Marieke Riethof | University of Liverpool (original) (raw)

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Papers by Marieke Riethof

The social dimensions of economic integration have become an increasingly significant feature of ... more The social dimensions of economic integration have become an increasingly significant feature of trade agreements, particularly those between developing countries. In the Brazilian case trade-related labour standards have not become a major feature outside of the regional organization Mercosur (Common Market of the South), yet we know relatively little about the reasons for this discrepancy. Paradoxically one of the main stakeholders in this debate, Brazilian trade unions, has broadly supported social and labour clauses in the regional context but union activists have opposed labour provisions in trade negotiations between asymmetric partners. A comparative analysis of the labour campaigns in Mercosur and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations explains this ambiguity in terms of Brazilian labour strategies towards free trade negotiations and explores their implications for evaluations of labour attitudes to trade-related labour standards in developing countries. The labour movement's own conflicting perspectives on the trade–labour connection are a key explanation of these outcomes, reinforcing the need for a greater appreciation of the complexity of trade union views in the debate on labour standards.

This article examines the mobilisation of human rights in campaigns against hydro-electric dams i... more This article examines the mobilisation of human rights in campaigns against hydro-electric dams in Brazil. The symbolic and legal power of human rights has allowed activists to challenge official accounts of the impact of dams while deploying domestic and international legal frameworks. Although the politicisation of natural resources in Brazil has limited the effectiveness of anti-dam mobilisations, an appeal to the human rights agenda has translated into a powerful critique of the social impact of Brazil’s development agenda, thereby making a moral and legal claim for justice.

China is now Brazil's largest trade and investment partner, with Brazil's exports dominated by pr... more China is now Brazil's largest trade and investment partner, with Brazil's exports dominated by primary products such as iron ore, soy and crude oil. China and Brazil have also become major players in international environmental debates as emerging powers, reflecting their contribution to carbon emissions and their vulnerability to climate change and environmental disasters such as droughts, floods, deforestation, landslides and pollution. In environmental terms, Brazil's exports to China have led to changes in land use focused on export agriculture, the construction of infrastructure in vulnerable areas such as the Amazon region and a growing need for cheap, renewable energy to fuel transport, consumption and industrial development. In the context of these intensifying trade and economic connections between Brazil and China, this article examines the environmental dimensions of this relationship, focusing in particular on the contradictions created by renewable energy production. Paradoxically, given Brazil's key role in the international climate change debate, one of the most controversial aspects of the country's development agenda is the promotion of renewable energy as evidenced in the conflicts around hydroelectric power generation. The latter have provoked protests against the dams' social and environmental effects among local communities and international environmental groups. Little studied compared to the more well-known aspects of Sino-Latin American relations, such as infrastructure and trade, the article argues that Chinese involvement in hydropower in Brazil reinforces an increasingly unsustainable domestic development agenda, as reflected in the asymmetry between arguments about the general benefits of hydropower and the negative effects on local communities.

Because of Brazil’s ecological vulnerability and traditional insistence on national sovereignty, ... more Because of Brazil’s ecological vulnerability and traditional insistence on national sovereignty, the right to development and the “common but differentiated responsibilities” (CBRD) principle, one would expect a Brazilian approach to climate change talks that rejects binding agreements and any interference with domestic policy. However, Brazil has shifted its position in recent years, particularly since 2009, from a rejection of any binding commitments to a reluctant acceptance of a higher level of responsibility for major developing countries, which was especially evident in Brazil’s active role in the Copenhagen climate talks in 2009 and during the 2011 Durban Climate Change Convention when it helped to negotiate a legally binding agreement to follow the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol in 2020. This chapter argues that rather than constituting a minor concern or component of Brazil’s foreign policy agenda, environmental issues are increasingly significant and have allowed the country to showcase its claims about the effectiveness of Brazil’s own climate change policies and its ability to broker international deals on thorny topics while bridging the interests of developed and developing countries. Brazilian global leadership ambitions involve projecting its domestic climate change policy on a global stage through active participation in climate change negotiations and the promotion of climate change monitoring and renewable energy. Environmental foreign policy can help legitimise Brazil’s ambitions to become a global and regional leader but discrepancies with domestic environmental policies and development goals have the potential to undermine this agenda.

