Rafael Mesquita | Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (original) (raw)

Papers by Rafael Mesquita

Journal of Peace Research, 2024

This article introduces a novel corpus containing all resolutions adopted by the United Nations G... more This article introduces a novel corpus containing all resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA) from 1946 to 2019 and the network of citations between them. Resolutions adopted by the organization provide a valuable record of the evolution of multilateralism and political ideas on the global stage. Given that resolutions typically cite past ones, the resulting network of references offers a wealth of information on the Assembly’s most relevant themes over time. This article applies network analysis to the corpus of approximately 18 thousand resolutions and 77 thousand citations, aiming to answer questions such as: What are the most cited resolutions of all? Are there thematic clusters? And can we delineate historic patterns based on themes prioritized? Our findings show that leading resolutions, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, stemmed from the early years of the UN and created cores around which thematic clusters emerged. We conclude by listing highly cited resolutions and prominent clusters, while also conducting a descriptive exploration of how some of the largest clusters formed. The dominant clusters addressed Human Rights, Development, Decolonization, and Peace and Security, and by monitoring their evolution we offer a new, data-intensive account of the interaction between these topics since 1946.

The Review of International Organizations, 2024

This article explores how weak countries deflect systemic pressure towards change and even succee... more This article explores how weak countries deflect systemic pressure towards change and even succeed in preserving old institutions to their advantage. By expanding Goddard’s theory of embedded revisionism to smaller powers, the study identifies strategies these states deploy to improve access and brokerage. We use the UN General Assembly Sponsorship Dataset to locate multilateral brokers and, after detecting Cuba’s centrality in this arena, we proceed to a heuristic case study. Havana’s maneuvers to offset its vulnerability during and after the Cold War reveal a mix of structural, institutional, and compulsory power. Specifically, its renewal of the Non-Aligned Movement even after the end of bipolarity, its maintenance of autocracy amidst the pressures for democratization, and later support of radicalized Latin American leaders provide insight regarding unexpected sources of network power available to a resilient rogue state.

Brazilian Political Science Review, 2023

How are the subjects of energy and energy justice discussed within multilateral forums? Given the... more How are the subjects of energy and energy justice discussed within multilateral forums? Given the significance of this subject and the disparities among nations, examining how energy-related matters are addressed in intergovernmental arenas reveals how governments manage the implications of inequalities in basic needs, such as energy. To investigate the phenomenon, we monitored how the seven categories identified in the literature – ‘Efficiency’, ‘Access to Energy’, ‘Renewable Energies’, ‘Capacity Building’, ‘Research and Development’, ‘Technology Transfer’, and ‘Financing’ – were evoked in multilateral discussions. Specifically, we used the ‘UN General Assembly Sponsorship Dataset’ to identify, through content analysis, 59 draft resolutions that mentioned these energy themes between 2000 and 2020. We analyzed this corpus and detailed the themes, their combination, and the most involved countries. Through cluster analysis and correspondence analysis, we identified three major groups of themes, ‘Access to energy’, ‘Technology’ and ‘Energy Transition’, while ‘Capacity Building’ appeared as a cross-cutting issue. We also identified that large multilateral groups were an important factor driving engagement with the topic, as G77 members, and specially those pertaining to Central and South Asia, were among the most active players.

Opinião Pública

This article investigates whether there is evidence of a “rise and fall” of emerging powers over ... more This article investigates whether there is evidence of a “rise and fall” of emerging powers over the past 20 years in the eyes of public opinion. We compared several national and regional surveys on the foreign policies of South Africa, Brazil, and Turkey in search of signs of endorsement or disapproval of the more assertive foreign policies exercised by these countries. The results suggest a pronounced rise and decline for Ankara and some decline for Brasília; however, the results are inconclusive for Pretoria. The present work seeks to contribute to the debate on status and regional leadership by adding a public opinion and comparative regionalism perspective, in addition to offering a convenient summary of diplomatic surveys for countries of the Global South.

