Search

This paper analyses Latin America’s role in an international system in flux, with high levels of uncertainty and transformations that signal a shift in the geoeconomic and geopolitical landscape across the world. Against this backdrop, the paper examines the challenges (both old and new) the region must face, focusing on the impact of global changes on regional dynamics and the capacity of the different countries to find answers both to the international situation and old and new internal problems. In addition, as an introductory paper to this monograph entitled “Geopolitics from Latin America: a change of cycle and multipolarity”, it identifies the fulcrums of these changes, their impact, the main actors involved and the processes underway.

There has been a change in international politics since the 2008 financial crisis, thanks to a greater spread of economic resources and military capabilities. For many, it is a radical transformation that could spell the end of US hegemony in Latin America. This paper examines the proposition, beginning with a review of the concept of hegemony, which rather than being viewed as a structural characteristic is conceived of here as a “nuanced hegemony”, in other words a network of asymmetric and hierarchical relations. We can observe not just one transformation then, but the emergence of a hemispheric context that could be described as “differentiated hegemony”. The United States still occupies a central position, but its foreign policy is marked by subregional fragmentation and the externalisation of electoral priorities. The paper explores the effects at subregional level, focusing on the opportunities and challenges it presents to Latin American countries.

This paper examines the complex, multilateral and polycentric governance of the climate agenda, as well as the knowledge management architecture around the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Noting the difficulty involved in this governance, the paper shows how it has been capable of making progress in combating the climate crisis. Climate action governance resembles a network of networks, a dense web of public, private, social, technological, knowledge-based and intersectoral initiatives. Ensuring compliance with agreements is, without question, complex in many respects, but to date it has proven to be the only viable path. Highly dependent on the global context, the green transition is an opportunity to make a qualitive leap forward, against the backdrop of an energy crisis triggered by the invasion of Ukraine.

This paper analyses the concept of “global civil society” – which played a major role in the symbolic construction of the post-Cold War social reality – and reflects on its initial purpose as a critique of the conventional perceptions of state-centric politics and as a change of approach, towards non-partisan politics and cross-border activism. While it opened new horizons for the empirical analysis of “globalisation from below”, this concept failed to prompt a radical epistemological change; it did not succeed in generating knowledge that transcended “methodological nationalism”. The paper maintains that what once constituted the concept’s disruptive potential – its theoretical engagement with the idea of globalisation, reflected in the adjective global – ultimately tamed it. Drawing on this premise, the aim is to rekindle the spirit of the notion of “global civil society” by introducing a concept that takes up and pushes forward this unachieved goal: “planetary politics”.

This paper analyses the barriers to the recognition of gender-based persecution as grounds for asylum. It focuses on Spain and examines the rulings of Spanish courts on applications based on various types of gender violence between 2009 and 2019 and looks at the theoretical propositions of "the politics of silence". The paper proposes that these barriers can be attributed to the interweaving of androcentric and colonial frameworks that produce arbitrary representations of non-European women and their cultures. It also highlights the paradoxical way authorities deploy culturalisation strategies around female genital mutilation and forced marriage, treating them as "exotic" violence, in contrast to the strategies of invisibilisation and silence used with other types of gender-based violence, such as "intimate violence".

This paper applies a historical, cultural and social perspective to analyse the political transnationalism of indigenous peoples. Using key concepts like indigenous movements and transnational defence networks, alongside desk study and analysis of indigenous organisations’ goals and programmes, this paper proposes a classification and definition of three types of indigenous political transnationalism: migratory, institutional and relating to transnational peoples. Examples are given for each, including indigenous organisations from America, Africa, Asia and international organizations, with the aim of revealing the complexity and importance of transnationalism as a fundamental factor in the indigenous protests of the last decades.

