Marco Vieira | University of Birmingham (original) (raw)

Books and Edited Journal Volumes by Marco Vieira

This edited volume explores the analytical possibilities of contrasting Brazil and the United Kin... more This edited volume explores the analytical possibilities of contrasting Brazil and the United Kingdom as examples of emerging and established powers, respectively. It is organised around several themes focusing on the roles of Brazil and the United Kingdom in the management of global economic governance, international development, international security, the politics of regional integration, global climate change governance, and the political leveraging of sports mega-events. Each chapter explores Brazil’s and/or the UK’s particular foreign policies and their resulting impact on these key areas of global governance and politics. The conceptual focus is on these states’ motivations as either status-seekers (Brazil) or status-maintainers (UK) in the context of a fast moving international landscape. The chapters in this book directly or indirectly indicate that these states wish to draw attention to their aspiring or established positions as key global players through either visible foreign policy action and/or symbolic rhetoric. This book was originally published as a special issue of Global Society.

Southern Africa has the worst HIV/AIDS epidemic in the world. In some states the HIV prevalence i... more Southern Africa has the worst HIV/AIDS epidemic in the world. In some states the HIV prevalence is more than 20% of the adult population. This book shows that, in spite of the formal commitment of Southern African governments to follow the international guidelines for fighting the epidemic and the financial and technical support of powerful donors, three regional states – Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa – presented significant variations in the domestic assimilation of internationally-devised prescriptions for HIV/AIDS action. These international policy guidelines are based on an innovative conceptualisation of security that proclaims the global epidemic a threat to international peace and stability. Drawing upon a new theoretical synthesis between the constructivist literature on international norms and the securitisation scholarship, the study provides an analytical framework for understanding the global securitisation of HIV/AIDS as an international norm. The HIV/AIDS securitisation norm (HASN) is an attempt by the present work to combine in a single concept the myriad of ideas and international prescriptions about HIV/AIDS interventions. By analysing the incorporation of HASN in these three Southern African states, which are highly impacted by HIV/AIDS, the study demonstrates that pre-existing political cultures and s

The South in World Politics is a timely analysis of the influence and effectiveness of developing... more The South in World Politics is a timely analysis of the influence and effectiveness of developing states in shaping the international order from the politics of the Cold War to the challenges of globalization and the rising power of emerging economies. Serving as a mobilizing symbol for a diverse set of developing countries, the idea of the South is part of a strategy for managing relations with the more powerful industrialized North through collective activism in multilateral and regional organizations. Key themes addressed by the book include the dynamic role of leading states like India, Brazil and China, the growing importance of regional organizations and the rise of Southern civil society in shaping the political agenda and the ideological outlook of the global South. Finally, the book focuses on the implications of a raft of new challenges for the security and economic aspirations of developing states.

Os trabalhos reunidos neste livro giram em torno das transformações dos países do assim chamado “... more Os trabalhos reunidos neste livro giram em torno das transformações dos países do assim chamado “Sul Global” na esteira do processo de difusão do poder mundial que se acentuou a partir da década de 2000. Depois de uma década sob o signo da reforma e da adaptação coercitiva dos países em desenvolvimento às premissas do Consenso de Washington, o Sul experimentou mudança acelerada e grande diferenciação entre seus diversos países. É neste contexto que Índia, Brasil e África do Sul constituem a iniciativa pioneira de cooperação no âmbito do Fórum IBAS de 2003. A novidade da cooperação entre três das maiores democracias no Sul é sua dupla natureza. Por um lado, afirmando o legado da antiga coalizão Terceiro-Mundista, mas dela se diferenciando claramente, estes países renovam e atualizam aquela aliança nas negociações da governança global. Por outro, se tornam atores significativos na assim chamada cooperação para o desenvolvimento como doadores relevantes no Sul.
Os textos elaborados para este volume apresentam os resultados de investigações empíricas sobre diversas facetas da inserção global e regional dos países IBAS e contribuem para a emergente bibliografia sobre as consequências sistêmicas e regionais da difusão do poder internacional, das transformações estruturais e crescente heterogeneidade política dos países do Sul, bem como das modalidades da cooperação Sul-Sul.

