Barack Obama Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

II fue el cuadragésimo (44°) presidente de los Estados Unidos. Nació el cuatro de agosto de mil novecientos sesenta y uno (1961), en Honolulú, Hawái. Hijo único de Ann Dunham, originario de Kansas y de Barack Obama, Sr., un inmigrante keniano. Sus padres no lo tuvieron nada fácil. Sus familiares no terminaban de aceptar la relación, pero a pesar de todo se casaron y formaron una familia. Cuando Barack sólo tenía dos años, su padre los dejó para cursar una beca en Harvard y después regresó a Kenia. Obama sólo lo volvió a ver en una ocasión antes de su fallecimiento en mil novecientos ochenta y dos (1982) en un accidente. Su madre se casó de nuevo y se mudaron a Yakarta, donde Barack empezó el colegio y aprendió Indonesio. Durante su infancia lo acompañó su primera mascota, un monito llamado Tata. Cuatro años después regresaron a Hawai, donde terminó sus estudios escolares. El pequeño Barack pasaba mucho tiempo con sus abuelos maternos. Fue un adolescente un poco rebelde, pero siempre muy talentoso. Se mudó a Los Ángeles e inició sus estudios superiores en el Instituto Occidental College y a los dos años se transfirió a la Universidad de Columbia en Nueva York. Ahí compaginaría las clases con trabajos comunitarios. Al terminar decidió estudiar Derecho en la Universidad de Harvard. Aquí consiguió el primer hito (mención honorífica magna cum laude) de los muchos que vendrían después. Ser el primer afroamericano en presidir la prestigiosa revista de Derecho Harvard Law Review. En mil novecientos ochenta y ocho (1988), Obama decidió viajar a Kenia para conocer sus raíces. Un viaje que aprovechó para escribir Los sueños de mi padre: Una historia de raza y herencia. Una sincera y emotiva biografía que se convirtió en superventas y por el que ganó un premio Grammy en dos mil cinco (2005) al mejor álbum hablado. Este viaje fue un punto y aparte en la vida de Obama. manuelverdugo.com

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- Blogs, Barack Obama, Libros de texto, Libros

Essay published in special edition of Revista Autor (2009), p. 99-102.

En comparación con el viejo continente que había vivido las revoluciones políticas y las luchas religiosas -con sus efectos positivos y negativos- para cambiar el componente sociológico de la sociedad, y posibilitando así una nueva manera de establecer las relaciones diplomáticas y la noción de guerra, Estados Unidos, como país naciente formado por inmigrantes, en un corto espacio de tiempo ha podido imponer sus valores como la referencia de la democracia moderna y el motor que mueve las instituciones en base a sus intereses y el contexto de la geopolítica mundial. De ahí a lo largo de las distintas administraciones, sin importar el color del partido reinante, la Política Exterior siempre se había enfocado en la defensa de los intereses vitales del país. Por eso, aun planteando Obama un nuevo paradigma, lo cierto es que, las relaciones que establece el país con el resto del mundo fueron y seguirán basándose en la imposición de la “democracia”, y el país actuando como el gendarme mundial. Pero lo novedoso aquí es que, con Obama, África dejó de ser visto como un campo peligroso, sino reconociendo sus avances democráticos mediante la cooperación.

South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson shouted " You lie! " at President Barack Obama, interrupting the president's speech before a joint session of Congress. Facing widespread criticism, Wilson apologized. We use this unique case to consider the peculiar nature of outburst as a form of attack—an attack that, instead of damaging the image of its target, often inflicts primary damage on the image of the attacker. We conclude that Wilson's image repair efforts largely failed, as measured against a criterion of appropriateness. The analysis highlights unique impacts of delivery dimensions as requisites for outbursts, shifting focus from conventional conceptualizations of content in image repair scholarship. Further, implications of outburst as rhetorical attack and as a rhetorical act necessitating defense are explored.

Capitalists routinely exert leverage over governments by withholding the resources — jobs, credit, goods, and services — upon which society depends. The “capital strike” might take the form of layoffs, offshoring jobs and money, denying loans, or just a credible threat to do those things, along with a promise to relent once government delivers the desired policy changes. Government officials know this power well, and invest great energy and public resources in staving off fits by malcontent capitalists. The profoundly rotten campaign finance system is just one manifestation of business’s domination over government policy. The real power resides in the corporate world’s monopoly over the flow of capital.