Estudios Internacionales

O status é um fator importante para as potências emergentes do Sul Global e elas buscam aumentar ... more O status é um fator importante para as potências emergentes do Sul Global e elas buscam aumentar sua estima internacional, revisando a hierarquia global. Concomitantemente, precisam tomar escolhas diferentes de estratégias internacionais: imitar, desafiar ou seguir vias alternativas de mobilidade internacional em relação às potências tradicionais. Diante deste dilema, o quanto as potências emergentes priorizaram o Sul e o Norte Globais ao longo do tempo? Sabendo que a diplomacia presidencial é um dos marcadores de status do sistema internacional contemporâneo, este trabalho testou a seguinte hipótese: organizações internacionais do Sul Global receberam mais visitas de chefes de Estado/governo de potências emergentes do que outros tipos de organização. Acompanhamos a diplomacia presidencial de África do Sul, Brasil, China e Índia entre 1998 e 2019. O número de visitas presidenciais foi coletado através dos bancos de dados Rising Powers Diplomatic Network e China Visits. A hipótese fo...

Canadian journal of Latin American and Caribbean studies, Nov 24, 2022

Given the sharp electoral swings in Latin America in the last twenty years and ensuing effects on... more Given the sharp electoral swings in Latin America in the last twenty years and ensuing effects on regional cooperation, current literature has emphasized the importance of presidential ideology for regional institutionalization in this part of the world. This focus on domestic and regional factors, however, ignores the role played by extra-regional forces, notably the involvement of external powers; an increasingly salient variable in the current scenario of global competition between the US, China and Russia. We propose a framework combining these systemic and regional factors in explaining regional institution-building. We test the effects of great power intrusion/disengagement and ideological divergence/convergence in producing institutional strengthening or weakening via four case studies, analyzed through secondary sources and interviews: Mercosur’s reformulation, Venezuela’s exit from the Andean Community, the creation of the Pacific Alliance and the paralysis of Unasur. Our conclusions suggest that ideology defines institutional outcomes, whereas the effect of intrusion depends on whether these engagements occur under unipolarity or great power competition.

International Studies Review

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has passed over eighteen thousand resolutions since it... more The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has passed over eighteen thousand resolutions since its foundation. It is a very heterogeneous collection, containing at once landmark documents, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and scores of less important and even controversial pieces. Hence, scholarship for the past 75 years has been divided on the actual relevance of UNGA resolutions and on member states’ motivations in engaging with their drafting. We propose a novel theoretical typology to organize prevailing views on the role of UNGA resolutions. Relying on the dimensions of effect and consensus, that is, whether or not resolutions are deemed to have a real-world impact and to what extent they represent world opinion, we sort the literature into four ideal types: resolutions can be regarded as the fruit of deliberation, dispute, diversion, or drama. We discuss the rationale of each view and indicate proposals within the UNGA that exemplify these perspectives. Our t...

Revista Brasileira de Ciência Política

Resumo: Levantamentos da produção científica sul-americana diagnosticaram uma “obscuridade metodo... more Resumo: Levantamentos da produção científica sul-americana diagnosticaram uma “obscuridade metodológica” no campo das Relações Internacionais: apenas a minoria dos artigos publicados explicita seu método de pesquisa. Diante desse quadro, o objetivo deste artigo é mapear o treinamento em métodos na formação de internacionalistas para averiguar a relação entre ensino e consciência metodológica. Analisamos os currículos de 30 cursos de pós-graduação stricto sensu em Relações Internacionais e áreas afins em 15 universidades brasileiras, nos níveis de mestrado e doutorado. Dentre os 30 cursos, 90% ofereciam uma ou mais disciplinas de métodos, ocupando cerca de 30% da carga horária. Embora este montante não tenha superado o problema da obscuridade metodológica, nota-se que o campo está consolidando um núcleo curricular de metodologia política, compartilhado com a Ciência Política.

International Interactions

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) represents a microcosm of global politics that offers ... more The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) represents a microcosm of global politics that offers a valuable snapshot of interstate relations and state preferences. In this context, rollcall votes and measures of voting affinity often receive the bulk of scholarly attention. However, even though techniques such as ideal point estimation have grown more sophisticated over time when applied to voting data, they remain grounded by an original selection bias that discards 2/3 of the UNGA yield. This share of disregarded output can prove highly informative if drafting and sponsorship procedures receive a closer look instead. This research note applies ideal point estimation to UNGA sponsorship data for the first time for every member from 2009 to 2019. It advances a cutting-edge approach to better estimate state preferences over a contested policy space, while correcting for the narrow focus of previous UNGA analyses on voting data. The results detect an underlying issue space that bears external validity with the inclination of states toward multilateralism.

