Showing 1 - 2 of 2 Items
The (Far) Backstory of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement
Date: 2013-10-10
Creator: Stephen Meardon
Access: Open access
- In two pairs of episodes, first in 1824 and 1846 and then in 1892 and 1935, similar U.S.-Colombia trade agreements or their enabling laws were embraced first by protectionists and then by free traders. The history of the episodes supports the view that although political institutions exist to curb de facto political power, such power may be wielded to undo the institutions’ intended effects. The doctrinal affinities and interests of political actors are more decisive determinants of the free-trade or protectionist orientation of trade agreements than the agreements’ texts or legal superstructures. The long delay from signing to passage of the current U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement is another case in point.
Poverty Ends with a 12 Year Old Girl: Empowerment and the Contradictions of International Development
Date: 2017-05-01
Creator: Meghan Elizabeth Bellerose
Access: Open access
- This thesis argues that international development programs focused on adolescent girls reproduce problematic and contradictory depictions of girls in the global South. Using Girl Effect marketing materials and interviews with INGO staff, I demonstrate that present-day international aid programs center on the neoliberal notion that an empowered adolescent girl holds the unique potential to end global poverty. Through empowerment programs, girls are encouraged to recognize their agency and take personal responsibility for improving the wellbeing of their communities. However, I argue that even as development leaders claim that an empowered adolescent girl is a source of indefatigable strength who can transform her community, they carry a deep conviction that such a feat is not possible without significant Western aid. Despite the empowerment rhetoric that The Girl Effect and related international initiatives espouse, their programs depict adolescent girls in the developing world as vulnerable and oppressed by poverty, local men, and their cultures. Thus, Western donors are called upon to save “Third World” adolescent girls. I argue that these contradictions in the language of international development contribute to the perception of girls in the global South as weak, inferior, and homogenous and lead to the establishment of programs that strengthen inequitable structures and sideline girls’ sexual rights.