Relaciones Internacionales – Comunicación Internacional

12 mayo, 2021
por Felipe Sahagún
Sin comentarios

Equilibrios de poder en Asia-Pacífico y la pol ext de Biden

La llegada de Joe Biden a la presidencia de Estados Unidos plantea múltiples preguntas sobre la orientación de la política exterior estadounidense hacia la región de Asia-Pacífico. Más allá de las futuras relaciones con China, son múltiples las incógnitas de la actuación norteamericana en aspectos tan diversos como las tensiones geopolíticas y de seguridad, la batalla comercial y el liderazgo digital en esta región del mundo tan heterogénea como determinante en el panorama internacional actual.

¿Qué posibles diferencias encontraremos frente a la política de la administración Trump en Asia? ¿Podemos hablar de una etapa nueva en las relaciones internacionales, o los cambios no serán tan evidentes como cabría esperar?

En esta webcast, Josep Piqué, Fidel Sendagorta y Mario Esteban debatirán sobre la agenda estadounidense en Asia-Pacífico y sus implicaciones en el equilibrio de poder de la región.

Presenta: Carmen Díez, directora del Centro Casa Asia-Madrid Modera: Mario Esteban, investigador principal del Real Instituto Elcano Participan: Josep Piqué, ex Ministro de Asuntos Exteriores de España Fidel Sendagorta, director general de Política Exterior y de Seguridad, Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, Unión Europa y Cooperación.

 

11 mayo, 2021
por Felipe Sahagún
Sin comentarios

The new Chinese census (2021)

Graph showing China's falling birth rate

BBC

May 11, 20221

China’s population grew at its slowest pace in decades, according to government data released on Tuesday.

The average annual growth rate was 0.53% over the past 10 years, down from a rate of 0.57% between 2000 and 2010 – bringing the population to 1.41bn.

The results add pressure on Beijing to boost measures for couples to have more babies and avert a population decline.

The results were announced in a once-a-decade census, which was originally expected to be released in April.

The census was conducted in late 2020 where some seven million census takers had gone door-to-door to collect information from Chinese households.

Given the sheer number of people surveyed, it is considered the most comprehensive resource on China’s population, which is important for future planning.

…MORE

 

 

 

11 mayo, 2021
por Felipe Sahagún
Sin comentarios

Trump, Xi, and the Battle for the Twenty-First Century

Donald Trump’s victory in 2016 shattered a fragile understanding between Washington and Beijing and put the most important relationship of the 21st century in the hands of a novice. Trump had attacked China from the campaign trail and almost as soon as he entered office, he brought the long-simmering rivalry between the two countries to a full boil. Complicating the picture considerably, he also struck up a “friendship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping — and their private conversations would undermine his broader administration’s response to the historic challenge of a rising China. All the while, Trump’s advisers fought with each other to steer U.S. policy from within.

Trump’s approach to China in the first three years of his presidency sparked both a trade war and a tech war. At the same time, various sectors of American society — most notably, universities, Silicon Valley and Wall Street — awakened to the audacious and widespread influence campaigns perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party on U.S. soil. But as 2019 wound down, Trump’s team was still trying to put in place a trade deal so the president could enter 2020 with a foreign policy accomplishment he could run on. In early 2020, they succeeded. But a looming global health crisis would soon render this U.S.-China detente short-lived. Continue leyendo →

11 mayo, 2021
por Felipe Sahagún
Sin comentarios

Does the 1918 pandemic hold any lessons for today? (The Washington Post)

Imagen
 
Opinion by John M. Barry
May 10, 2021 at 11:05 p.m. GMT+2
John M. Barry is the author of “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History” and distinguished scholar at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine

More than a year into the pandemic, the situation is chaotic. Lacking vaccines, lacking resources or lacking good policies, India, Turkey, much of South America and elsewhere are seeing the virus rage as never before. Europe is finally improving after an extraordinarily difficult few months, while in the United States, the pandemic’s end may be in sight.

Are there any lessons that can be extracted from this landscape? And does the course of the 1918 pandemic hold any lessons for today?

To answer the last question first, the 1918 pandemic began in the spring with an intermittent first wave no deadlier than ordinary influenza, then seemed to disappear. A more contagious and more lethal variant caused the deadly second wave, and then it also seemed to disappear. In March 1919, another variant sparked a third wave much less deadly than the second wave but more lethal than seasonal influenza. First wave illness protected against the second wave, but neither first nor second wave infection protected against the third wave variant. Further mutations, combined with an improved ability of the immune system to respond, helped turn the virus into an ordinary seasonal influenza — until it was replaced by the 1957 pandemic influenza virus.

Covid-19 was never going to disappear, but there is a reasonable chance that it will follow the 1918 precedent and become an endemic influenza-like illness that kills — serious enough, to be sure — and will require vaccine updates but will not require shutdowns. That would be the best case.

In terms of social, cultural and economic impacts, however, 1918 is not a precedent. The first wave, especially in the United States, was so mild it passed without notice, and no city took any public health action. During the second wave, most cities closed schools, theaters and saloons, and some required masks. But one of the biggest differences between the 1918 pandemic and this one is duration. The 1918 disease usually affected a given community for about six to eight weeks, and restrictions generally lasted only three to five weeks — too short a period for any permanent impact on behavior.

Since the disease disappeared abruptly, society returned to pre-pandemic normal quickly. The third wave hit many cities — though, not all — but no one knew it was coming, so it didn’t affect behaviors, and few places reinstituted restrictions for it.

…MORE

 

10 mayo, 2021
por Felipe Sahagún
Sin comentarios

La política exterior de España. De la Transición a la consolidación democrática (1986-2001)

La política exterior de España

Juan Carlos Pereira, María Adela Alija Garabito, Misael Arturo López Zapico

Este libro ofrece distintas perspectivas de la política exterior española de 1986 a 2001 y de los cambios de matiz acaecidos con los cambios de gobierno a lo largo del periodo. En él se analizan temas como el diseño de la política exterior, la participación de España en las instituciones europeas, la apuesta por reforzar la proyección exterior a través del «poder blando» de la cooperación al desarrollo y la mediación en conflictos…

Dentro de esta perspectiva transversal, se analiza igualmente la exportación de armamento y otros temas considerados «calientes», como las complicadas relaciones con Cuba y Marruecos, así como un análisis de las aproximaciones al antiguo bloque soviético, un escenario muy cambiante en el momento.

El gran aporte de este volumen se basa en la información obtenida directamente de los protagonistas del periodo. Aparte de la consulta de variadas fuentes documentales, es destacable el esfuerzo del grupo de investigación por entrevistar a las personalidades más relevantes de la política, la diplomacia y el periodismo del momento, que aportan testimonios directos de unos años decisivos para la consolidación de la democracia en España y de su proyección al resto del mundo.