International Politics

Political, military and humanitarian crises endanger regional order. But even though regional pow... more Political, military and humanitarian crises endanger regional order. But even though regional powers are expected to act as stabilizers in these cases, their responses to dire demands vary in intensity and loci. Reactions go from zealous engagement to prolonged indifference and reluctance, often leaning on global multilateral institutions as well as regional or ad hoc mechanisms. This study explores the variation in the provision of stability by regional powers via a mixed-methods approach. By contrasting the intensity of regional crises with issue salience at the UN General Assembly, we select crises that drew varying attention from regional powers, despite similar severity. Focusing on Brazil and South Africa as potential regional stabilizers, we compare responses to regional crises that displayed high (Haiti and Somalia) and low (Colombia and Congo-Brazzaville) salience. We find that domestic support, concerns with status and potential competition with other stabilizers tend to play a large part in calibrating regional power responses.

Pensamento Plural, 2015

The current article analyzes the expectations of modernity's political philosophy, in its lib... more The current article analyzes the expectations of modernity's political philosophy, in its liberal and republican traditions, towards reason: its conceptualization, prerogatives and normative implications. In order to do so, we highlight the role of this human faculty in the theses of seminal authors of modernity and its conjugation the concepts of liberty and equality. Taking social contract theory for a starting point, we contrast the concept of reason in liberalism and republicanism, and after we analyze the implications of the social features of modern democracy (massive and egalitarian) for the concept of the rational individual. In conclusion, it is argued that though reason is presented as the cornerstone of the political individual in modernity, locus of human autonomy and justification for its isonomy, its conceptualization varies according to the political tradition, with consequences for the legitimate limits of State action upon the citizen and for the expectations of...

Pensamento Plural, 2016

Este artigo analisa as expectativas nutridas pela filosofia politica da modernidade, em suas trad... more Este artigo analisa as expectativas nutridas pela filosofia politica da modernidade, em suas tradicoes liberal e republicana, acerca da razao: sua conceituacao, prerrogativas e implicacoes normativas. Para tanto, explicitamos o papel dessa faculdade humana nas teses de autores seminais da modernidade e sua conjugacao com os conceitos de liberdade e igualdade. Tomando o contratualismo como ponto de partida, contrastamos o conceito de razao nas correntes liberal e republicana, para entao analisar as implicacoes das caracteristicas sociais da democracia moderna (massiva e igualitaria) para o conceito de individuo racional. Conclui-se que embora a razao seja apresentada como sustentaculo do individuo politico da modernidade, locus da sua autonomia e fator justificador de sua isonomia, sua conceituacao varia segundo a tradicao politica, trazendo consequencias para os limites legitimos da acao estatal sobre o cidadao e para as expectativas de progresso moral da populacao.

Third World Quarterly, 2021

Abstract Regional powers are often assumed to place diplomatic emphasis on their surrounding regi... more Abstract Regional powers are often assumed to place diplomatic emphasis on their surrounding regions. Yet few systematic comparisons have been carried out to empirically verify this assumption. Do regional powers tend to devote more attention to their neighbours or to more influential global partners instead? This article attempts to bridge that gap by comparing the amount of diplomatic attention that Brazil, South Africa and Turkey have devoted to their regions, ie South America, Africa and the Middle East/North Africa region, respectively. Relying on data on presidential diplomacy and diplomatic presence from the Rising Powers Diplomatic Network (RPDN) data set, we verify which destinations were prioritised by these three countries from 1995 to 2018. Results indicate that South Africa is the most regionally committed regional power. Turkey shows the least significant regional engagement, while Brazil occupies an intermediate position.

Global Society, 2020

ABSTRACT Scholarship on international norms has devoted growing attention to emerging powers, oft... more ABSTRACT Scholarship on international norms has devoted growing attention to emerging powers, often portrayed as norm-shapers, i.e. actors engaged in the development of international normative standards aiming to adjust their contents and modes of application. Several studies have investigated these countries’ performance regarding a particular norm: Responsibility to Protect (R2P). This article aims to systematically unwrap Brazil's behaviour as a norm-shaper by tracing the guidelines employed by Brazilian diplomacy to shape elements of R2P. This study relies on Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) in order to map the attributes and the normative prescriptions found in statements at the United Nations, identifying the characteristic markers of this behaviour. We conclude that, though sovereignty is a ground principle of its foreign policy, Brazil tends to be moderate when addressing the issue. Nonetheless, the latter is upheld in a systematic albeit indirect manner in the Brazilian statements.

Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revue canadienne des études latino-américaines et caraïbes, 2016

ABSTRACT This article investigates Brazil’s strategy for South America and attempts to understand... more ABSTRACT This article investigates Brazil’s strategy for South America and attempts to understand why its role as a regional power should be considered a type of hegemony instead of leadership, based on the ends pursued by Brasília. Under a constructivist perspective, it analyzes the workings of several collective identity formation mechanisms in the course of South American history to assess whether consistent shared identities and interests have emerged over time. It concludes that regionalism has not yet produced sufficiently salient common identities and interests to overcome collective action problems. The setbacks of the integrationist project indicate that Brazil and its neighbors hold predominantly selfish identities and interests, their ultimate frame of reference being the individual nation-state.

Carta Internacional, 2016

O presente artigo faz uma síntese da literatura sobre o tema da identidade internacional, bem com... more O presente artigo faz uma síntese da literatura sobre o tema da identidade internacional, bem como de suas aplicações ao caso brasileiro. Para tanto, resume os debates sobre identidade nacional e internacional, detalhando as especificidades teóricas, disciplinares e analíticas de cada um, e propõe uma síntese conceitual, respaldada em conceitos da Análise de Discurso. Em seguida, agrupam-se as principais interpretações da identidade internacional brasileira em cinco “dimensões”: socioeconômica, política, étnico-cultural, geográfica, e dos valores. Essa categorização provê um framework parcimonioso que futuras pesquisas poderão empregar e aperfeiçoar.

Contexto Internacional, 2016

Journal of Peace Research, 2024

This article introduces a novel corpus containing all resolutions adopted by the United Nations G... more This article introduces a novel corpus containing all resolutions adopted by the United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA) from 1946 to 2019 and the network of citations between them. Resolutions adopted by the organization provide a valuable record of the evolution of multilateralism and political ideas on the global stage. Given that resolutions typically cite past ones, the resulting network of references offers a wealth of information on the Assembly’s most relevant themes over time. This article applies network analysis to the corpus of approximately 18 thousand resolutions and 77 thousand citations, aiming to answer questions such as: What are the most cited resolutions of all? Are there thematic clusters? And can we delineate historic patterns based on themes prioritized? Our findings show that leading resolutions, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, stemmed from the early years of the UN and created cores around which thematic clusters emerged. We conclude by listing highly cited resolutions and prominent clusters, while also conducting a descriptive exploration of how some of the largest clusters formed. The dominant clusters addressed Human Rights, Development, Decolonization, and Peace and Security, and by monitoring their evolution we offer a new, data-intensive account of the interaction between these topics since 1946.

The Review of International Organizations, 2024

This article explores how weak countries deflect systemic pressure towards change and even succee... more This article explores how weak countries deflect systemic pressure towards change and even succeed in preserving old institutions to their advantage. By expanding Goddard’s theory of embedded revisionism to smaller powers, the study identifies strategies these states deploy to improve access and brokerage. We use the UN General Assembly Sponsorship Dataset to locate multilateral brokers and, after detecting Cuba’s centrality in this arena, we proceed to a heuristic case study. Havana’s maneuvers to offset its vulnerability during and after the Cold War reveal a mix of structural, institutional, and compulsory power. Specifically, its renewal of the Non-Aligned Movement even after the end of bipolarity, its maintenance of autocracy amidst the pressures for democratization, and later support of radicalized Latin American leaders provide insight regarding unexpected sources of network power available to a resilient rogue state.