- by Kevin A Young and +2
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- Economic Sociology, Social Movements, Economics, Political Economy

While everyday high-level practices have become an important area of study in foreign policy research, the every day of every (wo)man has been overlooked both in theoretical and empirical conceptualizations. Building on feminist, sociological, and ethnographic research, this article argues that everyday foreign policy is an assemblage-a combination of physical and cultural practices that inhabit digital and bodily spaces. Following the feminist call to liberate international relations from the straitjacket of high politics, this article aims to contextualize foreign policy within daily practices of regular citizens, who enact foreign policy at home, at the supermarket, and online. In effect, everyday foreign policy is not just about discussing identity, it is also about embodying and literally eating it. This article focuses on the grassroots of foreign policy sanctions in Russia in the aftermath of the annexation of Crimea.

- by Lisa Gaufman
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- Russian Studies, Gender Studies, International Relations, Nationalism
- by Margaret Dorsey
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- Latino/A Studies, Social Policy, Immigration, Immigration Studies

Książka jest wynikiem obserwacji, że jednym z dominujących trendów kultury (także kina i telewizji) w drugiej połowie XX wieku oraz w XXI wieku, przede wszystkim w Stanach Zjednoczonych, jest zwrot ku przeszłości.
Rozważania związane z intensywnym i stałym sięganiem przez twórców filmowych i telewizyjnych do przeszłości oparte zostały na konkretnym, aczkolwiek rozbudowanym przykładzie, jakim jest fenomen obecności, mitologizacji i demitologizacji ery Eisenhowera w kinematografii amerykańskiej lat pięćdziesiątych, osiemdziesiątych oraz w XXI wieku. Problem badawczy poruszony w książce dotyczył nie tylko samej dynamiki uobecniania przeszłości w późniejszych okresach i produktach kultury, ale też mechanizmów upamiętniania decydujących o kształtach filmowych (i kulturowych) reprezentacji.
Era Eisenhowra (pojęcie synonimiczne dla terminu „lata pięćdziesiąte”) jest datowana najczęściej na okres 1945-1963 – już samo rozejście się stosowanej terminologii z kalendarzem (oraz rzeczywistymi latami rządów Eisenhowera) wskazuje na szczególny ciężar symboliczny omawianego okresu, definiowanego nie przez naturalną cezurę czasową, ale kwestie inne, takie jak proponowana wówczas określona i spójna wizja rzeczywistości, ideologia, projekt społeczny, styl życia. Na istotną rolę lat pięćdziesiątych, zarówno w historii, jak i w amerykańskim zbiorowym imaginarium, wskazują nie tylko liczne analizy, publikacje i odwołania. Kluczowa dla mnie była też stała obecność tej epoki w kulturze (filmach i serialach), co ze szczególną intensywnością objawiło się w latach osiemdziesiątych (reaganizm) i w XXI wieku (kino Obamy, krytyczne retro).
Część pierwsza monografii dotyczy ery Eisenhowera – wprowadzenia w jej charakter społeczny, w kinematografię tego okresu, a w końcu w wybrane zjawiska filmowe. Analizie poddałam melodramaty rodzinne, komedie romantyczne, filmy młodzieżowe (teenpics) i filmy korporacyjne, czyli przede wszystkim obyczajowe obrazy gatunkowe i głównego nurtu. W najlepszy sposób oddają one bowiem schematy typowe dla danej kultury oraz dominujące oczekiwania społeczne wobec porządku świata i funkcjonowania jednostek, a zarazem obrazują napięcia między konserwatyzmem epoki a kiełkującymi już wówczas zalążkami kontestacji.
Wybrane przeze mnie zjawiska kinematografii lat pięćdziesiątych stały się podstawą późniejszych – politycznie motywowanych – powrotów, przetworzeń i wariacji. Ich analiza – okresu reaganizmu, czyli lat osiemdziesiątych, oraz kina Obamy i krytycznego retro (XXI wiek) – znajduje się w części drugiej. Choć łatwo byłoby wskazać przykłady ekranowej obecności ery Eisenhowera w kinie i telewizji większej liczby dekad, mnie interesowały nie incydentalne i pojedyncze nawiązania, ale intensywne i dystynktywne fenomeny – spójne myślowo i estetycznie re-kreacje ery Eisenhowera. Pojawiły się one dwa razy i – co istotne – były sobie biegunowo przeciwstawne.
Pierwsza intensywna fala ponownej popularności lat pięćdziesiątych przypadła na lata osiemdziesiąte – konserwatywną politycznie erę Reagana, prezydenta czyniącego erę Eisenhowera punktem odniesienia dla swojego projektu politycznego, co znalazło wyraz zarówno w ówczesnej retoryce politycznej, jak i w zjawisku kinowego reaganizmu. Filmy powstające w duchu retro afirmującego były nostalgiczne, idealizowały i mitologizowały lata pięćdziesiąte, a zarazem symbolicznie unieważniały subwersywny potencjał zjawisk kształtujących erę Eisenhowera, między innymi rodzącej się wówczas kultury młodzieżowej.

