BETWEEN NATIONAL ATTACHMENTS, ROOTED GLOBALISM, AND BORDERLESS UTOPIAS: SEARCHING FOR IMAGINED COMMUNITIES IN LATIN AMERICA’S BOOMING ECONOMIC RELATIONS WITH THE ARAB WORLD By KEVIN B. FUNK A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2016 © 2016 Kevin B. Funk To Macarena, our growing family, and the struggle for a better world ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research project, like all products of human creation, represents the collectively harvested fruit of the efforts of many. It has benefited enormously from the participation and interventions of countless family members, friends, compañeros, students, and colleagues, only some of whom I am able to acknowledge here. In particular, I would like to recognize the direct and indirect contributions of: my dissertation chair, Ido Oren, for his incisive comments, critical disposition, and ready willingness to allow me to pursue my interests in accordance with my values, along with my other committee members—Aida Hozic, Leann Brown, Philip Williams, and Matthew Jacobs—for their guidance, support, and mentorship; Sue and Pat, for their behind-the- scenes efforts; the many teachers, ranging from Chris Warnick to Dan O'Neill, who labored doggedly to cultivate my critical faculties and challenged me to set out on my own intellectual journeys, along with the many students for whom I hope to have done the same; my fellow activists in the union movement, for their dedication, solidarity, and unwillingness to be atomized and alienated through the inhospitable and individualistic professionalization structures and practices that surround us; and Mauro Caraccioli and Sebastián Sclofsky, for their amistad, along with the former’s sunny disposition in the face of adversity and the latter’s righteous indignation over the injustices that surround us, and their collective insistence that we engage in “a ruthless criticism of everything existing” (Marx 1843a). I would be remiss if I did not also acknowledge the numerous contacts— academic and otherwise—in the U.S., Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and the United Arab Emirates who made my fieldwork experiences both possible and more productive, as well as my (unremunerated) research assistants—Andy García, Jany 4 Méndez, Stephanie Quintao, and Juan Diego Tibaduiza—for their careful investigatory work and creative insights, and my dozens of interviewees, who generously made time in their busy schedules to allow me—a stranger—to ask probing questions about their goals, ambitions, and inner worlds. A note of appreciation is also due to the University of Florida Department of Political Science, Graduate School, Honors Program, and Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere for having funded this research— including several international trips—at its various stages, as well as to the Center for Latin American Studies for its provision of a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, awarded through the U.S. Department of Education, that enabled my further study of Brazilian Portuguese. Special praise is owed to my family: to my late mother, Margaret, whose kindness, compassion, and endless reservoirs of loving support will forever be a source of inspiration; to my father, Bruce, paragon of the Pennsylvania Dutch values of hard work, selflessness, and humility, to whom I will always be thankful not only for having instilled these traits in me, but for always being there, through thick and thin; to my sister, Jessica, for her many years of putting up and engaging with a thoroughly contrarian younger brother, her unwavering commitment to education, and that surprise trip to Chile; and to my aunt Judy for her unparalleled generosity. Finally, to Macarena, my eternal interlocutor and companion ever since our paths unexpectedly and fatefully crossed during a bohemian night in “el” puerto. Her ability to deliver well timed reality checks, her boundless love, support, sincerity, patience, sense of adventure, and—yes—her lack of pelos en la lengua have made both this intellectual effort and indeed all of life’s journeys decidedly more meaningful and enjoyable than I 5 had thought possible. I will forever be fortunate for having found tanta buena onda. And to the pequeño regalito, and the lifetime of escapades, que nos esperan. Marx once wrote that, “there is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining the luminous summits” (quoted in: Tucker 1978, p. xix). To the extent that I have begun the ascent, I have not done so alone. Any shortcomings in the below analysis are my own. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 11 “Tomorrow Thinks Borders Are So Yesterday”: Or, Why We Should Pay Attention to Global Capitalism and Global Capitalist Elites .................................. 15 The Argument: On Rooted Globalism and the Stickiness of National Imaginaries in a Globalizing World .......................................................................................... 20 Methodology and Case Selection ........................................................................... 28 Chapter Outline ....................................................................................................... 34 2 PROGRESS AND LACUNAE IN THE STUDY OF THE GLOBAL CAPITALIST CLASS .................................................................................................................... 36 Global and Transnational Capitalists: The Genesis of a Concept ........................... 39 Transnationalism: From a “World” Economy to a “Global” Economy ...................... 46 An “Imagined Community” of Transnational Capitalists .......................................... 54 Who’s a Global Capitalist? ...................................................................................... 67 Argument: The “Need for Nuance” and an Interpretive Approach ........................... 74 3 HOW LATIN AMERICA MET THE ARAB WORLD ................................................. 90 The Global North Discipline of IR and the Specter of South-South Relations ......... 94 Immigration and Diaspora: The Making of a Political-Economic Elite ................... 103 Foreign Policy and Commercial Relations ............................................................ 113 Toward a Political Economy of Arab-Latin American Relations ............................ 118 4 BETWEEN GOD, COUNTRY, ETHNICITY, AND CLASS: THE COMPETING WORLDVIEWS OF LATIN AMERICA’S “GLOBAL” CAPITALISTS ...................... 127 Turco Race/Ethnicity (and Class) in Neoliberal Latin America .............................. 135 God before Class? ................................................................................................ 137 On National, Transnational, and Global Class Identities ....................................... 139 Summary of Argument .......................................................................................... 142 5 THE TRADITION OF DEAD GENERATIONS: ON THE PERSISTENCE OF NATIONAL AND TRANSNATIONAL LONGINGS ................................................ 145 Vignette #1: Antonio Aramouni ............................................................................. 148 7 Vignette #2: Nawfal Assa Mossa Alssabak and Jalal Jamel Dawood Chaya........ 156 Vignette #3: Jorge Daccarett ................................................................................ 166 Analysis and Conclusions ..................................................................................... 188 6 “THEY DO NOT…HAVE A PATRIA [HOMELAND], THEY ONLY HAVE BANK ACCOUNTS”: ON DENATIONALIZATION AND GLOBALITY .............................. 195 Vignette #1: Daniel Melhem .................................................................................. 198 Vignette #2: Michel Alaby ..................................................................................... 206 Vignette #3: José Sepúlveda Torres ..................................................................... 216 Analysis and Conclusions ..................................................................................... 225 7 ROOTED GLOBALISM, FUTURE HORIZONS, AND THE SPECTER OF THE GLOBAL CAPITALIST CLASS ............................................................................. 231 “Rooted Globalism”: A Latin American Category .................................................. 233 Catch Me if You Can: On the Political Uses of Global Discourses ........................ 239 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 250 8 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 253 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 258 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 279 8 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor