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Soriek  1yr ago (text post)   1072 thread views

Transnational Thursdays 20

Happy 20 TTs guys.

I’ll be trying something new with this one and changing the format so the top level post only contains an explanation of the thread, like we do with Wellness Wednesdays and Fun Fridays. The country-specific coverage will be placed in separate comments where people can respond to them directly, or start their own threads as separate comments. This is part of my hope that long term this will become more of a permanent thread that sustains beyond me, because I likely won’t be around long term. In the short term as well, I’ve been trying to produce a lot of the user content but there will be weeks where I'm too busy, and it would be nice to have a stickied thread where people who want to can still chat foreign policy without me.

So:

This is a weekly thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or IR history. I usually start off with coverage of some current events from a mix of countries I follow personally and countries I think the forum might be interested in. In the past I've noticed good results from covering countries that users here live in, and having them chime in with more comprehensive responses. In that spirit I'll probably try to offer more snippets of western news (but you'll still get a lot of the global south). I don't follow present day European politics all that much so you'll have to fill in the blanks for me.

But also, no need to use the prompts here, feel free to talk about completely unmentioned countries, or skip country coverage entirely and chat about ongoing dynamics like wars or trade deals. You can even skip the present day and talk about IR history, or just whatever you’re reading at the moment - consider it very free form and open to everyone.

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Ecuador

The US is reportedly sending military assistance to Ecuador following the assassination of one of their Presidential candidates, presumably by one of the cartels. This may be a move the cartels come to regret, as the guy had zero chance of winning the election and they were mainly trying to intimidate any other politicians from following suit, so hopefully this deters future political violence:

The maritime agreement allows U.S. military vessels to be present in the waters off the northwestern coast of South America, which Colombian drug cartels use to move cocaine. The ability to move military vessels into the area will "strengthen cooperative law enforcement activities and build mutual capacity to prevent and combat illicit transnational maritime activity," according to State.

The second agreement was a less common one, according to Adam Isacson, who heads defense oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America and has worked on Latin American issues since 1994.

Status of forces agreements outline the terms by which members of a foreign military, in this case the Defense Department, can operate or are expected to conduct themselves while in another country.

"That doesn't mean we're doing it, but it means we can and it means that they're making a very clear signal to us that they want more us involved," [US Representative Dan] Crenshaw said.

Ecuador’s state oil company Petroecuador is planning to open up 15 new oil wells, despite the public voting with a commanding 59% to prohibit future drilling. If this seems rather undemocratic, it’s worth a reminder the President Lasso disbanded the legislature a few months ago and has been ruling by decree since.

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