- by Patrycja Wlodek
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- Classical Hollywood, Contemporary Hollywood, Hollywood, Barack Obama
- by Federica Fazio
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- Cold War, U.S. Foreign Policy, Russia, Barack Obama
- by Nancy Snow
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- Persuasion, Nation Branding, Barack Obama

How is Barack Obama represented in popular culture? More than the United States’ 44th president, he is also a lens through which we can examine politics, art, comics, and music in various contexts. The essays in this collection focus on the buildup to the 2008 election as well as Obama’s first year as president, a brief historical moment in which "Obama" was synonymous with possibility. The contributors represent a variety of scholarly fields such as film, journalism, mass communication, popular culture and African American studies, each adding a unique perspective on Obama’s relationship to American culture.

- by Erika Schneider
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- Barack Obama, Andy Warhol, Tagging, Barack Obama's Presidential Campaign 2008

This book provides a comprehensive investigation of the political dimensions of civil religion in the United States. By employing an original social-psychological theory rooted in semiotics, it offers a qualitative and quantitative empirical examination of more than fifty years of political rhetoric. Further, it presents two in-depth case studies that examine how the cultural, totemic sign of ‘the Founding Fathers’ and the signs of America’s sacred texts (the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence) are used in attempts to link partisan policy positions with notions that the country collectively holds sacred. The book’s overarching thesis is that America’ s civil religion serves as a discursive framework for the country’s politics of the sacred, mediating the
demands of particularistic interests and social solidarity through the interaction of social belief and institutional politics like elections and the Supreme Court. The book penetrates America’s unique political religiosity to reveal and unravel the intricate ways in which politics, political institutions, religion and culture intertwine in the United States.

- by Eric Thomas Weber
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- Screenwriting, Philosophy, Pragmatism, Education
- by David Pérez Esparza
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- Mexico, Barack Obama, Firearms, Gun Violence

The new American Ethos is a posthuman, criminal and hominist Morality of the Nietzschean type -the morality of "Zarathustra" and his anticritical Priesthood-: "My self is for me the great contempt of man... - he wrote- In another time you had passions, which you considered bad… All your passions ended up becoming virtues”) that inverts the principles of Aristotelian persuasion and replaces its three pillars (Ethos, Pathos and Logos) with a new Code of Ethics that stands on three columns (three vices converted into virtues): “Lie”, “Cheat” and “Steal”. Three masks of the Devil. Three fruits of the Tree of evil.

Le double mandat présidentiel de Barack Obama restera historique : pour la première fois, un homme d’origine afro-américaine accédait à la plus haute fonction et, double exploit, s’y faisait réélire. En 2008, son élection avait fait naître l’espoir d’enfin voir les États-Unis s’engager sur la voie de l’égalité entre citoyens quelles que soient leurs origines. Huit ans plus tard, il faut déchanter : les inégalités socio-économiques persistent et la polarisation Blanc/Noir atteint des sommets avec d’un côté la colère du mouvement « Black lives matter » (« Les vies noires comptent ») face aux violences et bavures policières et de l’autre un président, Donald Trump, qui doit une partie de son succès à son discours raciste décomplexé. Les attentes envers Barack Obama étaient-elles trop hautes ? Quelle a été sa véritable action dans ce domaine ?

