Relações Internacionais

"In the past few years, China and Brazil have significantly strengthened their economic and political relations. Until the 2000s the relationship between the two countries was limited and, in several dimensions, even negligible. However, in less than a decade, China became Brazil’s largest trading partner and main investor and the two countries intensified coordination in multilateral and bilateral organizations.

The impact of China on Brazil’s economy in the last decade was interpreted and conveyed in different ways by Brazilian domestic actors. Among them, Vale, the country’s largest mining company, and FIESP, an influential industry association, stood out as the most active ones in the debate about the “China effect”. The paper analyzes how these actors employed the “China effect” narrative and the meanings they assigned to it. The paper argues that Vale and FIESP used this narrative not only to influence the country’s economic policy towards China, but also to legitimize their agendas, to gain political leverage and to secure the government’s support in terms of regulation and public investment. The “China effect” narrative was important for Vale to justify the expansion of its domestic operations and for FIESP to push for lower taxes and interest rates for the manufacturing sector."

The EU and USA proposed Transatlantic Free Trade Area (TAFTA) or Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a free trade agreement (FTA) whose necessity is argued on the basis that it not only has the potential to cover over 50% of global trade in the near future, but also that it will: revitalize the transatlantic partnership, foster trade, create jobs, increase effciency due to intensifed bi-regional competition, besides start forming a counterweight to the Asian and Pacifc rise.

Accordingly, our paper aims to shed new light on the TAFTA | TTIP debate by addressing its critical aspects and, in particular, by analyzing the negative effects of its underlying spatial reconfigurations. The application of the Deleuzian concepts of deterritorialization and reterritorialization leads to a series of theoretical considerations that explain how TAFTA | TTIP: 1) creates space through the contractual integration of two regions and/or volitional balancing of others, 2) limits space through the exchange of surveillance data and heightened institutional control over the internet, and 3) expands space through legal homogenization and common regulatory standards.

"Foreign policy making in Brazil is traditionally characterized as a highly centralized and hierarchical process in which the Ministry of Foreign Relations, also known as Itamaraty, has been the most important actor. In this context, the room for external influence, either from other state institutions or from society, has been very little. However, with the re-democratization process and economic liberalization in the 1990’s, Brazil’s foreign policy steadily became more diversified.

The substantial intensification of relations with China since the beginning of the 2000’s deepened this tendency. In just a decade, China became not only Brazil’s largest trading partner, but also its largest investor. The two countries also improved their political cooperation by working closer in bilateral and multilateral institutions. Drawing on the concept of network governance, the paper discusses how Brazil coped with the intensification of the partnership with China. It challenges the view of China policy as an exclusive territory of the Ministry of Foreign Relations and argues that the policy is a result of the active and recurrent cooperation between public and private corporate actors. The paper analyses the processes underlying the relations among these actors and discusses the impact of the network on the foreign policy towards China."

Brazil has progressively strengthened its relations with China since 2004. The two countries deepened their commercial links and, as a result, China became, in 2009, Brazil’s biggest trading partner, surpassing the USA that had held this position for more than eighty years. They have also further improved the quality of their political cooperation by setting up, for the first time, high-level bilateral institutions. Both countries have also been working together within the G-20, the BRICS and the WTO.
The intensification of the relations with China introduced a degree of novelty to Brazil’s foreign policy since for most of its history the country has focused mostly on three sets of partners: the USA, the neighbouring countries and Europe. Drawing on theories of foreign policy change, the paper aims at assessing the sources and the magnitude of Brazil’s alteration of foreign policy. Instead of placing the causes for this shift exclusively in the international and domestic structures, the paper analyses how political leaders, bureaucratic and non-governmental actors, working within these structures, acted upon the foreign policy decision-making process forcing the change. The paper studies these actors’ ideas and interests suggesting an interpretation of Brazil’s foreign policy change based on a structure-agency discussion.

The first decade of the twenty-first century witnessed a sharp intensification of the relations between China and Brazil. The two countries deepened their commercial links and, as a result, Brazil became China’s largest trading partner in Latin America. They have also further improved the quality of their political cooperation
by setting up, for the first time, high-level bilateral institutions. Both countries have also been working together within multilateral institutions and mechanisms. The economic causes and impacts of this phenomenon have been widely discussed, but little however has been said about its specific political and strategic dimensions. In order to fill this gap, this article suggests an analysis that looks at the historical context of the relationship between China and Brazil, and sets up an enquiry into the most relevant domestic actors and at the strategic meanings behind their partnership.
The goal here is twofold. Firstly, to analyse the role of domestic actors in the intensification of this partnership. Secondly, to discuss to what extent this intensification may be seen as evidence of any strategic interest of China and Brazil to put in place a more proactive, wilful and global foreign policy intended to shape globalisation and the world order.

In the last few years China and Brazil have drastically strengthened their strategic partnership. Besides the exponential growth in trade and investments, both countries have also reinforced their political ties. They are working together in several international forums and organisations like WTO, G-20 and BRICS.
Against this background, the aim of the paper is twofold. First, it analyses the reasons that underlie the intensification of the cooperation between China and Brazil. It argues that the intensification of the cooperation between them does not result from a fixed interest to increase relative power, but is instead the product of the interplay between national governments and domestic actors aimed at enhancing their particular interests in times of globalisation. Second, it evaluates how this partnership assigns new meanings to South-South cooperation

Panelists from around the world presented on more than 20 topics related to global politics. The participants included university professors, students, experts and researchers from over 15 countries and five continents. Participating researchers came from policy institutes, think tanks, and consultancies. Plus non-governmental organizations, socio-political activist groups, and civil society organizations were also represented.

A short videoclip on China Day - an event held within the Cultural Week of the University of Coimbra. The event was attended by the Chinese Ambassador to Portugal, the Rector of the University of Coimbra and the Mayor of Coimbra. The goal was to discuss the role of Macau and of the University of Coimbra in the relations between China and the Portuguese Speaking Countries.

We talked with Sebastian Meyer for the newsletter of the Graduate School of Global Politics, Freie Universität Berlin about the organization of an international conference on global politics held in April which brought to Berlin participants from more than 15 countries.

I was on the show to discuss large-scale sporting events, looking specifically at Brazil’s case, making the point that there are negative implications for the country organizing the event.

I argued that instead of looking at Brazil as a single case, it is necessary to ask: what purposes do large-scale events like the ‪‎World Cup‬ or the ‪‎Olympics‬ serve in today’s capitalist system?

The focus solely on the host country (currently ‪‎Brazil‬) is misleading since we inevitably end up comparing and contrasting experiences, showing that some are better at organizing the event than others. This is the meritocracy narrative (a neoliberal bastion) applied to major events hosting. It is a dangerous narrative not only because it generates patronizing attitudes (like the ones about Brazil), but also because it distracts us from realizing that the negative implications of these large-scale events are not particular to a country, but shared by the majority of the host countries. Greeks, South Africans, Brazilians, Portuguese, Poles, Ukrainians (just to mention a few) can all complain about the large stadiums of little use after the event, massive public spending and rising housing prices.