SEPT.11- The Other As Enemy

In Conversation with Martin Plot
The Other as Enemy: The neo-Schmittean inspiration behind the neoconservative foreign policy
9/11 created the conditions needed to speed up the implementation of the neo-conservative vision on foreign policy and al-Qaeda's claim of political and intellectual leadership in the Muslim world. This presentation exposed connections between the current US foreign policy and the ideas of German jurist, political theorist and professor of law Carl Smitt.

The United States has been a far more recent problem for Latin America than Eu-
ropean imperialism and colonialism. “Latin America’s Two Lefts,” guest-edited by
Martín Plot, attempts to provide a political map of its new situation, often described
in terms of two distinct patterns of political change: a liberal left that dominates Chile,
Brazil, Uruguay, and perhaps Argentina, and a populist left that has become dominant
in the Andes and is also strong in Mexico. Plot and Ernesto Semán argue for a common
process in all of Latin America, one of democratic politics responding to neoliberalism
at home and imperial neo-conservatism in the world. Specific issues and cleavages in
each country determine whether this politics takes on a single-issue, populist, autarchic
turn that risks authoritarian reversion or a pluralistic, democratic form that can provide
long-term hope for left politics without polarizing societies.

More about Martin Plot:
http://www.calarts.edu/faculty_bios/criticalstudies/faculty/martnplot/martinplot
LInk to articles by Martin Plot:
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8675.2007.00451.x