- by Pascal De Gendt
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- Racism, Racial discrimination, Barack Obama, Etats-Unis

In this paper, I argue that justice is best understood as an evolving regulative ideal. This framework avoids cynicism and apathy on the one hand as well as brash extremism on the other. I begin by highlighting the elusive quality of justice as an ideal always on the horizon, yet which is nevertheless meaningful. Next, I explain the ways in which it makes more sense to see justice as evolving, rather than as fixed. Finally, I demonstrate the value of Charles Sanders Peirce’s concept of a regulative ideal for framing a pragmatist outlook on justice. Peirce helps us at the same time to appreciate ideals yet to let go of outmoded understandings of their metaphysical status. Ideals are thus tools for regulating behavior. Each of these
qualifications demonstrates that justice is best conceived of as an evolving regulative ideal.

- by Eric Thomas Weber
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- Philosophy, Ethics, Pragmatism, Education

This paper examines Obama’s "Eulogy for John Lewis,” identifying the importance
of the convergence of Lewis’ oeuvre, historical exigence, and kairos in
Obama using Lewis’ eulogy to engage in decidedly political messaging –
a rhetorical hybrid, or hybrid genre, that negotiated a eulogy with
a deliberative subform. Further, I argue that because of historical exigence
and Lewis’ oeuvre, there was a kairotic imperative for Obama to speak, during
which he redefines American historical time.

- by Mark LaVoie
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- Barack Obama, Kairos, John Lewis, Eulogy

Od zakończenia zimnej wojny i upadku Związku Socjalistycznych Republik Radzieckich, Stany Zjednoczone Ameryki stały się jedynym mocarstwem ogólnoświatowym (supermocarstwem) . Początek XXI wieku obfitował w wydarzenia, które wpłynęły na osłabienie pozycji międzynarodowej USA, wymuszając zmiany w polityce zagranicznej supermocarstwa – wyznaczenie nowych celów, środków i metod ich realizacji.

En octubre del 2002, un misil Hellfire lanzado desde un Predator impactó en el vehículo que transportaba a uno de los responsables de los atentados contra el USS Cole dos años atrás. Este evento dio inicio a una nueva estrategia antiterrorista basada en los ataques con drones. Un total de 563 ataques fueron ejecutados durante los dos mandatos de Obama, siendo este numero 10 veces mayor a los ataques llevados adelante por su predecesor, George W. Bush. Este trabajo busca problematizar cuál fue el impacto de los drones en la doctrina militar y qué efectos tuvo en la estrategia antiterrorista durante la Administración Obama (20092017). Para esto se analizará la re/evolución de los drones a lo largo de la historia, sus aspectos positivos y negativos, y las operaciones llevadas adelante por la CIA y las Fuerza Armadas estadounidenses, buscando dilucidar si la utilización progresiva de los drones es justificada por su efectividad a la hora de cumplir objetivos y de hacer frente a enemigos irregulares

- by Perspectivas Revista de Ciencias Sociales and +1
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- Seguridad, Barack Obama, Drones

In my rhetorical analysis of President Obama’s 2011 El Paso speech on immigration reform, I engage and connect contemporary scholarship on border rhetorics, neoliberalism, and immigration. I examine and interrogate President Obama’s tendency to portray immigrants as economic units which reified existing rhetorical borders of immigration veiled under the allegedly race-neutral language of neoliberalism and late capitalism. Throughout the essay, I argue that the President adopted a neoliberal approach of treating immigrants as economic commodities, as well as subjects that need to be regulated and surveilled. A central point of my criticism is President Obama’s rhetorical strategy of connecting neoliberalism and whiteness for the purpose of implicitly excluding Mexican immigrants from access to U.S. national space and publics. Barack Obama endorsed the neoliberal principles of flexibility and productivity that allow foreign workers to be used for their skills but sent back to their homes as soon as their services are no longer required, or when they become an economic burden to the state. In what appears as a double bind, immigrants from Mexico are perceived as beneficial for the U.S. economy as a cheap source of temporary labor, but also potentially threatening as racialized subjects always/already suspect of criminality. Additionally, I argue that President Obama’s neoliberal rhetoric relied on a strategic omission and silencing of the cultural and economic significance of Mexican immigrants.

- by Svilen V Trifonov
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- Rhetoric, Immigration, U.S. Presidency, Rhetorical Criticism

What will become of American foreign policy when greatness, no longer bestowed, must be seized?

