Steen Fryba Christensen

Brazil’s Foreign Policy Priorities

Abstract As Brazil has risen to become an increasingly significant regional and global player in a world undergoing significant transformations in terms of power balance, the subject of its aims, world-view and foreign policy strategies is becoming increasingly relevant. This article focuses on the most important themes and priorities in Brazil’s foreign policy orientation between 2003 and 2012 and connects these to the Brazilian government’s world-view, its view of Brazil’s role in the world, and to the main aims pursued by Brazil in its overall development strategy. I discuss how Brazil’s view of the world and its foreign policy priorities relate to the USA’s view and preferences, arguing that Brazil’s foreign policy priorities reflect the fact that the USA and the West in general are often seen as barriers to Brazil’s main aims. These are to achieve economic strengthening, a growing influence on the international political scene and a leadership position in South America, and through this to contribute to major changes in the global order.

Anomalous Muscle Belly of the Flexor Digitorum Superficialis in two Generations

A girl, her mother and her mothers sister are reported showing a digastric flexor superficialis to the index finger with no neurological signs. Two had bilateral muscles.

Emerging Powers, Emerging Markets, Emerging Societies: Global Responses

In Chapter 1, we presented our understanding of the “great transformations” taking place in international relations and in the international political economy. These transformations are also creating responses at national level in terms of economic/market orientation, political alliance, development strategy, and so on. One of the book’s key objectives is to provide a good framework for understanding the relationship between the rise of emerging powers and the existing world order, with an empirical focus on worldwide responses.

How Prioritized is the Strategic Partnership between Brazil and China

This chapter aims at conducting a broad analysis of Brazil-China relations in order to reveal the extent to which the strategic partnership between Brazil and China is prioritized. This question is of great importance within the thematics of this book as it deals with the issue of the character of the BRICS coalition, as well as with the issue of intra-BRICS cohesion. Many observers and analysts of the dynamics of global politics find that the rise of China and the formation of the BRICS coalition on the international political scene is a significant novelty in the international system, and relations between China and Brazil are of great importance to intra-BRICS relations and BRICS as a group. Maria Regina Soares de Lima and Ricardo Castelan (2013) suggest that from a realist perspective, the world “is witnessing a very interesting moment of imbalance between order and power” in which emerging powers are gaining in relevance. Will China and Brazil’s strategic partnership influence the nature of this imbalance?

Latin America's Political and Economic Responses to the Process of Globalization

In order to identify the characteristics of the actual phase of historical capitalism that is typically denominated “globalization,” a few reflections are first required. From a historical systemic and structural theoretical and methodological perspective, the world has been characterized by globalization from the creation of the world system, based on the First Economic Order that came out of the European expansion between the end of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth century.

The Impact of China on South America Political and Economic Development

The analysis focuses on China’s relations with, and impact on, South American since the beginning of the twenty-first century. While emphasizing bilateral economic relations, the analysis looks into a more comprehensive set of interconnected issues, where China’s impact has been felt, namely also on geopolitics, alliance patterns in international politics, and how domestic politics in South American countries relate to relations with China. The analysis compares three types of South American countries. The typologies differ in terms of economic policy and foreign policy and in terms of their economic models of development. It is argued that China’s impact in the region has been significant but has varied as a function of South American governments’ own policies and to some degree as a function of political and developmental characteristics of its South American partners.

The Emerging Powers and the Emerging World Order: Back to the Future?

Since the late 1990s, and especially in the new millennium, the world has been witnessing the dramatic rise of China, together with several large developing countries — Brazil, Russia, India — and many other countries that are labeled as the “Second World” (Khanna, 2012). In the current era of globalization and transnational capitalism, the ascendance of these emerging powers has redefined international relations (IR) and the international political economy (IPE) of upward mobility among the core, semi-periphery and periphery countries — a three-level hierarchy understanding of the world economic system as seen in world-system theory (Wallerstein, 1979, 2004). Furthermore, in concrete terms, the rise of new powers is affecting a number of global relationships — this includes those between great powers, the global South and developing countries — and new patterns of regionalization and regionalism are being generated.