Alcides Costa Vaz

Brazil as ‘Southern donor’: beyond hierarchy and national interests in development cooperation?

This article analyses Brazils growing role in external development assistance. During Lula da Silvas presidency, cooperation with developing countries grew dramatically. While the official position is that Brazilian development assistance is moved not by national economic or political interests, but by international ‘solidarity’, and does not reproduce the North–South traditional aid relations, we suggest that it is not completely divorced from national, sub-national or sectoral interests and cannot be viewed apart from Brazils broader foreign policy objectives. Brazil does pursue political, economic and commercial interests and, concomitantly, has made a positive difference in the recipient countries. However, more empirical research and field investigation are needed to better gauge the impact of Brazils assistance initiatives and their contributions to South–South cooperation more broadly. During Lulas terms (2003–2010), Brazil could be classified as a ‘Southern donor’, which expresses the countrys own novelties, and tensions, of simultaneously being a donor and a developing country.

Brazil–Africa Agricultural Cooperation Encounters: Drivers, Narratives and Imaginaries of Africa and Development

Brazilian development cooperation is increasingly in the spotlight. Africa is a major destination and agriculture tops the list of priority fields on intervention, with Embrapa leading cooperation projects. But patterns of cooperation in Africa are changing as other public, private and civil society actors enter the realm of cooperation and bring along contrasting narratives and experiences of agricultural development. This article maps the evolving nature of Brazilian development cooperation in agriculture and discusses emerging features of the Brazil–Africa encounter, considering knowledge framings, policy narratives, imaginaries and the motivations driving a diversity of technical and political actors.

O Brasil no contexto do narcotráfico internacional

This article analyses the world dimensions of narco-traffic, exemplifying parts of its structure and incidence. Besides, it studies the narco-traffic in its most important trends and manifestations in the Brazilian society, and identify the main ways of its links to international traffic.

Parcerias estratégicas no contexto da política exterior brasileira: implicações para o Mercosul

The article analyses the conformation of partnerships inside the broader context of Brazilian foreign policy, emphasizing its bilateral aspects and their relation to Mercosur.

Mercosul aos dez anos: crise de crescimento ou perda de identidade?

The text analyses the course of Mercosur along its first decade as well as its mid-term perspectives in economic, polical and institutional terms, with emphasis on the consequences of internal and external injunctions to the performance of its two main economies and the responses of the respective governments to opportunities and restraints towards the blocs consolidation.

International drivers of Brazilian agricultural cooperation in Africa in the post-2008 economic crisis

This text focuses on the major drivers of Brazilian agricultural cooperation in Africa as conceived and pursued from 2004 to 2014, with emphasis on the impacts of political and economic international changes that took place in that period, and particularly the impacts of the 2008 economic crisis, in framing Brazils foreign policy and development assistance initiatives. It addresses current international forces and developments at the systemic level, but also analyses recent economic domestic developments, in particular those directly related to Brazilian agriculture and those related to the policy framework of its evolving internationalization. Special attention is paid to the dual dimensions of Brazilian agricultural policy and to its projection in agricultural cooperation as pursed in Africa.

Brazilian approaches to maritime security cooperation in IBSA and the prospects for an Atlantic–Indian maritime security governance

The present text discusses Brazilians perspectives on South Atlantic security, the prospects of its engagement in fostering maritime security governance in the axis linking the South Atlantic and the Indian Oceans and the role that the India, Brazil and South Africa Dialogue Forum (IBSA) might play in this regard. It addresses Brazils geostrategic interests and concerns regarding its maritime projection and its perspectives towards security and maritime cooperation within IBSA. Thereafter, it contrasts these perspectives with the priority currently assigned to the South Atlantic in its defense policy and to the political and diplomatic valuation of the South Atlantic Zone of Peace and Cooperation as the proper institutional framework to foster maritime governance in the region. It concludes by pointing out that at present there are no immediate and mid-term incentives strong enough for Brazil to change its primary focus on the South Atlantic to favour the emergence of a bi-ocean governance framework.

UNASUR, Brazil, and the South American defence cooperation: A decade later

UNASUR and its Defence Council (SADC) were created under a promising scenario of regional cooperation. Almost ten years later, a growing demand for regional cooperation arises, facing, however, low levels of political willingness from local governments. Through the lenses of structural and neoclassical realism, this paper suggests that the lack of support by governments, especially the Brazilian one, due to a change in how domestic ideas are developed, and a transformation in the regional balance of power, have contributed to these institutions’ quick obsolescence.

O Relançamento do Mercosul

O presente artigo tem como objetivo analisar as recentes medidas visando o relancamento do Mercosul, e seus impactos regionais e internacionais.