With digital ecosystems being questioned around the world, this paper examines the EU’s role in and contribution to the emerging concept of artificial intelligence (AI) governance. Seen by the EU as the key ingredient for innovation, the adoption of AI systems has altered our understanding of governance. Framing AI as an autonomous digital technology embedded in social structures, this paper argues that EU citizens' trust in AI can be increased if the innovation it entails is grounded in a fundamental rights-based approach. This is assessed based on the work of the High-Level Expert Group on AI (which has developed a framework for trustworthy AI) and the European Commission’s recently approved proposal for an Artificial Intelligence Act (taking a risk-based approach).

This paper aims to analyse how gender relations interact in labour socialisation in the Moroccan export industry – based on a case study of the city of Casablanca – and the relationship with international migration. The paper uses qualitative research, with analysis based on grounded theory and an intersectional studies approach. The global labour market emerges as a new axis of inequality creating new spaces that keep the majority in a precarious position. The paper’s original contribution is to apply the intersectional theoretical framework to the Moroccan context, focusing on a relational view of the categories. Identifying three basic social processes (role of women, crisis of masculinity and migration) allows us to expand the knowledge about this reality.

It has been seven decades since the six founding member states of what would become the European Union (EU) sought to integrate their armies into a common defence force through the European Defence Community. Today, while ever more European decision makers allude to the need to create such a force, it remains a distant prospect. What is it that is really hampering progress towards a common European defence model based on a shared army? What is the position of the main EU actors – society, political parties and institutions – on the subject? Using a variety of methodological approaches, this paper seeks to provide empirical evidence of the social, political party and institutional complexities hindering its realisation. Although the EU is not currently working on the creation of a common, single army, events such as the invasion of Ukraine could put it on the political agenda, and neither society, nor the elites, nor the major parties would be opposed.

New crises that have erupted this decade, such as COVID-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have led the European Union (EU) to wake up to the need to expedite certain decision-making processes. This would allow it to play a more geopolitical role on the international stage and move past the traditional European approach of soft power as a means of influence. To do so, it is essential to advance towards greater geopolitical capabilities that enable true strategic autonomy in areas such as security and defence: new challenges must be met with different strategies and instruments. This paper examines the functioning, potential institutionalisation and capacities of the European Political Community (EPC) as a driver of a geopolitical Europe.

The evolution of the European Union (EU) Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) raises questions about whether societies in member states share a common or convergent defence culture. Conceptual and methodological problems in the existing literature, however, make it difficult to measure this phenomenon. That is why this paper proposes a new model to measure the political culture relative to European defence, using a mixed factor analysis. In addition, drawing on a series of Eurobarometer surveys, it charts current attitudes towards defence in European citizenship and the impact of the war in Ukraine. The findings point to the existence of several political subcultures regarding defence in the EU. They also indicate various methodological strengths – and limitations – arising from the available Eurobarometer data.

The new defence policy of the European Union (EU) is forcing the defence industry in Europe to adjust its strategies, especially since the invasion of Ukraine. Both the European Commission and the European Defence Agency (EDA) are pushing for a European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB), taking account of factors that include the fragmentation of supply chains, the significant efficiency gains that can be made and the prospect of greater EU strategic autonomy. In the industrial field, particularly in the area of technology, it will change the shape of the European defence industry. But what direction will this new industry take? Will national oligopolies be reinforced at the same time as other European oligopolies emerge? Drawing on an empirical analysis based on interviews with experts, this paper focuses on Spain as a case study and explores the repercussions it will have on the country’s defence industry.

The aim of this paper is to interpret the political discourse employed in the process of integrating foreign nationals into Spain’s Armed Forces (2002-2017) and collate it with a wide range of primary sources. The sources include statistics from the Spanish Ministry of Defence, legislation, opinion polls conducted by the public research institute the Centre for Sociological Research (CIS) and data series from Spain’s official statistics agency (INE). The study takes a constructivist approach that seeks to uncover the implicit elements underlying the discourses of public policies, ideas and ideological concepts. It offers a view that is complemented by a historical reconstruction of the facts and an institutional analysis that combines formal elements (laws, policies and opinion polls) with informal components (non-codified practices or ideas and shared meanings).

