Marcelo de Almeida Medeiros

Prerrogativas estatais, integração regional e lógica distributiva

The emergency of a new paradigm of international order, based on processes of regional integration instead of the decadent national State is examined in view of the limits imposed on it by the persistence of the dynamics of the national State. The difficulty in substituting a supranational logic for the intergovernmental one is pointed out. The absence of effective supranational organizations imposes restrictions on the distribution of the gains attained through the integrationist dynamics. This is examined on the basis of the cases of the Mercosul and of the European Union.

From Tegucigalpa to Teheran: Brazil's diplomacy as an emerging Western country

This paper reviews Brazils pursuit for international insertion by: discussing its search for new partners; presenting an overview of the historical, cultural, and political features that render it the most Western of the emerging nations; and analyzing its participation in the management of two major international crises, the Honduran constitutional crisis and the Iranian nuclear crisis.

A QUESTÃO DA REPRESENTAÇÃO NO MERCOSUL: OS CASOS DO PARLASUL E DO FCCR

Um dos problemas que mais tem chamado a atencao dos estudiosos das organizacoes regionais internacionais (ORI) e o da representacao. Os arranjos institucionais nelas edificados tem procurado refletir essa representacao em sua dupla vertente, a saber: uma assembleia constituida pelos estados-membros; outra formada por delegados dos cidadaos. Alguns deles, todavia, tem inovado por meio da criacao de foruns compostos por entes subnacionais, a fim de procurar atenuar o que certos autores tem denominado de “deficit democratico”. O objetivo deste trabalho e escrutar a dinâmica constitutiva de dois orgaos de representacao do Mercado Comum do Sul: (i) o Parlamento do Mercosul (Parlasul) e (ii) o Foro Consultivo de Municipios, Estados Federados, Provincias e Departamentos do Mercosul (FCCR). Procura-se identificar os parâmetros que balizam as suas respectivas composicoes e, a partir dai, tenta-se pensar a questao da representacao. A conclusao e de que apesar dos papeis essencialmente consultivos do Parlasul e do FCCR e de suas imperfeicoes no que concerne a pratica da representacao e do controle, elas constituem-se em elementos concretos que podem, ou nao, gerar momentum para novas invencoes politicas.

Legitimidade, representação e tomada de decisão: o Parlamento Europeu e o Parlasul em perspectiva comparada

Este artigo destina-se a tracar qual a funcao cumprida pelo Parlamento do Mercosul (Parlasul) no Mercosul. Primeiramente, o trabalho discute a experiencia europeia de fortalecimento da estrutura parlamentar. Em seguida, o trabalho analisa de que forma os atos produzidos pelos parlamentares do Parlasul influenciam na estrategia de fortalecimento da instituicao.

Lógicas de centro versus dinâmicas de margens: a questão subnacional na União Européia

O presente texto e composto de tres partes, seguidas por uma conclusao. Na primeira, propoe-se uma analise do estado da arte da reflexao sobre a dialetica centro-periferia. A segunda aponta o quanto esta reflexao se mostra instigante para a compreensao de processos de integracao regional, em geral, e daqueles da Uniao Europeia, em particular. Em seguida, a terceira parte foca a questao do multilevel governance, propondo uma analise das unidades subnacionais da Alemanha e da Franca, no âmago da Uniao Europeia. Finalmente, algumas consideracoes sao feitas a guisa de conclusao. Como todo processo politico, a integracao regional nao aporta beneficios similares a todas as suas partes. A desigualdade manifesta-se em graus multiplos e sem preconceito de fronteiras. A dicotomia centro-periferia existe em termos geoeconomicos, mas nao segundo os principios ideologicos estabelecidos por Prebisch. Para analisar os processos integrativos, presta-se mais uma percepcao de multilevel governance, em que, sem duvida, as unidades subnacionais nao podem deixar de ser escrutadas.

What does the field of International Relations look like in South America

This article provides a comprehensive picture of IR in South America by applying content analysis to 7,857 articles published in 35 journals from six South American countries from 2006 to 2014 in order to discover what the predominant theories, methods and research areas in this field are, how scholars tend to combine them in their research designs, and what the profiles of regional journals are, regarding their epistemological, methodological and subject preferences. The findings reveal a predominantly Positivist and largely Qualitative discipline, resembling North American and European IR.

Legitimising Emerging Power Diplomacy: an Analysis of Government and Media Discourses on Brazilian Foreign Policy under Lula

This study analyses whether Brazilian foreign policy under Lula successfully legitimised the countrys international identity as a rising power in the eyes of the domestic and international media. Based on a constructivist framework, we have applied French Discourse Analysis to a corpus of 36 official addresses by the President of the Republic and the Minister of Foreign Relations and 137 news articles from four news outlets, two Brazilian and two international, concerning two diplomatic episodes deemed representative of Brazils quest for greater pre-eminence: the leadership of MINUSTAH (2004) and the Nuclear Deal signed with Iran and Turkey (2010). Results show that official discourse characterises Brazils identity as a rising power chiefly by South-South diplomacy, while media discourse was more heterogeneous, being the discursive formation of each news outlet determinant in explaining their interpretation of Brazils international identity.

Como saber se as convenções internacionais de meio ambiente realmente funcionam? abordagens teórico-metodológicas sobre a eficácia dos regimes ambientais

The last decades were marked by the large amount of transborder environmental problems and, consequently, the increase in the number of related international regimes. However, the creation of a regime per se does not guarantee that it be implemented nor that its objectives be fully attained, much less that the issue be solved. This fact has been stimulating an interesting debate: are international regimes really effective to deal with environmental issues? This article discusses the main methods of analyzing environmental regime effectiveness. For that purpose it presents general conceptual issues related to regime effectiveness, discusses the main questions and specific methodological needs in the specific case of international environmental policy, analyses its most important findings, and focuses on the factors that contribute to effectiveness.

União Européia, reformas institucionais e déficit democrático: uma análise a partir do mecanismo de co-decisão

The article argues the European decision-making process throughout mapping the co-decision system adopted by the institutions of Europe Union. In the first part there is an explanation about how the European decision-making system works, highlighting institutions that define the rules of the game and the decision-makings practice; in the second part there are data about the applicability of co-decision between 1999 and 2006, observing core themes and their frequency in each part of decision process.

CyberIR or the introduction to the systematic studies on cyberspace in the International Relations tripod teaching-research-extension

This article aims to define the limits and potentialities of studies on cyberspace in International Relations teaching, research, and extension. Therefore, curricular adaptations are suggested, both in the undergraduate and graduate levels of this scientific field, in the light of what is called Cyber International Relations (CyberIR).