Brazilian Political Science Review, 2023

How are the subjects of energy and energy justice discussed within multilateral forums? Given the... more How are the subjects of energy and energy justice discussed within multilateral forums? Given the significance of this subject and the disparities among nations, examining how energy-related matters are addressed in intergovernmental arenas reveals how governments manage the implications of inequalities in basic needs, such as energy. To investigate the phenomenon, we monitored how the seven categories identified in the literature – ‘Efficiency’, ‘Access to Energy’, ‘Renewable Energies’, ‘Capacity Building’, ‘Research and Development’, ‘Technology Transfer’, and ‘Financing’ – were evoked in multilateral discussions. Specifically, we used the ‘UN General Assembly Sponsorship Dataset’ to identify, through content analysis, 59 draft resolutions that mentioned these energy themes between 2000 and 2020. We analyzed this corpus and detailed the themes, their combination, and the most involved countries. Through cluster analysis and correspondence analysis, we identified three major groups of themes, ‘Access to energy’, ‘Technology’ and ‘Energy Transition’, while ‘Capacity Building’ appeared as a cross-cutting issue. We also identified that large multilateral groups were an important factor driving engagement with the topic, as G77 members, and specially those pertaining to Central and South Asia, were among the most active players.

Opinião Pública

This article investigates whether there is evidence of a “rise and fall” of emerging powers over ... more This article investigates whether there is evidence of a “rise and fall” of emerging powers over the past 20 years in the eyes of public opinion. We compared several national and regional surveys on the foreign policies of South Africa, Brazil, and Turkey in search of signs of endorsement or disapproval of the more assertive foreign policies exercised by these countries. The results suggest a pronounced rise and decline for Ankara and some decline for Brasília; however, the results are inconclusive for Pretoria. The present work seeks to contribute to the debate on status and regional leadership by adding a public opinion and comparative regionalism perspective, in addition to offering a convenient summary of diplomatic surveys for countries of the Global South.

Estudios Internacionales

O status é um fator importante para as potências emergentes do Sul Global e elas buscam aumentar ... more O status é um fator importante para as potências emergentes do Sul Global e elas buscam aumentar sua estima internacional, revisando a hierarquia global. Concomitantemente, precisam tomar escolhas diferentes de estratégias internacionais: imitar, desafiar ou seguir vias alternativas de mobilidade internacional em relação às potências tradicionais. Diante deste dilema, o quanto as potências emergentes priorizaram o Sul e o Norte Globais ao longo do tempo? Sabendo que a diplomacia presidencial é um dos marcadores de status do sistema internacional contemporâneo, este trabalho testou a seguinte hipótese: organizações internacionais do Sul Global receberam mais visitas de chefes de Estado/governo de potências emergentes do que outros tipos de organização. Acompanhamos a diplomacia presidencial de África do Sul, Brasil, China e Índia entre 1998 e 2019. O número de visitas presidenciais foi coletado através dos bancos de dados Rising Powers Diplomatic Network e China Visits. A hipótese fo...

Canadian journal of Latin American and Caribbean studies, Nov 24, 2022

Given the sharp electoral swings in Latin America in the last twenty years and ensuing effects on... more Given the sharp electoral swings in Latin America in the last twenty years and ensuing effects on regional cooperation, current literature has emphasized the importance of presidential ideology for regional institutionalization in this part of the world. This focus on domestic and regional factors, however, ignores the role played by extra-regional forces, notably the involvement of external powers; an increasingly salient variable in the current scenario of global competition between the US, China and Russia. We propose a framework combining these systemic and regional factors in explaining regional institution-building. We test the effects of great power intrusion/disengagement and ideological divergence/convergence in producing institutional strengthening or weakening via four case studies, analyzed through secondary sources and interviews: Mercosur’s reformulation, Venezuela’s exit from the Andean Community, the creation of the Pacific Alliance and the paralysis of Unasur. Our conclusions suggest that ideology defines institutional outcomes, whereas the effect of intrusion depends on whether these engagements occur under unipolarity or great power competition.

International Studies Review

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has passed over eighteen thousand resolutions since it... more The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has passed over eighteen thousand resolutions since its foundation. It is a very heterogeneous collection, containing at once landmark documents, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and scores of less important and even controversial pieces. Hence, scholarship for the past 75 years has been divided on the actual relevance of UNGA resolutions and on member states’ motivations in engaging with their drafting. We propose a novel theoretical typology to organize prevailing views on the role of UNGA resolutions. Relying on the dimensions of effect and consensus, that is, whether or not resolutions are deemed to have a real-world impact and to what extent they represent world opinion, we sort the literature into four ideal types: resolutions can be regarded as the fruit of deliberation, dispute, diversion, or drama. We discuss the rationale of each view and indicate proposals within the UNGA that exemplify these perspectives. Our t...