Using a constructivist explanatory approach to the role of ideas, norms and identities in foreign policy, the first section of this chapter argues that environmental leadership has become a significant concern for Brazil. Legitimacy is a major incentive for emerging powers to engage in international climate change governance, which in the case of Brazil is based on claims about the effectiveness of the domestic climate change agenda. The second section demonstrates that these environmental leadership ambitions are also in line with the expansion of renewable energy to support national economic development and wider foreign policy ambitions. The third section argues that Brazil’s projected carbon emissions reductions by 2020 rely heavily on efforts to reduce deforestation, which is a source of considerable international legitimacy. The final section explains how these tensions and dilemmas have been translated into Brazil’s position in recent climate talks, arguing that the shift towards nationally differentiated but binding commitments is rooted in Brazil’s domestic climate change agenda and foreign policy ambitions. The country’s position also reflects that its environmental foreign policy continues to be framed by ideas about economic development which are not necessarily sustainable. Although renewable energy and deforestation policies are a key part of Brazil’s efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change, they have also provoked vocal international and domestic opposition due to their high environmental and social costs.

Books by Marieke Riethof

This book analyses the conflicts that emerged from the Brazilian labour movement’s active partici... more This book analyses the conflicts that emerged from the Brazilian labour movement’s active participation in a rapidly changing political environment, particularly in the context of the coming to power of a party with strong roots in the labour movement. While the close relations with the Workers' Party (PT) have shaped the labour movement’s political agenda, its trajectory cannot be understood solely with reference to that party’s electoral fortunes. Through a study of the political trajectory of the Brazilian labour movement over the last three decades, the author explores the conditions under which the labour movement has developed militant and moderate strategies.

The social dimensions of economic integration have become an increasingly significant feature of ... more The social dimensions of economic integration have become an increasingly significant feature of trade agreements, particularly those between developing countries. In the Brazilian case trade-related labour standards have not become a major feature outside of the regional organization Mercosur (Common Market of the South), yet we know relatively little about the reasons for this discrepancy. Paradoxically one of the main stakeholders in this debate, Brazilian trade unions, has broadly supported social and labour clauses in the regional context but union activists have opposed labour provisions in trade negotiations between asymmetric partners. A comparative analysis of the labour campaigns in Mercosur and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations explains this ambiguity in terms of Brazilian labour strategies towards free trade negotiations and explores their implications for evaluations of labour attitudes to trade-related labour standards in developing countries. The labour movement's own conflicting perspectives on the trade–labour connection are a key explanation of these outcomes, reinforcing the need for a greater appreciation of the complexity of trade union views in the debate on labour standards.

This article examines the mobilisation of human rights in campaigns against hydro-electric dams i... more This article examines the mobilisation of human rights in campaigns against hydro-electric dams in Brazil. The symbolic and legal power of human rights has allowed activists to challenge official accounts of the impact of dams while deploying domestic and international legal frameworks. Although the politicisation of natural resources in Brazil has limited the effectiveness of anti-dam mobilisations, an appeal to the human rights agenda has translated into a powerful critique of the social impact of Brazil’s development agenda, thereby making a moral and legal claim for justice.