This paper presents an analysis of the internationalisation of intermediate cities in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Framed in the field of the paradiplomacy studies, it takes a critical stance on the use of the concept and returns to alternative theoretical-methodological tools, such as subnational international policy and the international participation index. Taking a quantitative-qualitative approach, it notes a significantly higher internationalisation profile of these cities recently, with increasing levels of institutionalisation and a pre-eminence of unilateral and bilateral strategies. The originality of the work lies in its focus on a realm that has received relatively little attention in the speciality in Latin America, and in the study of general trends, going beyond the single case studies that dominate the field.

This paper analyses the repercussions that the war in Ukraine since 2022 has had on the European Union (EU) policy of economic globalisation. The Union’s comprehensive response to the conflict is examined from different angles, taking in energy insecurity, economic shocks, geopolitical shifts, humanitarian challenges and technological vulnerabilities. In this context, the EU’s adaptive resilience is evident on several fronts, such as the integration of its economic policies with security (particularly in critical sectors), its role in the European security architecture and its commitment to incorporating Ukraine into the West. The study expands to include the flexible management of mass migration, tech vulnerabilities, energy resilience, economic stability, geopolitical alliances, humanitarian response action and technological reinforcement.

Taking Guatemala as a case study, this paper reflects on the neoliberal power and knowledge elite. Based on Michael Mann’s theory of social power and research on power structure, as well as network analysis, the study explores Guatemala’s domestic network of right-wing/neoliberal think tanks and detects the key links and core nuclei within it. Using real data, the analysis reveals the business connections between the staff of these neoliberal think tanks. The paper is thus the first reflection on those in privileged positions of power within the think tank network and the capacity this gives them to establish contacts and transfer knowledge to the fields of economic and ideological power.

Since 2014 and Russia's annexation of Crimea and the start of hostilities in Donbass, the West has shown unprecedented solidarity in imposing sanctions on Russia. Yet Asia-Pacific's response to the Ukraine crisis has been different. While Japan and New Zealand imposed symbolic sanctions, South Korea refrained from introducing any measures at all. The main objective of this paper is to explore the response of the Asia-Pacific region to the Ukrainian crisis and the underlying motivations behind these stances. From a perspective of sanctions coordination and alliance behaviour theory, this paper examines the interaction between domestic and international factors when states decide whether or not to join international sanctions coalitions.

This paper analyses the effects on Belarus of European Union (EU) sanctions against Russia, on the one hand, and Russian sanctions on Ukrainian and EU goods, on the other. International sanctions opened up new political and economic opportunities that the Belarusian authorities sought to capitalise on. But Minsk's attempts to swim between two waters (retaining the benefits Moscow offered while improving relations with the EU) have backfired and distrust towards Minsk has grown in Moscow, Brussels and Kiev. A theoretical approach is made to the foreign policy of small states, before this paper shows how Belarus has been harmed by its attempts to take advantage of EU and Russian sanctions regimes.

In a world of growing international competition and rivalry between China and the United States, Latin America and the European Union (EU) are caught in the same thorny dilemma. Positioned between these global giants, both regions are facing a retorn to a Westphalian system of nation-states, which undermines their roles as emerging regional players. In view of these new global challenges in Latin America and the EU, this paper uses a qualitative and comparative approach to explore foreign policy discourses on autonomy in both regions. It examines their goals and priorities and assesses the potential regional and interregional consequences.

This paper examines the ties between Latin America and Asia by moving beyond the homogenisation of the two regions through elevating the importance of opposition to a third party, in this case an “imperialist” and developed North. In contrast to normative analyses based on outmoded conceptions of world history, it proposes an intellectual exercise that problematises the interregional bond by placing the emphasis on heterogeneities rather than broad bush approaches that ignore the complex and diverse national and regional realities.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, better known as the RCEP, is a free trade agreement signed by 15 countries from the Asia-Pacific region in November 2020. It took effect in January 2022. After presenting an overview of the agreement, this paper looks at the negotiations and the current state of the RCEP. It then focuses on its basic content, particularly from a legal standpoint, as it analyses the institutional framework, the decision rule, its legal sources and the dispute settlement system, without omitting to look at the agreement from an economic perspective.

