis and publications could be discovered on ResearchGate.
The place do you see probably the most thrilling analysis/debates taking place in your subject?
I imagine the central analysis query right now revolves across the profound penalties of the decline of Western powers and the rise of rising ones. Politically, this decline means a disaster of the worldwide liberal agenda, a product of Western governments’ quite a few contradictions and double requirements and the critiques and challenges of contesting powers. Its most express expression is that its self-proclaimed champion, america, raises rising distrust amongst its allies and fewer concern amongst its challengers. President Trump’s world imaginative and prescient is considered one of states as a enterprise competitor or a enterprise accomplice. For him, coalitions shouldn’t exist based mostly on shared values and objectives – as in a neighborhood as most U.S. presidents have traditionally claimed – however as mere strategic alternatives.
Thus, this decline has endogenous and exterior elements, and it causes an amazing political void. The International South, a conceptual creation greater than a geopolitical actuality, is simply too heterogeneous to current an easy venture past the weakening of the worldwide liberal order and a few changes. For instance, the BRICS are already discussing the prices and advantages of increasing the group. The bloc’s main objective is evident: a balanced structural energy that may favor them. This easy precept simply coalesces and permits highly effective footage to go viral, but it surely doesn’t suggest a transparent alternate geopolitical venture or mannequin. Most of the BRICS members don’t actually have a real materials curiosity in, for instance, a weakening of Western international locations’ economies.
As compared, the Chilly Battle offered two competing tasks framed as methods of dwelling. I don’t see a joint venture or shared imaginative and prescient of the world uniting numerous international locations resembling China, Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa, Iran, Saudi Arabia, or Egypt. The BRICS has democracies, liberal market economies, authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, regimes with a singular celebration or no celebration in any respect, theocracies, state capitalism, civilian leaders, and army leaders. It’s also possible to discover main historic rivalries between a few of them which might be onerous to beat. Some BRICS international locations give the impression that they wish to crush the system, whereas others give the impression that they need extra energy over it. Subsequently, this bloc is proscribed to discussing the worldwide stability of energy. We’re nonetheless removed from seeing an alternate mannequin of functioning of the worldwide system from the BRICS.
Nonetheless, for me, what is especially fascinating is how this disputed and chaotic international situation have an effect on Latin American international locations, their overseas coverage, and intraregional IR. Most Latin American international locations share an comprehensible love-and-hate relationship with the worldwide liberal order as a result of it has had blended results on the story of the area, to say the least: flagrant human rights violations and rule of legislation with human rights ensures. It is a distinctive historic state of affairs within the worldwide system. At present, many Latin American leaders are in opposition to totally different elements of the worldwide liberal order, however nearly none formally reject it. Even efforts to fight insecurity are sometimes framed inside the narrative of strengthening civilian-led establishments and selling state responses to legal gangs, reflecting a nuanced engagement with the worldwide liberal order.
Trying forward, I anticipate clear and tangible penalties sooner or later. From a geopolitical and financial standpoint, I anticipate that when the Folks’s Republic of China invades Taiwan, probably the most influential international locations within the area will neither difficulty condemnations nor make express calls to defend democracy. And this will likely be a breaking level. Relating to my private analysis agenda, I’m notably fascinated about learning the impression of this broad geopolitical context on intraregional relations and the way expertise is used to facilitate actions of commerce and management the actions of individuals.
How has the way in which you perceive the world modified over time, and what (or who) prompted probably the most vital shifts in your pondering?
I’d say three issues. First, as a Québécois or French Canadian-born scholar who has lived in 4 Latin American international locations for 15 years, I imagine colonial pondering nonetheless impacts how the “North” analyzes the area. There’s something nonetheless perceivable within the “North” concerning Latin America that I’d think about, like what Edward Stated described as “Orientalism,” when he referred to how the West constructed a picture of a area that was fairly divergent from actuality.
Second, social media has dangerously shrunk the area between beliefs, opinions, and data. Even reputed media generally deal with all three equally, simply as faux information or social media platforms incessantly do. This distinction is crucial as a result of many energy dynamics are pushed by loyalty and feelings. Figuring out with political ideologies, following a pacesetter, or adhering to non secular dogmas have to be separated from the rational, methodologically sound evaluation that produces extra real data. Making this occur is an important problem, particularly for social sciences. There’s a marketplace for non-academic opinion disguised as “scientific evaluation.” On the similar time, many people holding posts within the educational world push for activist agendas disguised as “educational analysis.” Now, teachers are residents that may do good activism. Nevertheless, educational evaluation should stay as impartial as doable for social sciences to impression actual life meaningfully and successfully—resembling in public coverage and decision-making.
The third is the saddest. My 4 years in Colombia supplied me with worthwhile instruments to grasp the dynamics of legal governance and the safety challenges confronted by states transitioning into drug transit international locations—resembling Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay—quite than remaining solely in shopper markets. Dwelling in Colombia for a number of years immerses you within the on a regular basis realities of corruption, impunity, institutional weaknesses, and the complicated relationships between authorities and legal networks.