Revista Brasileira de Ciência Política

Resumo: Levantamentos da produção científica sul-americana diagnosticaram uma “obscuridade metodo... more Resumo: Levantamentos da produção científica sul-americana diagnosticaram uma “obscuridade metodológica” no campo das Relações Internacionais: apenas a minoria dos artigos publicados explicita seu método de pesquisa. Diante desse quadro, o objetivo deste artigo é mapear o treinamento em métodos na formação de internacionalistas para averiguar a relação entre ensino e consciência metodológica. Analisamos os currículos de 30 cursos de pós-graduação stricto sensu em Relações Internacionais e áreas afins em 15 universidades brasileiras, nos níveis de mestrado e doutorado. Dentre os 30 cursos, 90% ofereciam uma ou mais disciplinas de métodos, ocupando cerca de 30% da carga horária. Embora este montante não tenha superado o problema da obscuridade metodológica, nota-se que o campo está consolidando um núcleo curricular de metodologia política, compartilhado com a Ciência Política.

International Interactions

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) represents a microcosm of global politics that offers ... more The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) represents a microcosm of global politics that offers a valuable snapshot of interstate relations and state preferences. In this context, rollcall votes and measures of voting affinity often receive the bulk of scholarly attention. However, even though techniques such as ideal point estimation have grown more sophisticated over time when applied to voting data, they remain grounded by an original selection bias that discards 2/3 of the UNGA yield. This share of disregarded output can prove highly informative if drafting and sponsorship procedures receive a closer look instead. This research note applies ideal point estimation to UNGA sponsorship data for the first time for every member from 2009 to 2019. It advances a cutting-edge approach to better estimate state preferences over a contested policy space, while correcting for the narrow focus of previous UNGA analyses on voting data. The results detect an underlying issue space that bears external validity with the inclination of states toward multilateralism.

International Politics

Political, military and humanitarian crises endanger regional order. But even though regional pow... more Political, military and humanitarian crises endanger regional order. But even though regional powers are expected to act as stabilizers in these cases, their responses to dire demands vary in intensity and loci. Reactions go from zealous engagement to prolonged indifference and reluctance, often leaning on global multilateral institutions as well as regional or ad hoc mechanisms. This study explores the variation in the provision of stability by regional powers via a mixed-methods approach. By contrasting the intensity of regional crises with issue salience at the UN General Assembly, we select crises that drew varying attention from regional powers, despite similar severity. Focusing on Brazil and South Africa as potential regional stabilizers, we compare responses to regional crises that displayed high (Haiti and Somalia) and low (Colombia and Congo-Brazzaville) salience. We find that domestic support, concerns with status and potential competition with other stabilizers tend to play a large part in calibrating regional power responses.

Pensamento Plural, 2015

The current article analyzes the expectations of modernity's political philosophy, in its lib... more The current article analyzes the expectations of modernity's political philosophy, in its liberal and republican traditions, towards reason: its conceptualization, prerogatives and normative implications. In order to do so, we highlight the role of this human faculty in the theses of seminal authors of modernity and its conjugation the concepts of liberty and equality. Taking social contract theory for a starting point, we contrast the concept of reason in liberalism and republicanism, and after we analyze the implications of the social features of modern democracy (massive and egalitarian) for the concept of the rational individual. In conclusion, it is argued that though reason is presented as the cornerstone of the political individual in modernity, locus of human autonomy and justification for its isonomy, its conceptualization varies according to the political tradition, with consequences for the legitimate limits of State action upon the citizen and for the expectations of...

Pensamento Plural, 2016

Este artigo analisa as expectativas nutridas pela filosofia politica da modernidade, em suas trad... more Este artigo analisa as expectativas nutridas pela filosofia politica da modernidade, em suas tradicoes liberal e republicana, acerca da razao: sua conceituacao, prerrogativas e implicacoes normativas. Para tanto, explicitamos o papel dessa faculdade humana nas teses de autores seminais da modernidade e sua conjugacao com os conceitos de liberdade e igualdade. Tomando o contratualismo como ponto de partida, contrastamos o conceito de razao nas correntes liberal e republicana, para entao analisar as implicacoes das caracteristicas sociais da democracia moderna (massiva e igualitaria) para o conceito de individuo racional. Conclui-se que embora a razao seja apresentada como sustentaculo do individuo politico da modernidade, locus da sua autonomia e fator justificador de sua isonomia, sua conceituacao varia segundo a tradicao politica, trazendo consequencias para os limites legitimos da acao estatal sobre o cidadao e para as expectativas de progresso moral da populacao.