Cuba's new Fundamental Law, passed on February 24th 2019, is considered the next step in the structural changes that have taken place in the country. These changes create uncertainties, increase social vulnerability and highlight spaces subject to greater risks. This paper forms part of the current debate on Cuba’s transformation, based on knowledge of its socioeconomic reality and the thinking of Poland's “transitology” school. The text of the country's new constitution is analysed through this comparison. Based on the conviction that individual and collective actions in Cuban society increase the unpredictability of the process of change, this paper aims to suggest that the text of the new constitution manifests the imponderables of the Cuban transformation.

As formally democratic political systems around the world become authoritarian neoliberal regimes, counter-movements are emerging in the form of municipalist platforms. In this context, the post-Yugoslav space is witnessing the confluence of protests that produce initiatives of this type, for example in Zagreb and Belgrade. These practices can only be understood when looking at specific local conditions and general structural conditions. In this paper, the emergence of new municipalisms in both cities is the starting point for analysing a specific set of contradictions and initiatives. They in turn form part of a broader development framed by the turbulence of the ten years that followed the crisis and which potentially represent democratic ruptures in neoliberal authoritarian nation-states. This paper therefore investigates their societal conditions of existence and the role state apparatuses can play as the settings for emancipatory struggles.

This paper focuses on the opportunity, in the short and medium term, for a Colombia that is an OECD member and NATO partner to face the challenges of the public security transition, despite no explicit mention of it appearing in the Peace Agreement (or Final Agreement). To do this, an anomaly will have to be overcome: the so-called “Lleras Camargo duality”, which has facilitated excessive decisional autonomy of the security forces, scant parliamentary control and insufficient political leadership of defence. The paper is divided into contextual and a priori sections, with another analytical section focussing on conceptual clarifications and practical lessons of a comparative nature. The final part is dedicated to Colombia’s particularities and the presentation of a proposal for addressing eight major challenges: three general, two focused on external security, and three on internal security. Colombia, peace process, transition, security, security forces, non-political direct violence

Trilateral South-South Cooperation (TSSC) for development has generated great debate over whether these alliances constitute a new paradigm for development or merely disguise a new form of imperialism. Beyond categorisations, this paper presents a more nuanced image and examines the focus of TSSC solidarity, specifically, the intrinsically political nature of development and the unequal power relations at its heart. Starting with the TSSC memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Brazil, Mozambique and the World Bank, the narratives are analysed of agricultural development and the social imaginaries that support it in order to better understand the patterns and motivations of solidarity. By showing the colonial, capitalist and patriarchal rationale that persists in the conception of solidarity used in the current development framework, this paper proposes the decolonisation of this concept.

This paper explores the relations between the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and China from a historical perspective. To do this it addresses the genesis and content of DAC’s “altruistic paradigm” and China’s “realist paradigm”, highlighting their differences. It also analyses DAC’s efforts and failure to co-opt China into the effective aid agenda: while China refuses to become a donor – citing its Southern identity – the DAC is resistant to recognising China as a co-operator with different responsibilities. The paper goes on to illustrate how, in order to survive “unfair competition”, the DAC incorporates elements from China and the South into its narrative and cooperation practices. Lastly, China’s move towards a more assertive foreign policy is explored along with the dynamic of relations between the DAC and China – between competition and convergence – in an uncertain international context.

