JORGE RODRIGUES SIMÃO

China and Latin America and the Caribbean, trade and cooperation in the 21st century

International Trade and Integration

“A major talking point in the U.S. media today is the alleged weakening of American influence in the world. The common perception is that power is shifting to East Asia, and particularly to China, with ramifications globally and especially close to home in Latin America.”

China`s Growing Presence in Latin America: Implications for US and Chinese Presence in the Region

Michael Cerna

O presidente americano James Monroe, em 1823, ao criar a célebre doutrina da não permissão de ingerência da Europa nos Estados Unidos que ficou conhecida, também, pela famosa frase da “América para os americanos” iniciou uma duradoura e forte história de travar todas as tentativas de obter influência política na América do Sul.

A atenção dos Estados Unidos nos últimos anos concentrou-se no Iraque e Afeganistão, a região que sempre foi considerada uma das suas retaguardas em termos de estratégia geopolítica foi descendo cada vez mais na lista das suas prioridades, pese o facto de reaparecer novamente, em apoio das forças governamentais do Iraque contra o movimento social e armado, considerado grupo terrorista, que tem presente a Al-Qaeda e designado por Estado Islâmico do Iraque e do Levante (ISIS na sigla inglesa).

 O ISIS declarou a 29 de Junho de 2014, no seguimento da declaração de independência de 3 de Janeiro de 2014, a criação de um Califado Islâmico que engloba superfícies territoriais da Síria e do Iraque, com capital em Mosul, cujo poder é alicerçado nos ritos jurídico-religiosos do islão ortodoxo (sharia ou lei islâmica) como é o Wahhabismo, e segue os princípios da jihad mundial, como uma evolução surgida nas últimas duas décadas com acento tónico nas revoluções reivindicativas do mundo árabe muçulmano sunita.

Health Law: The Basics

Before birth

Despite its invasion by ultrasound and, sometimes, more dangerous tools, the uterus is a secret place. What happens there is biologically mysterious. The effects of gestation can be described in a fairly crude anatomical way. So too can a few of their more superficial causes. But the nature of the process and the detailed blueprint of the engine that drives it remain baffling.

The law has been content to leave metaphysics out of its own intrauterine fumblings. It has refused to be drawn into philosophical debate about the status of the early embryo, preferring to navigate the shadow lands of the unborn using its familiar instruments of rights and duties. It uses them with a fitting, deferential caution.

The History of Economic Thought (Economic Ideas and Thinkers)

Fifty years ago, the question was ‘why did the Industrial Revolution happen in England rather than France?’ Research on China, India, and the Middle East has emphasized the inherent dynamism of the world’s great civilizations, so today we must ask why economic growth took off in Europe rather than Asia or Africa. Data on incomes in the distant past are not robust, but it looks as though the differences in prosperity between countries in 1500 were small. The present division between rich and poor largely emerged since Vasco da Gama sailed to India and Columbus discovered the Americas.

Uncertain Future

@jorgersimao

350 Years of Economic Theory in 50 Minutes

Macroeconomic history

I said one of the things we need to do if we are to understand Becky’s and Desta’s lives is to uncover the pathways by which their families came to inherit their current circumstances. This is the stuff of economic history. In studying history, we could, should we feel bold, take the long view - from about the time agriculture came to be settled practice in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent (roughly, southeast Turkey today) some 11,000 years ago – and try to explain why the many innovations and practices that have cumulatively contributed to the making of Becky’s world either didn’t reach or didn’t take hold in Desta’s part of the world.