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"William, when I went into the jungle, I was seventeen. When I walked out I was twenty-one. And, by God, I was rich!"Arthur Miller,Death of a Salesman, Act IFortunes magically and mysteriously made on vast continents overseas have tempted western entrepreneurs for generations, much as Uncle Ben tempted Willie Loman. But these exploits also involve machinations which appear sinister to a general public increasingly disturbed by the control giant corporations have over our daily lives. As long ago as 1900, John Hobson developed the theory that modern imperial expansion was the product of the manipulation of national foreign policies by the "Rand lords" and similar overseas financial operators. This idea was used by Lenin, Hilferding and others in their elaborations of the Marxist explanation of the nexus between economic forces and the political behaviour of states. Imperialism in tropical Africa was always seen as a key issue in this context. With the onset of decolonization and the struggle for development, questions of the history and the progress of imperialism have remained cogent subjects of intellectual controversy. The historical "scramble for Africa" and the process of colonization which followed created the basis for the modern political map of Africa and modern African political society. To what extent were these developments triggered or determined by the activities of private entrepeneurs? What relevance might the answer have for the contemporary study of international politics? This article seeks to explore these questions in the light of theories of transnational politics. At the same time, the problem of European expansion in Africa provides an important test for the transnational approach, as it relates to the overseas political activity of international business firms.

A striking feature of our times is that private individuals and corporations are engaging increasingly in activities that may result in significant accidental damage to the transnational environment. The international community has responded to this phenomenon by strengthening the transnational accountability of the private actors. Significant efforts have been made to obtain wide international acceptance of the principle of "equal right of access," that is, the right of the actual or potential victim of transnational pollution to have recourse, for the purposes of both prevention and compensation, to the national authorities that exercise jurisdiction or control over the private actor concerned. A similar endeavor is discernible towards ensuring, at least in certain cases, that the private actor will maintain minimal financial resources for compensating victims of accidental transnational pollution damage.

There are a series of conflictive aspects linked to the growing importance that the Antarctic continent has recently acquired; these are manifested in several dimensions: a) the global international system; b) the regional and Latin American subsystem and c) the Antarctic subsystem itself. In this context, issues related to security and strategy aspects; the exploration, exploitation and conservation of oceanic and continental resources and the question of sovereignty claims over vast portions of the territory are issues that attract more and more attention from national, international and transnational actors. This paper aims to provide some considerations on the problems related to the emergence and characteristics of a "New Antarctic Order" that gives rise to the interaction of political, strategic, economic, scientific and technological factors that are already acting intensely within and outside the framework of the Antarctic Treaty. ; Hay una serie de aspectos conflictivos vinculados a la creciente importancia que últimamente ha adquirido el continente antártico, estos se manifiestan en varias dimensiones: a) el sistema internacional global; b) el subsistema regional latinoamericano y c) el subsistema antártico propiamente dicho. En este contexto, los problemas relativos a los aspectos de seguridad y estrategia; la exploración, explotación y conservación de los recursos oceánicos y continentales y la cuestión de los reclamos de soberanía sobre vastas porciones del territorio constituyen temas que atraen cada día mayor atención por parte de actores nacionales, internacionales y transnacionales. El presente trabajo pretende aportar algunas consideraciones sobre los problemas relacionados con el surgimiento y las características de un "Nuevo Orden Antártico" a que da lugar a la interacción de factores políticos, estratégicos, económicos, científicos y tecnológicos que ya se hallan actuando intensamente dentro y fuera del marco del Tratado Antártico.