China is now Brazil's largest trade and investment partner, with Brazil's exports dominated by pr... more China is now Brazil's largest trade and investment partner, with Brazil's exports dominated by primary products such as iron ore, soy and crude oil. China and Brazil have also become major players in international environmental debates as emerging powers, reflecting their contribution to carbon emissions and their vulnerability to climate change and environmental disasters such as droughts, floods, deforestation, landslides and pollution. In environmental terms, Brazil's exports to China have led to changes in land use focused on export agriculture, the construction of infrastructure in vulnerable areas such as the Amazon region and a growing need for cheap, renewable energy to fuel transport, consumption and industrial development. In the context of these intensifying trade and economic connections between Brazil and China, this article examines the environmental dimensions of this relationship, focusing in particular on the contradictions created by renewable energy production. Paradoxically, given Brazil's key role in the international climate change debate, one of the most controversial aspects of the country's development agenda is the promotion of renewable energy as evidenced in the conflicts around hydroelectric power generation. The latter have provoked protests against the dams' social and environmental effects among local communities and international environmental groups. Little studied compared to the more well-known aspects of Sino-Latin American relations, such as infrastructure and trade, the article argues that Chinese involvement in hydropower in Brazil reinforces an increasingly unsustainable domestic development agenda, as reflected in the asymmetry between arguments about the general benefits of hydropower and the negative effects on local communities.

Because of Brazil’s ecological vulnerability and traditional insistence on national sovereignty, ... more Because of Brazil’s ecological vulnerability and traditional insistence on national sovereignty, the right to development and the “common but differentiated responsibilities” (CBRD) principle, one would expect a Brazilian approach to climate change talks that rejects binding agreements and any interference with domestic policy. However, Brazil has shifted its position in recent years, particularly since 2009, from a rejection of any binding commitments to a reluctant acceptance of a higher level of responsibility for major developing countries, which was especially evident in Brazil’s active role in the Copenhagen climate talks in 2009 and during the 2011 Durban Climate Change Convention when it helped to negotiate a legally binding agreement to follow the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol in 2020. This chapter argues that rather than constituting a minor concern or component of Brazil’s foreign policy agenda, environmental issues are increasingly significant and have allowed the country to showcase its claims about the effectiveness of Brazil’s own climate change policies and its ability to broker international deals on thorny topics while bridging the interests of developed and developing countries. Brazilian global leadership ambitions involve projecting its domestic climate change policy on a global stage through active participation in climate change negotiations and the promotion of climate change monitoring and renewable energy. Environmental foreign policy can help legitimise Brazil’s ambitions to become a global and regional leader but discrepancies with domestic environmental policies and development goals have the potential to undermine this agenda.

Using a constructivist explanatory approach to the role of ideas, norms and identities in foreign policy, the first section of this chapter argues that environmental leadership has become a significant concern for Brazil. Legitimacy is a major incentive for emerging powers to engage in international climate change governance, which in the case of Brazil is based on claims about the effectiveness of the domestic climate change agenda. The second section demonstrates that these environmental leadership ambitions are also in line with the expansion of renewable energy to support national economic development and wider foreign policy ambitions. The third section argues that Brazil’s projected carbon emissions reductions by 2020 rely heavily on efforts to reduce deforestation, which is a source of considerable international legitimacy. The final section explains how these tensions and dilemmas have been translated into Brazil’s position in recent climate talks, arguing that the shift towards nationally differentiated but binding commitments is rooted in Brazil’s domestic climate change agenda and foreign policy ambitions. The country’s position also reflects that its environmental foreign policy continues to be framed by ideas about economic development which are not necessarily sustainable. Although renewable energy and deforestation policies are a key part of Brazil’s efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change, they have also provoked vocal international and domestic opposition due to their high environmental and social costs.

This book analyses the conflicts that emerged from the Brazilian labour movement’s active partici... more This book analyses the conflicts that emerged from the Brazilian labour movement’s active participation in a rapidly changing political environment, particularly in the context of the coming to power of a party with strong roots in the labour movement. While the close relations with the Workers' Party (PT) have shaped the labour movement’s political agenda, its trajectory cannot be understood solely with reference to that party’s electoral fortunes. Through a study of the political trajectory of the Brazilian labour movement over the last three decades, the author explores the conditions under which the labour movement has developed militant and moderate strategies.