- by Stephen Wertheim
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- American History, American Politics, International Relations, History of Ideas
- by Timothy J Lynch
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- American Politics, U.S. Foreign Policy, Barack Obama
- by David Frank and +1
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- Race and Racism, Rhetorical Criticism, Barack Obama

I argue that Barack Obama’s immediate, imaginary, and discursive deictic references to the actions and character of ordinary citizens, specific geographical markers within the “landscape of American history,” and sacred moments in U.S. history extended and enlarged the relational, spatial, and temporal contours of the national narrative in his 2015 speech on the fiftieth anniversary of Bloody Sunday. In so doing, the president offered a compelling (re)definition of patriotism, civic responsibility, and “the true meaning of America.” More broadly, I argue for an expanded notion of deixis within rhetorical scholarship. Beyond a linguistic “pointing” to bodies, places, and objects within the audience’s immediate vicinity, I detail how indexicals bring various images before the eyes of the audience, link individual texts to their political, historical, social, and cultural contexts, and direct our attention to the most important parts of the national narrative even as they deflect our attention from other parts of the story. Ultimately, I suggest that deixis illuminates theories of rhetorical vision in ways that have gone unnoticed, and it is only when we recognize the psychological and cognitive effects of deictic speech that we can fully appreciate the central role phantasia plays in persuasion, deliberation, and moral judgment.

- by Allison M. Prasch
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- Space and Place, Deixis, Barack Obama, Presidential rhetoric

It’s no secret that the 1% exercises enormous control over the US government. While this control is usually attributed to campaign donations and lobbying, Levers of Power argues that corporate power derives from control over the economic resources on which daily life depends. Government officials must constantly strive to keep capitalists happy, lest they go on “capital strike”—that is, refuse to invest in particular industries or locations, or move their holdings to other countries—and therefore impose material hardship on specific groups or the economy as a whole. For this reason, even politicians who are not dependent on corporations for their electoral success must fend off the interruption of corporate investment. Levers of Power documents the pervasive power of corporations and other institutions with decision-making control over large pools of capital, particularly the Pentagon. It also shows that the most successful reform movements in recent US history—for workers’ rights, for civil rights, and against imperialist wars—succeeded by directly targeting the corporations and other institutional adversaries that initiated and benefitted from oppressive policies. Though most of today’s social movements focus on elections and politicians, movements of the 99% are most effective when they inflict direct costs on corporations and their allied institutions. This strategy is also more conducive to building a revolutionary mass movement that can replace current institutions with democratic alternatives.

- by Kevin A Young
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- Political Sociology, Social Movements, Political Economy, Working Classes
- by Al Carroll
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- Native American Studies, New Deal (U.S. history), Health, American Indian Studies
- by Timothy J Lynch
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- International Relations Theory, Liberalism, U.S. Foreign Policy, Barack Obama

For centuries, European thinkers, and their contemporary white followers, have run rampant in the halls of academia prematurely championing the success of liberalism to speak to the experience of those historical groups of people excluded from modernity, while simultaneously celebrating the universal embrace by the supple bosom of whites’ anthropologically spe- ciﬁc ideas of reason and humanity. This philosophical impetus has solidi- ﬁed the political regime of integration as not only the most desirable but also the most realizable condition of Black (co)existence in America. The education of Black Americans has been collapsed into a single ideological goal, namely, how to mold these Blacks into more functional and produc- tive members of American society under the idea of equality established by Brown v. Board of Education. Unfortunately, however, such a commit- ment elevates the ethical appeals made by Brown, which focused on higher ideals of reason and humanity found in liberal political thought and the eventual transcendence of racial identity, to moral code. This ideology, instead of attending to what Blacks should learn or the knowledge Blacks need to have in order to thrive as Blacks in America, forces Blacks to abide by the social motives that aim to create good Negro citizens

Opposition to the Iraq War is thought to have contributed to the election of Barack Obama in 2008. The present study shows that controlling for other factors, including the percentage of the vote going to the prewar Democratic presidential candidate, states with relatively high levels of Iraq War military fatalities had a higher percentage vote for Obama. This result is consistent with a prediction derived from rational political theory and the results of several studies examining the impacts of war fatality rates in other military conflicts in previous elections. However, in the current study, we find that the effect of Iraq War fatalities on the percentage vote for Obama is conditioned by state military enlistment rates. Military fatalities have a strong effect in states with historically low military enlistment rates. But the effect disappears in states with very high levels of military enlistment.

- by Jungyun Gill
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- Sociology, Sociology of the Military, Military Families, Political Science

The election of Joseph Biden for the office of the President of the United States has brought expectations of fundamental change in American foreign policy, including policy toward the Asia-Pacific/Indo-Pacific region. As observed in the last few months, the reality has been more complex as definite changes in the US Indo-Pacific policy are not as visible as expected. It is especially in respect of the US policy toward China being more a continuation than a change from Donald Trump’s approach. Changes are rhetorical rather than actual policies. The situation is different in the case of alliances, as Joe Biden offers much more commitment to allies like Japan or South Korea. Also, multilateral dimensions (both regional and global) witness some – however still limited – change. The main goal is to make a comparative analysis of Joe Biden’s policy toward Asia, referring to the administrations of Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Hence the strategies of pivot/re-balance toward the Asia of Obama, and the free and open Indo-Pacific strategy of Trump, will be examined. The analysis refers to the complex interdependence theory and the power transition theory. Methodologically, it is based on document analysis with comparative analysis.

- by Marcin Grabowski
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- Asian Studies, International Relations, Foreign Policy Analysis, Liberalism

This paper examines the Barack Obama memes recently circulating in protests and online as examples of fantasies that construct the President as the obscene “Neighbor” who steals white conservative enjoyment. It will focus on the shift from Shepard Fairey’s iconic “Hope” poster to images of Obama as the Joker that parody it. From analysis of the Joker images emerges how their representation of Obama as an ill defined but potentially malevolent racial and moral excess to Americanism, who is thus responsible for the country’s socio-economic decline, serves to obstruct urgently needed interrogation of neoliberal policies and practices. It situates these memes in the American context of what alternately has been called the “crisis of symbolic investiture” (Santner), the “crisis in symbolic efficacy” (Žižek) or the advent of a conspiratorial “psychotic discourse” (Dean). Within this context, Obama reverses from a figure of “hope” into one of sadistic persecution not unlike the Joker character depicted in the 2008 film, The Dark Knight. These images thus serve as a nexus for discussion of political, cultural and psychoanalytic registers of discontent in the emergent Age of Obama, which I frame through the Tea Party, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Birtherism.

- by Marc Acherman
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- Psychoanalysis, American Studies, Visual Culture, Slavoj Zizek
- by Giulio Vezzosi
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- History, American History, American Studies, Political Science

In this article, I examine Barack Obama’s use of collective memory during his 2007 campaign speech in Selma, Alabama. Specifically, I argue that Obama appeals to collective memory to challenge the Black community’s relationship to the past. He reframed the memory of the Civil Rights Movement in a manner favorable to his political aspirations. While this frame was politically expedient, it weakened Black political agency. It robbed the Black community of crucial rhetorical resources used to challenge structural inequalities in society. This article offers insight into the complex relationship between metaphor and collective memory. Specifically, I interrogate the role of metaphor as a crucial site where public memory is formed, disrupted, and rearticulated. Furthermore, I consider the implications of his use of memory for the future of the Black freedom struggle.

- by Theon Hill
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- Rhetoric, History and Memory, Rhetoric and Public Culture, Rhetorical Criticism

The current global financial crisis and impending global recession appears to be a “big crisis” of the neoliberally regulated finance driven accumulation regime. The problem that the left faces in the Northern core capitalist countries is an asynchronic development. The hegemonic crisis of neoliberalism is progressing at an enormous speed while the counter-hegemonic forces – where they have advanced – lag behind the current process of the unraveling of neoliberal hegemony, and they have problems keeping pace. While state leaders in the US and in Europe are muddling through the crisis, throwing ideology overboard and professing a trial-and-error policy resembling the trial-and-error processes of state leaders during the terminal crisis of Keynesian Fordism, left forces need to get a foot in the door to impact the sea change in the social structures of accumulation which currently appears to be taking place. Some form of neo-neo- or post-neoliberalism is likely to be the result of the current crisis and the specific nature of this new mode of regulation of high-tech capitalism will have crucial implications for any left strategy.