Journal Articles by Marco Vieira

Article , 2024

In this paper, we examine Brazil's climate/environmental discourse and policy during Jair Bolsona... more In this paper, we examine Brazil's climate/environmental discourse and policy during Jair Bolsonaro's administration (2019–2022), focusing on the relationship between the state leader and the powerful agricultural sector. We address the following question: What factors drove and sustained Bolsonaro's strong connection with Brazilian agribusiness, leading to the normalization of policies and discourses that undermined Brazil's environmental commitments and stance in global climate negotiations? We argue that, by mobilizing and embracing collective experiences and symbols of Brazilian agribusiness and confronting those who were seen as threats to these, Jair Bolsonaro's administration promoted a fantasized and emotionally charged conception of Brazil's national identity that merged the nation to the symbolic orientation of a sub-national group. The inter-subjective constitution of ontological security, through emotional attachments, was the outcome of a temporary symbiosis between these two state/societal actors which embraced and realized a shared fantasy, leading to the normalization of a set of climate policies, discourses, and practices. Drawing on Lacan, we propose that the enjoyment (jouissance), deriving from the inter-relationship between the pursuit of a desired fantasy of nationhood and the fixation on those who were perceived as obstacles to it, was the driving force behind the ontological security aspirations and the accompanying political projects of both state actors and the agricultural sector that persisted even after Bolsonaro's departure from the presidency.

Article, 2023

Who can speak from the perspective of the Global South? In answering this question, Global Intern... more Who can speak from the perspective of the Global South? In answering this question, Global International Relations (IR) finds itself in a cul de sac: rather than globalize IR, Global IR essentializes non-Western categories by associating difference and knowledge to place (countries, regions, and civilizations) which occludes de-territorialized forms of knowledge production. To reach out for these forms of knowledge, we develop the concept of “hybrid subjectivity,” and propose a shift from the macro to the micro. We propose autoethnography as a method to proceed with this move and present two case studies based on our experiences as hybrid IR scholars to illustrate it. In doing so, we demonstrate the relevance of our self-reflexive exercise in deconstructing reified categories and rendering visible new forms of knowledge in the Global IR debate. This article’s conceptualization of hybrid subjectivity enables the recasting of Global IR in a relational, hybrid, and truly global framework for analysis. The argument goes beyond the confines of Global IR and adds essential analytical value to critical, decolonial, and pluriversal critiques of wester-centrism in IR; in the sense of opening new theoretical and empirical possibilities, as an alternative to current intellectual efforts to recover non-colonial or pre-colonial forms of non-Western authenticity.

In this paper, we examine Brazil's international activism and ascent to the status of rising stat... more In this paper, we examine Brazil's international activism and ascent to the status of rising state during the presidencies of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010) and his chosen successor, Dilma Rousseff (2011-2014). We focus on the dissemination of social policies under an innovative model of development that reflected the political and economic context of a developing country. We argue that this activism was framed in terms of Brazil's socioeconomic and cultural peculiarities, whereby these were treated not as obstacles but as positive contributions to developing states' attempts to reform global governance structures. We argue that this reflects an alternative form of foreign policy politicisation in which the social dilemmas, particularities and contradictions of the Brazilian experience are incorporated in the foreign policy agenda to leverage its international stature as a rising state. We explain how Brazil's international cooperation through transferring its public policies and development models (policies for fighting hunger and poverty, agrarian development and income generation) to its Southern partners has been discursively articulated as representing Brazil's normative potential to contribute to political and institutional solutions, and rebuild norms and standards that affect the distribution of international power and wealth.

Postcolonial Studies , 2019

It is argued in this paper that some decolonising strategies in the study of global politics are ... more It is argued in this paper that some decolonising strategies in the study of global politics are precluded by the problem of non-Western authenticity. I question the idea of an identifiable non-Western geo-cultural context that could significantly reconstitute what already is a post-Western subject. I claim that in most cases the asymmetrical encounter between the colonised and the coloniser has fundamentally and extensively redefined human subjectivity in a way that largely negates decolonial emancipatory projects. This is the result of the all-encompassing penetration of Western coloniality (in its political, economic and cultural representations) into the spaces of pre-colonial or uncolonised forms of subjectivity. I draw from Frantz Fanon’s and Jacques Lacan’s theories to argue that attempts to recover non-Western forms of self-identification are useful albeit illusory psychological mechanisms to stabilise hybrid postcolonial subjectivities rather than an actual restoration of non-colonial and purified forms of existing in the world. I suggest that an effective anticolonial politics of resistance will necessarily entail the understanding of post-Western subjectivity in terms of psychological ‘hybridity’ rather than decolonial ‘authenticity’.