Third World Quarterly, 2021

Abstract Regional powers are often assumed to place diplomatic emphasis on their surrounding regi... more Abstract Regional powers are often assumed to place diplomatic emphasis on their surrounding regions. Yet few systematic comparisons have been carried out to empirically verify this assumption. Do regional powers tend to devote more attention to their neighbours or to more influential global partners instead? This article attempts to bridge that gap by comparing the amount of diplomatic attention that Brazil, South Africa and Turkey have devoted to their regions, ie South America, Africa and the Middle East/North Africa region, respectively. Relying on data on presidential diplomacy and diplomatic presence from the Rising Powers Diplomatic Network (RPDN) data set, we verify which destinations were prioritised by these three countries from 1995 to 2018. Results indicate that South Africa is the most regionally committed regional power. Turkey shows the least significant regional engagement, while Brazil occupies an intermediate position.

Global Society, 2020

ABSTRACT Scholarship on international norms has devoted growing attention to emerging powers, oft... more ABSTRACT Scholarship on international norms has devoted growing attention to emerging powers, often portrayed as norm-shapers, i.e. actors engaged in the development of international normative standards aiming to adjust their contents and modes of application. Several studies have investigated these countries’ performance regarding a particular norm: Responsibility to Protect (R2P). This article aims to systematically unwrap Brazil's behaviour as a norm-shaper by tracing the guidelines employed by Brazilian diplomacy to shape elements of R2P. This study relies on Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) in order to map the attributes and the normative prescriptions found in statements at the United Nations, identifying the characteristic markers of this behaviour. We conclude that, though sovereignty is a ground principle of its foreign policy, Brazil tends to be moderate when addressing the issue. Nonetheless, the latter is upheld in a systematic albeit indirect manner in the Brazilian statements.

Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revue canadienne des études latino-américaines et caraïbes, 2016

ABSTRACT This article investigates Brazil’s strategy for South America and attempts to understand... more ABSTRACT This article investigates Brazil’s strategy for South America and attempts to understand why its role as a regional power should be considered a type of hegemony instead of leadership, based on the ends pursued by Brasília. Under a constructivist perspective, it analyzes the workings of several collective identity formation mechanisms in the course of South American history to assess whether consistent shared identities and interests have emerged over time. It concludes that regionalism has not yet produced sufficiently salient common identities and interests to overcome collective action problems. The setbacks of the integrationist project indicate that Brazil and its neighbors hold predominantly selfish identities and interests, their ultimate frame of reference being the individual nation-state.

Carta Internacional, 2016

O presente artigo faz uma síntese da literatura sobre o tema da identidade internacional, bem com... more O presente artigo faz uma síntese da literatura sobre o tema da identidade internacional, bem como de suas aplicações ao caso brasileiro. Para tanto, resume os debates sobre identidade nacional e internacional, detalhando as especificidades teóricas, disciplinares e analíticas de cada um, e propõe uma síntese conceitual, respaldada em conceitos da Análise de Discurso. Em seguida, agrupam-se as principais interpretações da identidade internacional brasileira em cinco “dimensões”: socioeconômica, política, étnico-cultural, geográfica, e dos valores. Essa categorização provê um framework parcimonioso que futuras pesquisas poderão empregar e aperfeiçoar.

Contexto Internacional, 2016

A publicação científica é uma etapa essencial da carreira acadêmica. Todavia, para pesquisadores ... more A publicação científica é uma etapa essencial da carreira acadêmica. Todavia, para pesquisadores iniciantes, adentrar nesse universo pela primeira vez pode ser desafiador, sobretudo a tarefa de identificar um periódico dentro de sua área temática e que aceite contribuições de jovens acadêmicos. Para facilitar essa busca, esta lista traz uma relação de alguns periódicos das ciências sociais receptivos a contribuições de autores iniciantes. São títulos registrados no estrato Qualis B e que aceitam artigos de autores ainda sem doutorado. A relação não esgota todos os periódicos existentes, mas apresenta uma referência inicial para quem deseja ter seu primeiro artigo original publicado.

The Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff was impeached on May 12, 2016. In the weeks preceeding thi... more The Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff was impeached on May 12, 2016. In the weeks preceeding this decision, she actively gave interviews to foreign newspapers and engaged foreign authorities aiming to frame her impeachement process as an unlawful coup. From a conceptual perspective, can this sort of foreign media engagement by a president be labelled as a new type of media diplomacy, which mobilizes foreign media to fulfilll not external goals but domestic ones?
Researchers interested in the topic and who are gathering data on Dilma's impeachment coverage by international media are welcomed to join in a partnership for future publication.

Portugal and the Lusophone World: Law, Geopolitics and Institutional Cooperation, 2023

Book chapter

Apesar da crescente oferta de dados em formato de painel, ainda são raros os estudos no Brasil qu... more Apesar da crescente oferta de dados em formato de painel, ainda são raros os estudos no Brasil que combinam as dimensões transversal e longitudinal na mesma análise. Para se ter uma ideia, em amostra de mais de 7 mil artigos publicados entre 2000 e 2018 em periódicos de CPRI, apenas 45 casos citavam técnicas específicas para lidar com observações de unidades espaciais (países, estados, pessoas) repetidas em intervalos regulares do tempo (anos, meses, dias). Diante dos benefícios inferenciais que este tipo de perspectiva pode proporcionar e da escassez de pesquisas sobre o tema, este artigo apresenta uma introdução à regressão de painel.Metodologicamente, sintetizamos as principais recomendações da literatura e mostramos a implementação no R Statistical com o pacote plm, indo desde a seleção de modelos até o tratamento dos dados e apresentação de resultados. Para aumentar o potencial pedagógico do trabalho, disponibilizamos os dados originais e scripts computacionais. Com este artigo esperamos difundir a utilização de análises longitudinais na pesquisa empírica em CPRI no Brasil.

Anais do VIII Seminário de Ciência Política e Relações Internacionais da UFPE, 2019

This article introduces the Rising Powers Diplomatic Network (RPDN) dataset, which monitors the d... more This article introduces the Rising Powers Diplomatic Network (RPDN) dataset, which monitors the distribution of the diplomatic apparatus of emerging powers across the globe. RPDN’s release version contains data on two countries, Brazil and Turkey, covering mainly the 1995-2015 timespan, thus providing a comprehensive portrait of the evolution of their diplomatic capacity and patterns of interstate interactions. Specifically, RPDN contains information on two items: presidential diplomacy (i.e.: number of official visits) and diplomatic presence (number and size of diplomatic representations abroad). Data for Turkey also list visits by the prime minister in addition to the president’s. Data for Brazil also report: size of staff at each diplomatic post, post ranking/grade and number of military attachés abroad. The article concludes by displaying examples of how RPDN data can be used to address current research problems in the literature. It is expected that this dataset makes a contribution to quantitative research on rising powers and their diplomacy.

This paper maps the scientific production in International Relations (IR) from South American cou... more This paper maps the scientific production in International Relations (IR) from South American countries by using content analysis’ techniques and softwares in order to identify intersections between theories, methods and subfields. This was done by applying content analysis to 7857 papers in 35 scientific journals listed in the SciELO webpages of six countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela,
published from January 2006 to December 2014. This way, it was possible to identify which are the main methods and areas in the developing of IR in South America. Our main findings show that: i) positivista epistemologies prevail in 33 of the 35 journals analyzed; ii) there is great methodological diversity, with greater emphasis in qualitative methods in 21 journals; iii) the journals are very diverse in themes of the published papers, with rare exceptions; iv) the folowing subfiels, International Institutions and Regimes, International Security, Strategy and Defense, and Regional Integration are predominant; v) International Security, Strategy and Defense is the subfield which seems to be theoretically more qualified, as it cites more theories; vi) the methodological unawareness: we consider that methodological awareness occurs when there is express mention of any of our categorization dictionary, methods section. This happens in less than 13% of our corpus, implying that methodological rigor is rare in the papers analyzed and that there is some level of methodological ignorance, which results in papers mainly constituted as narratives than scientific research. This broad vision of the IR production in South America is combined with a proposal for a qualitative analysis protocol that aims to show characteristic combinations of methods and areas.