What do you make of the present state of regional integration in Latin America, notably in mild of current regional political and financial challenges?
I’d say that simply because the worldwide liberal order is in decline due to endogenous and exterior components, Latin American regionalism is in stalemate for a similar causes. The venture is unclear right now; there isn’t a genuine management, intraregional financial rivalries are too highly effective, and civil society must see its factors and advantages. There may be merely no provide or demand for regionalism proper now. Nevertheless, we should always not overlook that the “waves of regionalism” have all reacted to particular contexts and challenges. Because of this, politically and diplomatically talking, Latin American regionalism has all the time been cyclical greater than linear. For that cause, perhaps at some point, the geopolitical context will turn out to be an element once more that can foment regional integration.
Which wave of Latin American regionalism gives probably the most worthwhile classes for establishing cohesive and efficient regional governance constructions, and why?
All of the waves present classes concerning why and the way the area has gained and misplaced cohesion and why it all the time rejected the concept of strong constructions or establishments. Past particular conjunctures, one placing sample is the persistent skepticism amongst Latin American leaders towards supranational organizations. For a lot of causes, they haven’t embraced such constructions. Essentially the most worthwhile takeaway could also be that focused cooperation by particular regional or technical organizations delivers higher public advantages than broad, idealistic integration tasks, which regularly fail to materialize. Simply have a look at some UNASUR infrastructures. The Ecuador seat was reworked right into a college. The Cochabamba Parliament was became a enterprise and administrative heart that you could possibly additionally lease for weddings. It is a clear failure. Nevertheless, UNASUR additionally supplied some confidence-building measures for safety and army points and helped resolve main inside or bilateral crises.
This blended legacy highlights the enduring relevance of David Mitrany’s functionalist concept, which emphasised addressing concrete, technical challenges quite than pursuing summary political objectives. Functionalism framed regionalism as a method to unravel particular issues, not as an finish in itself. Sadly, many Latin American leaders and teachers proceed to view regionalism as a obscure, unattainable goal. This lack of readability, coupled with widespread distrust of elites and leaders, explains why regionalism struggles to realize traction among the many public. For instance this final level, I’d merely ask: do you suppose many Latin Americans could be keen to protest, right now, within the title of the safety of any of the mixing treaties of the area?
What steps are essential to bridge the hole between IR theoretical frameworks and the sensible challenges of regional integration in Latin America?
I imagine the hole between IR and sensible policymaking ought to by no means be totally bridged as a result of it isn’t the position of IR to resolve these challenges straight. As an alternative, IR evaluation ought to deal with offering correct information and insightful data to assist decision-makers design insurance policies and establishments that align with their objectives. If leaders and civil society don’t understand adequate concrete advantages to advocate for regional integration, it’s neither the duty nor the aim of IR to steer them in any other case.
That mentioned, IR and associated disciplines can provide worthwhile insights into the prices and advantages of regional initiatives and cooperation. One concrete instance is the administration of infrastructure and borders. In South America, intrabloc commerce stays low for many international locations, with 40% of this commerce reliant on land transportation. If the objective is to broaden land-based commerce—resembling by the event of the 5 bi-oceanic corridors championed by the Brazilian authorities—coverage choices have to be knowledgeable by a radical understanding of the area’s geography and native situations. Choice-makers working from capital cities could overlook crucial elements resembling unpaved roads, inadequate infrastructure, border posts with restricted working hours, or the social dynamics of affected communities. These are sensible challenges that considerably impression commerce and integration however is probably not obvious with out localized data and analysis.
Shifting to your work on human rights norms and geopolitics in Latin America, what do you establish as probably the most urgent challenges in implementing human rights requirements within the area?
You may complement this studying with Comparative Politics students’ broad literature on legal governance in Latin America. For me, probably the most urgent institutional problem to guard human rights is avoiding the deterioration of state capability, the rise of corruption, and legal affect on public establishments in any respect ranges. At present, the notions of democracy, rule of legislation, and political rights make no concrete sense for hundreds of thousands of Latin American and Caribbean residents. However for some sectors, they nonetheless do. The chance now’s that for extra folks – and never much less – these notions will simply turn out to be a discourse and a façade. From a historic and longue durée perspective, I profoundly imagine that the state has more and more included extra folks over the a long time and centuries. All severe indicators present that dwelling situations are usually higher than ever earlier than in historical past, and these developments have been made doable partly by public insurance policies. Nevertheless, setbacks are an actual risk, and social progress doesn’t look as linear because it used to.
How do home political and geopolitical elements affect Latin America’s capability to uphold human rights norms?