Official Development Assistance (ODA) has been paradigmatically constituted as an objective, universal and appropriate formula for countries to progress. But ODA is not neutral. This paper examines the evolution of ODA in the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) using the neo-Gramscian concept of hegemony. This perspective takes hegemony to be the articulation and justification of particular interests presented and accepted as general interests. Hegemony is therefore the conjunction of material power with the dissemination of an image of the world order and the presence of institutions that manage that order. This paper seeks to emphasise the need for theoretical reflection as a tool for demystifying ODA practices to allow an alternative model of development to be constructed.

The aim of this introductory paper is to contextualise, via a historiographical reflection, the nine papers selected for this special edition of Revista CIDOB d’Afers Internacionals, which focuses on “using past international cooperation to rethink development”, prioritising “alternative critical approaches”. As the historical perspective is missing from most publications in this shared field of Development Studies and International Relations, this introduction presents original works - for their empirical, comparative and/or theoretical contribution - in contrast to the prevailing interpretative frameworks (interdependentist from International Relations, and problem-solving from Development Studies), giving a voice to authors and problems from the countries of the South both as aid recipients and as cooperation providers.

This paper aims to describe the historical evolution of the cooperation between the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) and Mexico following the signing of their cooperation agreement in August 1975, which remained in effect until COMECON’S demise in 1991. To this end, a brief analysis is made of the antecedents of this international body, which was created within the so-called socialist bloc, and a review is conducted of the body’s conception of international cooperation. After covering the historical context behind the mentioned agreement’s negotiation, its legal framework, context and scope are reviewed. This paper thereby seeks to contribute to the historical memory of cooperation policy and its international regime, with particular reference to COMECON and Mexico in the period known as the Cold War.

In the second decade of the 21st century, Mercosur is faced with two potentially influential politico-normative proposals: the EU’s and China’s. This paper analyses the content and scope of these two politico-normative approaches, as well as their respective impacts on the regional bloc in the context of domestic changes in the governments of Argentina and Brazil. The paper states that Mercosur has produced two external strategies: interregional with the EU and bilateral with China. There are structural limitations to this strategy as well as some that relate to Mercosur’s domestic policies, but it contains the foundations for the bloc’s normative convergence with these extraregional actors and ultimately a positive-sum game.

This paper examines the impact on Indian democracy of current Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s populism. Our analysis argues that populism has been a useful tool in the deepening of democracy in India. Appealing to the “people” as a political construct with a broad social base has helped to transcend traditional identity cleavages. But in contrast to that form of transversal and inclusive populism, the subject of this paper is Modi’s current version, which is built on a form of Hinduist exclusivism. Such a narrative of exclusion endangers the social contract born out of the idea of India as unity in diversity.

There have been several overlapping crises in North Africa in recent decades. The social contract is in crisis, and this became clear during the antiauthoritarian uprisings of 2011 to 2019. In addition, the region is locked in a socioeconomic crisis that deepened after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and has been aggravated by the global impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This paper underscores the need to reflect on the legitimation of the North African elites in this context, looking at the connection between the domestic and international spheres. It also presents various legitimation strategies that take in the interaction between the domestic and external spaces. This approach seeks to enrich the debate on the relationship between authoritarianism, its legitimation and the international dimension.

This paper addresses three features that characterise the authoritarian restoration following what is known as the Arab springs of 2011: a) the recourse to technocratic governments, b) the proliferation of discourses on the depoliticisation of governance and c) the postponement of the renegotiation of the old social contracts. Added to this is the importance of the international nexus, given that strategic allied states at a global level and international financial institutions embrace a formula that ensures stability and facilitates the implementation of neoliberal reforms. However, this authoritarian technopopulism fails to address the economic demands of the population, nor does it provide avenues of political inclusion or a framework for drawing up a new social contract; at best, it serves momentarily as a structure to contain the protests.

This paper examines the role played by leaders figures from the Moroccan diaspora as potential instruments of legitimation for the Moroccan state and traditional elites, not just on an international scale and among the Moroccan communities living abroad, but also on a domestic level. Through the case study of specific events that happened to two prominent figures from the Moroccan community in Spain – rapper and songwriter Morad and football player Achraf Hakimi – in 2022, it analyses the legitimation strategies – cooption or coercion – that the Moroccan state employs to ensure that the stance taken in terms of politics and identity, as well as the cultural production, of leaders figures from the diaspora are aligned with its interests and principles at all times.