In this article, I critically engage with and develop an alternative approach to ontological secu... more In this article, I critically engage with and develop an alternative approach to ontological security informed by Jacques Lacan's theory of the subject. I argue that ontological security relates to a lack; that is, the always frustrated desire to provide meaningful discursive interpretations to one's self. This lack is generative of anxiety which functions as the subject's affective and necessary drive to a continuous, albeit elusive, pursuit of self-coherence. I theorise subjectivity in Lacanian terms as fantasised discursive articulations of the Self in relation to an idealised mirror-image other. The focus on postcolonial states' subjectivity allows for the examination of the anxiety-driven lack generated by the ever-present desire to emulate but also resist the Western other. I propose, therefore, to explore the theoretical assertion that postcolonial ontological security refers to the institutionalisation and discursive articulation of enduring and anxiety-driven affective traces related to these states' colonial pasts that are still active and influence current foreign policy practices. I illustrate the force of this interpretation of ontological security by focusing on Brazil as an example of a postcolonial state coping with the lack caused by its ambivalent/hybrid self-identity.

Born more than half a century ago, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) embodied the collective identit... more Born more than half a century ago, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) embodied the collective identity and aspirations of newly independent nations in Africa and Asia. Since the end of the Cold War, NAM’s relevance has been brought into question given the passing of the geopolitical context that motivated its creation. More recently, in the wake of the NAM’s Tehran meeting in August 2012, myriad analyses have yet again questioned NAM’s political effectiveness and legitimacy as an ideologically coherent vehicle for developing countries’ definition of common positions on a host of global issues. Drawing from the literature on ontological security, I argue that NAM’s enduring relevance, legitimacy and institutional resilience are the result of some of its key member states’ adherence to the core principles of non-alignment. Notwithstanding the profound changes in both the international system and in the political and socio-economic contexts of most NAM’s members since the movement’s creation, these principles have fundamentally shaped their post-colonial identities in international relations. I claim that NAM’s contemporary resilience derives from the stabilising sense of continuity the movement provides by reifying developing states’ shared identity in an increasingly de-centred and uncertain global order.

Strategic Analysis

I argue in this article that the strategic mission for the IBSA states in the coming decades, as ... more I argue in this article that the strategic mission for the IBSA states in the coming decades, as a new normative/ordering power in international relations, is to further its political authority and legitimacy by expanding and refining its South–South development assistance framework. This can be done by integrating new thinking on environmental sustainability as a central—albeit neglected—pillar of their common framework.

Contrary to predominantly materialist accounts of the impact and implications of rising powers in... more Contrary to predominantly materialist accounts of the impact and implications of rising powers in shaping the global order, the present study explores how ideas related to South- South solidarity formed the interests and directed the collective actions of emerging states. It specifically looks at attempts by India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA), through their trilateral development assistance mechanism, the IBSA Fund, to challenge traditional normative frameworks of best behaviour associated to Western/liberal development models. I argue that contemporary South-South initiatives in general and the
India, Brazil and South Africa partnership in particular, are promoting changes in the current political-normative configuration of international relations. Unlike South- South coalitions of the early post-colonial era, such as the Non-Alignment Movement
(NAM) and the G77, when newly independent states in Africa and Asia had moral leverage but were economically weak, leading Southern states have achieved economic gains
that have significantly raised their normative pull. However, their actual impact cannot be fully understood detached from the historical process by which Southern norms were first created and that later guided the foreign policy agendas of these emerging powers. This article shows the resilience of perceptions, values and ideas, which have been translated
into conceptions of ‘distributive justice’ promoted by Southern powers through initiatives such as IBSA.

Global governance, Jan 1, 2011

This article argues that the long-term sustainability of the trilateral partnership established i... more This article argues that the long-term sustainability of the trilateral partnership established in 2003 between India, Brazil, and South Africa (IBSA) rests on a more conscious engagement with their regional partners. The construction of a strong regional leadership role for IBSA based on its members' strategic positions in South Asia, South America, and southern Africa is the proper common ground to legitimize a diplomatic partnership between the IBSA states. This is even more pressing as China is actively competing for markets and influence with the IBSA trio within their respective regions, particularly in Africa. The paradox, though, is that while Northern powers have welcomed the regional leadership role of IBSA's members, most of their neighbors are not convinced of the actual intentions of New Delhi, Brasilia, and Pretoria. As a result, leadership within IBSA is defined in global terms as a claim to lead the developing world. At the regional level, however, IBSA's claim for leadership is less clear, less acceptable, and therefore remains constrained.