Regardless that it appears easy, I’d say this can be a “billions and billions of {dollars} query.” At present, the principle threats to human rights within the area don’t come straight from the governments – besides these from crystal-clear authoritarian states – however from legal teams and corrupted public officers. Some severe stories relate unlawful and legal actions, resembling drug trafficking, to as a lot as 15% of worldwide GDP. However in every single place, concerning drug trafficking actions, the discourse is targeted on using drive to combat the provide. Human historical past exhibits that taking a look at eliminating the provide of illicit substances is a foul technique. It simply by no means works. For geopolitical and inside political causes, nevertheless, no Latin American chief questions the worldwide regime of medicine whereas they’re in workplace. Gustavo Petro might be the one exception. Others like Ricardo Lagos, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, or Ernesto Zedillo took clear positions on the difficulty solely as soon as that they had left workplace. The entire logic of drug site visitors pertains to geography, territory, and the capability of legal organizations to coopt public establishments.
In your current research on transborder areas, you focus on vital epistemological shifts in how worldwide relations students perceive borders. Might you elaborate on these shifts and clarify how they problem conventional state-centric views within the context of Latin American cross-border areas?
On this paper written with Gonzalo Álvarez and Sebastián Monsalve, we declare that conventional IR evaluation has been and stays completely helpful in analyzing many worldwide realities. Nevertheless, we additionally declare that the present worldwide relations dynamics between Latin American international locations are extremely associated to localized and territory-dependent phenomena. In extremely centralized international locations, capital cities – the place overseas coverage and decision-making principally occurs – are normally 1000’s of kilometers away from borders.
For instance this, I refer to 2 very concrete examples. In June of this yr, Argentines put in a photo voltaic panel a few meters inside Chilean territory within the border space of Tierra del Fuego. In case you have a look at the photographs, you’ll be able to see that the folks and authorities there – who cooperate each day – couldn’t discover that the wire fence was just a few meters away from the formal and acknowledged border. From the capitals and the media, this “border disaster” was framed inside a context of geopolitical concerns for Antarctica and historic distrust between the 2 international locations on border delimitation points. That’s an exaggerated response that pressed the presidents and diplomats to react whereas managing a bilateral relationship involving billions of {dollars} of investments and lots of cooperation areas between the international locations. Right here, a greater data and understanding of the territory would have allowed higher communication administration and prevented a diplomatic deadlock.
A second instance is that if you are aiding with ideological and diplomatic disputes between Mercosur members – for example, between Argentine and Brazil leaders – there’s an ongoing venture of connectivity in improvement primarily pushed by subnational regional leaders to facilitate the exportation of Brazilian merchandise to Asia by the Chilean northern ports of Antofagasta and Iquique. That’s, you have got a parallel regional agenda with points which have vital subnational impacts however don’t obtain a lot consideration on the nationwide degree in capital media.
What’s a very powerful recommendation you could possibly give younger Worldwide Relations students?
I’d advocate three issues. First, ask good questions. Good analysis can solely be accomplished with good analysis questions. And by good questions, I imply questions that result in hypotheses and the protection of an argument. Mere descriptions are normally inadequate. All the time take into consideration why somebody ought to learn your paper till the top and what he/she ought to keep in mind after studying it. If you’re not clear about it, your analysis query might be not clear sufficient in your thoughts.
Second, overlook your private preferences and your ideologies. Analysis is about what occurs in actuality – information – and never what we want to occur. While you ship a manuscript to a journal, the evaluators –when the journal is severe– have no idea or care about who you might be and what your opinions are. They don’t consider you as an individual. They consider what they learn and the evaluation offered. In the event that they discover that what they learn is unhealthy, that doesn’t make you a foul individual incapable of doing a very good job. It simply means your paper wants extra work. Simply as probably the most glorious professors are additionally those that inform you the place the weaknesses of your paper or thesis are, their job is to not congratulate you on a regular basis. Tutorial work is about fixed critique and mental challenges. Would I want to dwell in a world the place evaluators would all the time be well mannered and constructive of their feedback? In fact, I’d. Nevertheless, as an instructional, I need to settle for receiving nasty feedback and seeing my manuscripts rejected with out taking it personally. Why do I see it as a vital recommendation? I’ve the sensation, as a professor, that undergraduate and graduate college students, for instance, are right now a lot much less resilient and emotionally ready to obtain unhealthy grades or papers rejected than we have been after I was a school pupil.
Third, for each technology that passes, the tutorial difficulties develop. It’s not honest, however that’s the way in which it’s, and this may be defined by the truth that each technology additionally has entry to extra technological assets and data. That mentioned, present college students ought to deal with what expertise, resembling AI, can’t do or can’t do properly. All of us see its super makes use of but in addition its limitations and weaknesses. Subsequently, I imagine governments and universities will nonetheless want well-trained people for a while. Expertise all the time kills jobs and creates others; that is one other lesson of historical past we should always not overlook, even when what’s showing now could give us vertigo.
Additional Studying on E-Worldwide Relations