- by Ingar Solty
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- Sociology, Social Movements, American Politics, Political Parties

Our goals for this study are twofold. First, we wanted to learn about President Obama’s federal judicial appointment behavior and priorities. It is clear, regardless how we breakdown the numbers, that Obama valued diversity—perhaps more so than any previous president. Ideology was not a primary part of Obama’s calculation. Second, we examine the diversity of Obama’s judicial nominees in several ways and analyze whether Obama’s judges can serve a symbolic representative function. We examine the pool overall, by level of court and we examine replacement patterns. While Obama’s pool of nominees to broader and more inclusive than previous presidents, the modal judge is still White and male. Yet the zero-sum nature of judicial appointments is pushing the limits of diversification and presidents are beginning to face trade-offs in terms of the scope and breadth of diversity. Perhaps one of the most important lessons of this analysis is the recognition that we may be entering a new era of institutional representation. As our conceptions of identity become broader and more complex, it is clear that merely pursuing greater diversity becomes less meaningful than the type of diversity.

- by Rorie Solberg and +1
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- Diversity, Appointment of Judges, Barack Obama

Reagan, Thatcher, Mitterrand, Kohl, Clinton, Blair, Schröder, Berlusconi, Obama, Cameron, Sarkozy, Merkel, Renzi: nelle parabole di questi leader, accomunati dalla pretesa di rappresentare il nuovo e il cambiamento, si può cogliere il ruolo cruciale che gioca la narrazione nei sistemi politici. Attingendo alle scienze sociali, alla psicologia e alle neuroscienze, il libro illustra i meccanismi che rendono efficace lo storytelling per creare emozioni, identificazione e coinvolgimento con il leader narratore. Uno storytelling che è collocato all’interno dell’impetuoso sviluppo della comunicazione e del marketing politici degli ultimi decenni. Quei tredici casi ci aiutano a decifrare l’attualità: i profili e le narrazioni di Trump, Salvini e Macron appaiono come lo stadio avanzato dell’impoverimento del discorso politico, della spettacolarizzazione e della logica mediatica; nella Brexit vediamo l’impasse a cui tutto ciò può portare; nel cancellierato di Merkel il suggerimento di una via alternativa.

Entre el año 2006 y 2012, Bolivia, Ecuador y Venezuela vivieron uno de los momentos más interesantes de la historia diplomática de América Latina, cuando comenzaron a reconstruir su propia Diplomacia Pública ante el ataque comunicacional... more

- by Alfredo Alfonso Torrealba
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- Public Diplomacy, Diplomacy, Bolivia, Venezuela

En el año 27 antes de Cristo, Octavio lleva a cabo una reforma constitucional en la Repú-blica romana que permitió unir bajo una sola magistratura la auctoritas o saber reconocido socialmente y la potestas, cuya manifestación suprema era el imperium, convirtiéndose en Imperator Caesar Augustus. El Imperium era la potestad general que ejercían los cónsules y pretores, que incluía el mando militar supremo, la jurisdicción, la facultad de convocar a los comicios y al Senado, la posibilidad de dar Edictos y el poder disciplinario. Los Padres Fun-dadores que tanto admiraban Roma, Esparta o Venecia no podían sospechar que esas fun-ciones, que habían estructurado en la Constitución y en el sistema político e institucional de EEUU con un modelo de división de poderes, republicano, federal, liberal y democrático, iban a ser ejercidas, de facto y de iure, sobre prácticamente todo el orbe llegado el siglo XX. Los Estados Unidos históricamente han sido probablemente, junto a los imperios español y británico, los únicos que han ejercido ese imperium de forma global. Sin embargo, la capaci-dad y forma de su ejercicio, dado su poder, legitimidad y alcance no ha tenido parangón en la Historia. Este libro intenta explicar ese proceso desde los primeros días de la República y su posterior evolución, la creación de sus propios mitos y narrativas, la expansión y la crea-ción de una gran potencia, y fi nalmente su ascenso al status de superpotencia creadora y guardiana de un orden internacional liberal que, como el Bajo Imperio romano, parece que ha entrado en declive y es incapaz de reaccionar y recuperarse.

- by Gustavo Palomares Lerma
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- Terrorism, European Union, George W Bush adminstration, Barack Obama