This article is an enquiry into Brazil’s evolving responses to global climate change norms. Follo... more This article is an enquiry into Brazil’s evolving responses to global climate change norms. Following an overview of the evolution of international normative frameworks of climate change governance, I examine the relationship between some of these international norms and domestic environmental politics in Brazil. Internationally, the analysis focuses on the North-South political debate about climate change and its role in shaping understandings about the impact and responses to global warming. Domestically, I explore the evolving relationship between state and private actors in the decision-making process. I argue that Brazil’s official position on climate change negotiations is currently influenced by a nationalist/developmental approach based on the particular worldview of the dominant faction within the foreign ministry and backed up by private groups, powerful sectors in the military establishment, key ministries and the presidency. Yet, this worldview has been increasingly undermined/permeated by other state and non-state actors, who are more closely aligned with the environmental concerns of international stakeholders. The ensuing domestic conflict has important implications for the legitimacy and coherence of the Brazilian position in international climate change negotiations.

This article examines how competing claims about energy security and climate change policies play... more This article examines how competing claims about energy security and climate change policies play out in the Brazilian domestic system. It addresses the question of whether the Brazilian government’s recent attempt to unite climate and energy security narratives around the notion of ‘sustainability’ has had a substantive impact on Brazil’s energy policy. Domestic (public and private) and international environmental actors have played an increasingly important role while lobbying the government to include an environmental dimension to its energy security approaches. We argue, however, that environmental and climate change concerns, as conventionally articulated by environmental actors, are not at the core of the government’s energy policy agenda. Environmental results, which have emerged in Brazil as secondary (or fringe) benefits from past energy security policies, have been skilfully captured by the government’s political leadership as a way to promote Brazil’s climate change credentials. The main focus is on the alleged environmental sustainability of hydroelectricity and home-grown biofuels technology as a showpiece of the Brazilian contribution to tackling climate change. To inform this analysis, we provide a conceptual framework which explains the varied interpretations of energy security and their implications for climate change interventions. We then conduct an empirical examination of the interaction between energy and climate policies in Brazil followed by an analysis of the Brazilian negotiating position on multilateral climate meetings. We conclude with some recommendations based on our assessment of the Brazilian experience.

Third World Quarterly, Jan 1, 2005

In the aftermath of 9/11 surely of great significance is the reassertion of the South – North div... more In the aftermath of 9/11 surely of great significance is the reassertion of the South – North divide as a defining axis of the international system. In this context the emergence of a coterie of Southern countries actively challenging the position and assumptions of the leading states of the North is an especially significant event. The activism on the part of three middle-income
developing countries in particular—South Africa, Brazil and India—has resulted in the creation of a ‘trilateralist’ diplomatic partnership, itself a reflection of broader transformations across the developing world in the wake of globalisation. This article will examine the rise of the co-operative strategy known as ‘trilateralism’ by regional leaders within the South. Specifically it will look at the relationship between emerging regional powers in the context of multilateralism, as well as at the formulation and implementation of trilateralism. As with previous co-operative efforts in the developing world, the prospects of success are rooted in overlapping domestic, regional and international influences on South African, Brazilian and Indian foreign policies. The article will conclude with an assessment of these influences over the trilateral agenda.

Review of International Studies, Jan 1, 2006

This article is interested in the impact of a singular international phenomenon, namely the globa... more This article is interested in the impact of a singular international phenomenon, namely the global securitisation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, on the domestic structure of three Southern African states: Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa. These countries are geographically located in the epicenter of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, Southern Africa. However, notwithstanding their common HIV/AIDS burden, Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa present quite different political cultures and institutions which reflected upon the distinctive way they responded to the influence of international HIV/AIDS actors and norms. So, by investigating the latter's impact in these rather diverse settings, the present analysis aims to empirically demonstrate and compare variations in the effects of norm adaptation across states. To carry out this evaluation, the study provides a framework for understanding the securitisation of HIV/AIDS as an international norm defined and promoted mainly by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the US government and transnational HIV/AIDS advocacy networks. The HIV/AIDS securitisation norm (HASN) is an intellectual attempt of the present work to synthesise in a single analytical concept myriad of ideas and international prescriptions about HIV/AIDS interventions.

Brazilian Political Science Review, Jan 1, 2011

This article discusses the emergence in the late 1990s of an innovative conceptualization of secu... more This article discusses the emergence in the late 1990s of an innovative conceptualization of security that proclaims the global HIV/AIDS epidemic a threat to international peace and stability. The study provides a framework for understanding the securitization of the HIV/AIDS epidemic as an international norm defined and promoted mainly by multilateral bodies, powerful states in the North and transnational HIV/AIDS advocacy networks. The HIV/AIDS securitization norm (HASN) is an attempt of the present analysis to synthesize under a single analytical concept the myriad of ideas and international prescriptions about HIV/AIDS interventions. The article identifies the actors who developed the main strategic prescriptions of the HASN and the transnational mechanisms that promoted the diffusion of its concepts throughout the state system.