The popular movement in Algeria against a fifth presidential term for Abdelaziz Bouteflika in February 2019 – known as the Hirak – laid bare the population’s discontent with a political regime incapable of satisfying its demands for dignity and political freedoms. In the face of the Hirak, the military took control again, imposing a road map aimed at re-establishing institutional normality. But neither Bouteflika’s resignation nor fresh elections served to give the new government the mantle of legitimacy of power, a fragility that it tried to offset by reviving traditional means – like historical legitimacy – and deploying a strategy on the international stage designed to win the support of international partners. This paper addresses the process of co-construction of a narrative with the aim of legitimising the political reconstitution of the post-Hirak Algerian regime, based on the examples of Spain and France.

More than a decade since the outbreak of the revolution in 2011, Libya remains mired in a political crisis and institutionally fragmented, having been the scene of two civil wars. This paper looks at the interrelationship between the national and international dimensions of the conflict to illustrate how the various rival political elites project an image of the country to the outside world (branding) in order to boost their national and international legitimacy, obtain material support and strengthen their bargaining position in the peace processes. To that end, it studies the discourses of the Libyan political elites in three periods: the first Libyan civil war (2011) and the transition phase, the second civil war (2014-2020) and the failed attempt to hold presidential elections in 2021.

There have been major geopolitical changes on the international landscape over the last three years, not to mention the consolidation of other transformations with deeper roots. To what extent, and how, does this new international context reframe the prospects of firming up the “agreement in principle” between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur approved in 2019? Working from an eclectic theoretical framework, which combines geopolitical and geoeconomic approaches with consideration of the impact of material and ideational factors, this paper takes a longitudinal view, drawing on a wide variety of sources, to try to shed light on the chances and prospects of an agreement of this type in the new global settings.

As the introduction to the 40th anniversary issue of Revista CIDOB d’Afers Internacionals, this paper looks at developments in international relations over the last four decades, alongside the publication’s content and against the backdrop of the current crisis of the international order (or disorder). It spans the end of the Cold War and the faith deposited in globalisation and liberal democracy in the unipolar world of the mid-1990s, taking in the spread of the values and ideas of global governance at the end of the last century, before arriving at the growing multipolarity, rivalry between China and the United States and the challenge to the liberal order and permacrisis of recent years. Special mention is made of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

«Norm shifts are to ideational theorist what changes in the balance of power are to the realists» (Finnemore y Sikkink, 1998) The liberal international order established after the end of the Cold War is currently an order in transition. The shift in material power – following the rise of China – is necessary to understanding the changes in the international order, but it is not the whole story. We are seeing both material and ideational changes. The present moment is one of rules under challenge. But the normative contestation the international order is facing is not just about the rivalry between China and the United States or the tired description of “the rest against the West”; its parameters are more complex and diverse. To demonstrate that, this paper looks at three very different issues on the international agenda: a) governance of the Internet, b) sexual and reproductive rights and c) migration management.

What is democracy’s place in the shifting international order? There is a fear that an order of a more geopolitical nature will only aggravate the general crisis of democracy; or that a more plural order will dilute the efforts to defend the rules governing it. Yet, while recent political and normative trends corroborate this concern, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has to a certain extent highlighted the importance of defending democratic values throughout the world. This paper explores the impact that geopolitical tensions and the current changes in the international order are having on democracy globally. And in the context of the crisis of meaning affecting democracies, it examines whether Russia’s war in Ukraine has served both as a catalyst of the international dimensions of support for democracy and as a factor magnifying its fragility.

