Pitches wanted (militarism) | $250 per article

COMPANY/PUBLICATION: NACLA REPORT

Deadline: 21 April 2023

Heather Gies, Managing Editor at NACLA Report, is looking for pitches:

NACLA is currently accepting proposals for an issue on militarism in the Americas. Send us your pitches by April 21, 2023.

In 1998, as the Washington Consensus took hold across the hemisphere, the NACLA Report issue “Militarized Democracy in the Americas” documented the expansive role of Armed Forces as the “guardians” of Latin America’s new democracies. Whether in the name of fighting drug trafficking, protecting borders, boosting citizen security, or containing popular discontent, militaries remained at the ready to defend the increasingly neoliberal order. Free markets, as the editors of the issue noted, “sometimes have to be imposed by decree.”

In recent decades, analyses of democratization, political power, and the transformation of states under the guise of investor-friendly policies have paid too little attention to the role of militaries as guarantors or saboteurs of political processes in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America, focusing largely instead on civilian state actors and the private sector. Yet since the last issue of the NACLA Report on militarism nearly 25 years ago, maneuvering by military men has at times gained visibility. In Venezuela, military expenditures exploded under President Hugo Chávez, a former army officer. In Honduras, soldiers were instrumental in removing President Manuel Zelaya in 2009, as they had been in ousting President Jean Bertrand Aristide in Haiti in 1991. More recently, in Brazil, active-duty officers filled the ranks of former army captain Jair Bolsonaro’s government.

The Winter 2023 issue of the NACLA Report, guest edited by Dawn Marie Paley, will return to the question of militarism in the Americas today to help understand the continuity and change in the role of the armed forces in the hemisphere in the 21st century.

We’re interested in receiving pitches on the following themes, as well as related topics not listed below:

• Beyond the School of the Americas: the geography of U.S. military influence in Latin America and the Caribbean
• Border militarization, from Chile to the United States
• Military surveillance of feminist, Indigenous, and popular movements
• States of exception: putting the constitution on hold in El Salvador and Honduras
• Present and future of military courts in Latin America and the Caribbean
• Ongoing legal battles against military impunity for crimes committed in the 1980s (Guatemala, El Salvador)
• Impacts of Canada’s “Operational Support Hub” in Jamaica
• Making sense of the U.S. military occupation of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
• Reflections on the end of dictatorship and the constitutional processes that followed in Argentina and Uruguay
• Plurinational sovereignty and military power in Bolivia
• Interactions between militaries and left or nominally left-wing governments
• Costa Rica’s abolition of the military and the push to remilitarize
• Understanding paramilitary gangs and foreign military intervention in Haiti

For articles, we are interested in pieces that examine specific, narrowly defined topics and are written in a lively, accessible manner. We give preference to articles that are based on original research and interviews.

Please send a brief pitch (250 words) outlining the thrust and tone of your proposed piece by April 21, 2023 to managing editor Heather Gies at hgies@nacla.org. We will respond to pitches by May 5. Drafts of accepted articles (2,500-3,500 words) will be due August 14, 2023.

Pitches and accepted articles may be submitted in English, Spanish, or Portguese. NACLA offers a small honorarium of $250 to contributors who depend on writing as their primary source of income.

CONTACT INFORMATION (please do not share the email address publicly):

• Questions/submissions: hgies@nacla.org
• Website: https://nacla.org

TO HELP YOU CRAFT YOUR PITCH:

• Learn more about the publication: NACLA's mission is to provide information and analysis on Latin America and on its complex and changing relationship with the United States. Its quarterly magazine of news and analysis, NACLA Report, serves as a tool for education and advocacy, aiming to foster knowledge beyond borders. More information here.
• Read through a selection of recent articles/stories on its website.
• Review the submission guidelines here. Note that these are the publication's general guidelines to help you refine your pitch. You must still follow the editor's specific instructions above.
• Check out our collection of pitch excerpts on this page and find more sample pitches at The Open Notebook and at SuccessfulPitches.com.
• Do not forget to end your pitch with (1) a short introduction about yourself; (2) a few lines highlighting your writing experience, relevant credentials and publication credits; and (3) links to your strongest work or portfolio, and online profile.

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