Regions and Cohesion

This article reviews the main policy guidelines set by the European Union (EU) for eradicating poverty and inequality in the context of its development cooperation partnerships. Drawing on the structure of the EU’s treaty, the EU’s official development policies since 2005, and the related European Commission documents over the past five years, it examines the conceptions of poverty and inequality and how the EU translates them into operational differentiation. The scope of the differentiated cooperation encompasses different types of developing countries, including a variety of both low-income countries (LICs) and middle-income countries (MICs). The article argues that differentiation poses a challenge to the EU’s internal development policy coherence. While the EU has adopted a multifaceted understanding of poverty, its conception of inequality is very narrow. In addition, the authors contend that the EU lacks clear criteria for differentiation in diverse country contexts in both regards.

Este artículo analiza la acción exterior de la Unión Europea (UE) y especialmente uno de sus rasgos particulares: el apoyo a las iniciativas de integración de otros grupos regionales alrededor del mundo. Desde una perspectiva constructivista se demuestra que dicho rasgo constituye una estrategia/institución interregional (la SIEPIR-AL) y es una construcción social en constante evolución. Esta última actúa como un sistema que enfrenta procesos de autorregulación cibernética y se encuentra encastrada en un sistema multilateral neo-westfaliano en modo 2.0. En esos términos la relación entre la UE y América Latina (AL) constituye una institución que puede ser caracterizada por medio del análisis de su dimensión discursiva. El artículo ilustra estos argumentos a través de una lectura del proceso de implementación de la Facilidad de Inversión para América Latina (LAIF), cuyo objetivo es facilitar el acceso a fondos para inversión en infraestructura en áreas relativas al medioambiente y al cambio climático.

This article analyzes the role of school education as a medium for indoctrinating young minds through school textbooks within the framework of India–Pakistan relations. This fact is more pronounced in Pakistan, but even in the case of India, efforts are not undertaken to objectively teach subjects in a way that helps sensitize students about the India–Pakistan relationship. The author argues that the young generations in India and Pakistan largely lack a shared understanding until they undergo a process of de-learning and re-learning. Hence, the borders between India and Pakistan remained intact and militarized but definite types of borders are also created in young minds. Unless the psychological borders melt, it is difficult to imagine a porous physical border between India and Pakistan. This article attempts to understand how pedagogically the image of an enemy is created in young minds serving the purpose of the state.