The network structures that have arisen out of globalisation could provide an alternative means of addressing major global challenges (climate change, mitigation of its effects or the prevention of pandemics). Cities increasingly consider themselves “actors motivated by interests” and they turn to urban diplomacy and interest-based networks to change the conversation – and, ultimately, the power structure – of multinational governance. Starting with a definition of what urban power is, this paper examines the rise of urban networks and their leverage of data to claim a more active role in the face of their nation-states, and on a global scale. Drawing on two brief case studies – the C40 network and Voluntary Local Reviews – it points to possible ways forward for urban networks of influence in the short term.

This paper is based on an understanding of the global immigration control regime as one of legal violence. It analyses the specialist literature that reveals the existence of an economy of deportability, understood as the unequal distribution of the forms of state power in the lives and freedoms of non-nationals, with gender playing a preponderant role. Taking a gender perspective, a selection of texts from the past two decades are reviewed that analyse the deportation and anti-trafficking apparatus in Europe, the United States and South America. The literature corroborates the existence of a gendered economy of deportability that generates social suffering that, in different ways and to differing degrees, shapes the (im)migrant presence in the national order.

This paper analyses the backgrounds of LGBT+ migrants living in Chile, and considers the various types of violence they experience at the intersection of vectors of differentiation: national origin, sexual orientation–gender identity and socioeconomic position, as well as markers of ethnicity and racialisation. The results show that many LGBT+ migrants leave their place of origin not only because of social and economic factors, but also due to the discrimination and violence they experience due to their sexual or gender identity, which is known as sexile. These forms of violence occur throughout their migrant experience in ways that vary but are nevertheless constant. In the context of migrant reception in Chile, the presence of these people poses a double threat to the State’s hetero(cis)patriarchal order, on the one hand, and the national order, on the other, straining the conventional idea of ​​citizenship.

The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic to hit Africa (February–September 2020) was not particularly virulent either in terms of cases detected or lethality. However, the presence of the virus and the subsequent restrictions exacerbated pre-existing inequalities based on ethnicity, class and gender. This paper analyses the impacts of the pandemic on refugee women, who are subject to "structural vulnerability" and "multisystemic violence" in Africa. After analysing the ten African countries with the largest refugee populations, the different forms and levels of these impacts are systematised, along with the consequences and implications for refugee women in the long term, highlighting the need for strategies to be adopted towards this group at various levels.

In recent years, forced marriage as a manifestation of violence against women has entered the public agenda in European Union countries. This is partly due to higher numbers of migrants from regions where it is a regular practice. This paper aims to show the different ways violence manifests itself in forced marriage, both symbolically and practically – in terms of experiences – based on a qualitative sample of women with a range of migration backgrounds residing in Catalonia. The intersectional gender approach of the analysis enables the interaction to be considered of various factors when it comes to understanding contexts of risk and violence, as well as exit strategies from forced marriage.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of Moroccan women crossed the border between Melilla and Morocco on a daily basis to work in domestic employment, a consolidated niche sector of cross-border employment for low-skilled working-class women. When the border closed due to COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, many decided to remain in Melilla. Following the precepts of grounded theory and using biographical interviews, the paper investigates the survival strategies these women deployed following the border closure. An ambivalent process began: on the one hand, their labour conditions worsened, exposing them to worse situations of violence; on the other, they developed strategies of resistance and agency, assuming the role of breadwinner for their families and opting for a process of emancipation through inclusion and training opportunities in the city of Melilla.

The memories of boys and girls who migrate contain past and present experiences of countries of origin and destination, as well as experiences of movement. This paper presents the results of research that aims to identify how migrant children’s memories are constructed around experiences of violence and practices of agency. From the perspective of the new social studies of childhood and based on a field study in the city of Barcelona, ​​it shows that in various spaces violence is conditioned by a web of power relations and vectors of differentiation (ethnicity, gender, nationality, age). It concludes that these memories strain the conception of violence against children as an individual, domestic/private problem, and generate meanings that facilitate agency for such childhoods in the present, going beyond vulnerability and subordination.