Contexto Internacional, Jan 1, 2001

The article focuses on the Brazilian foreign policy under Collor’s administration. The main purpo... more The article focuses on the Brazilian foreign policy under Collor’s administration. The main purpose of the study is to explain the relation of autonomy and/or control between the Presidency of the Republic and Itamaraty in the process of decision-making. The article supports the proposition that despite the initial period of liberal self-willingness of the presidential diplomacy, which had as consequence the exclusion of Itamaraty from the process of decision-making, the tradition of Itamaraty’s Globalist Paradigm had an important role in Ministry Celso Lafer’s proposal that the new international agenda should be dealt by the Brazilian diplomacy in a way that would conciliate the historical authority of the diplomatic institution with the dynamic of adaptation demanded by the post-Cold War’s new world order.

Book Chapters by Marco Vieira

Article , 2024

Article, 2023

Postcolonial Studies , 2019

Strategic Analysis

Global governance, Jan 1, 2011

Third World Quarterly, Jan 1, 2005

Review of International Studies, Jan 1, 2006

Brazilian Political Science Review, Jan 1, 2011

Contexto Internacional, Jan 1, 2001

Proceedings of the Inaugural British International Studies Association Global Nuclear Order Working Group Conference, Sep 19, 2013

Brazil's place within the BRICS bloc is becoming questionable. Since the new President Michel Tem... more Brazil's place within the BRICS bloc is becoming questionable. Since the new President Michel Temer took over, Brazil's foreign policy has shifted away from BRICS ideals to favour western interests.

The machinery of global governance is changing. Influential states from the Southern hemisphere a... more The machinery of global governance is changing. Influential states from the Southern hemisphere are emerging as the old world is losing its political and economic influence. The multilateral and democratic character of South-South cooperation initiatives like Ibsa could become a viable alternative to Western governance frameworks.

"This policy report, commissioned by the Institute for Global Dialogue, highlights key difference... more "This policy report, commissioned by the Institute for Global Dialogue, highlights key differences between the BASIC countries, such as deforestation, which has presented a more significant challenge to Brazil and has occupied importance in its negotiating position in global climate negotiations. This is because the Brazilian Amazon has been viewed by various presidents as a symbol of sovereignty. Brazil also faces a growing demand for its agricultural goods, and the need to balance food security and other developmental issues with environmental protection (important in Brazil’s negotiating position). Brazil also presents an interesting case of how emerging countries are attempting to develop sustainably. Alternative energy sources have become so prominent in
Brazil’s environmental policy that presidents have made use of alternative energy as a foreign policy tool. Ethanol from sugarcane has become a major source of energy in Brazil; a large number of cars in the country run on alternative sources of energy. Dr Vieira traces the development of Brazil’s negotiating position from the 1970s, when its nationalist party began with a more defensive, nationalist approach to the inception of democracy, where considerations of the country’s international position have become more important. Indications are that Brazil will likely adopt the demands for a legally-binding climate agreement, with Brasilia prepared to negotiate and make the necessary concessions, provided its national interests and core values are considered."

Journal of International Relations and Development, 2021

In this paper, we examine Brazil’s international activism and ascent to the status of rising stat... more In this paper, we examine Brazil’s international activism and ascent to the status of rising state during the presidencies of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003–2010) and his chosen successor, Dilma Roussef (2011–2014). We focus on the dissemination of social policies under an innovative model of development that refected the political and economic context of a developing country. We argue that this activism
was framed in terms of Brazil’s socio-economic and cultural peculiarities, whereby these were treated not as obstacles but as positive contributions to developing states’ attempts to reform global governance structures. We argue that this refects an alternative form of foreign policy politicisation in which the social dilemmas, particularities and contradictions of the Brazilian experience are incorporated in the foreign policy agenda to leverage its international stature as a rising state. We explain how Brazil’s international cooperation through transferring its public policies and development models (policies for fghting hunger and poverty, agrarian development and income generation) to its Southern partners has been discursively articulated as
representing Brazil’s normative potential to contribute to political and institutional solutions, and rebuild norms and standards that afect the distribution of international power and wealth

International Political Sociology

Journal of International Relations and Development, 2021