Brazil’s non-indifference: a case for a feminist diplomatic agenda or geopolitics as usual?

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, Brazil took advantage of its economically and politically privileged position to challenge global normative structures. In 2004, the concept of “non-indifference” was integrated into the Brazilian vocabulary of foreign policy, justifying and legitimating the country’s acceptance of the invitation to command the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). On the one hand, non-indifference can be read as a discursive maneuver that enabled Brazil to accommodate its non-interventionist agenda to an old geopolitical game, given the pressure imposed upon “global players” to respond effectively and assertively to threats to international peace and security. On the other hand, the “Brazilian way” could also be seen as an alternative to a highly masculinized geopolitical approach to international security. This paper explores possible limitations, tensions and/or opportunities that emerge from the encounter between a feminist diplomatic agenda and a masculinizing ordering of the international space. It does so by contrasting Brazil’s ambition for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), the club of powerful states, with Brazil’s diplomatic and military performance during MINUSTAH, widely evaluated as a success due to characteristics such as solidarity, generosity, flexibility and the “warm conviviality” of Brazilian culture.     

Transnational policy entrepreneurs and the cultivation of influence: individuals,organizations and their networks

ABSTRACT

The ‘policy entrepreneur’ concept arises from the Multiple Streams’ theory of agenda setting in Policy Studies. Through conceptual stretching’, the concept is extended to global policy dynamics. Unlike ‘advocacy networks’ and ‘norm entrepreneurs’, the discussion addresses the strategies of ‘insider’ or ‘near-governmental’ non-state actors. The analysis advances the policy entrepreneur concept in three directions. First, the discussion develops the transnational dimensions of this activity through a case study of International Crisis Group. Second, rather than focusing on charismatic individuals, the discussion emphasizes the importance of organizational resources and reputations for policy entrepreneurship and access into international policy communities. Organizations maintain momentum behind policy solutions and pressures for change over the long term when individuals retire or depart for other positions. Third, the discussion outlines four distinct entrepreneur strategies and techniques that both individuals and organizations cultivate and deploy to enhance their power and persuasion in global policy processes and politics.     

“印太”背景下的印日合作

"印太"概念经历了从地缘术语向战略构想的演变,且域内各国基于本国利益塑造"印太"构想的进程尚未结束,这使得相关研究需要不断转换视角并注重动态追踪。莫迪执政后,印度和日本升级两国战略伙伴关系,完善各层级对话机制,共同推动区域连通性与基础设施建设,并提出"亚非增长走廊"愿景。在深化海洋安全合作的基础上,实现军事演习全面覆盖与装备技术合作的纵深发展,注重地区问题的立场协调与强化美印日、美印日澳等多边磋商机制。"印太"发展契机、两国战略目标驱动、制衡中国需求以及美国战略推动构成了印日战略合作的基本动因。得益于双方战略对接的深入和适宜的国内政治环境,印日深化战略合作的势头还将持续,表现在防务合作模式的多元化和加速布局"印太"基建项目的趋势。国内条件限制、"印太"战略差异以及国际局势影响等制约性因素也给两国合作前景带来挑战。     

Security branding and digital narrations. Security issues representation on Twitter

In the contemporary multicentric world, sovereign states have to manage carefully the construction of their image, defining their role and aspirations. With the re-definition of the state centric politics, stories become relevant: communication is a form of power, and networked forms of communication are becoming progressively a way to conquer the transnational public spheres. Through strategic narratives of foreign politics, states try to set up the ‘tales’ of international affairs and foreign strategies, to suggest a world vision, a causal interpretation, determining frames that affect transnational actors’ position in the international environment. Sovereign states develop these kind of frame using tools and theories referred to the commercial branding tradition to promote and support their own policies and identity. We decided to investigate how that process is made through information diffusion on digital platforms.

In this work, it has been analyzed the content presented through Twitter posts by the Foreign Ministries accounts of four different States dissimilar for geopolitical positioning and security concerns (USA; Israel; France; Sweden), for a period of three months (9/1/2015-11/30/2015); leading to the identification of different models and characteristic patterns of self-representation.

The thematic content analysis, based on the identification of macrocategories and micro-issues, has led to the identification of different models and characteristic patterns of self-representation, determined by domestic vicissitudes, and has shown some regularities, caused by the branding vocation of autobiographical online contents.     

Turkey’s Twitter public diplomacy: Towards a “new” cult of personality

This study examined how Turkey uses social media as a tool for public diplomacy and how the state’s soft-power efforts have recently changed on the global stage. The researchers constructed a dataset of 2769 Twitter posts by the Turkish government’s most influential public diplomacy accounts. The analyses revealed that the focus of Turkey’s Twitter public diplomacy has become concentrated on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and is thematically focused on the political values embodied by the Turkish president. The findings suggest that public diplomacy remains to be the diplomacy of the government, not of the public, and social media is used as just another tool for propaganda, not as a means of engagement with foreign publics. Further, the findings indicate the emergence of a “new” cult of personality in public diplomacy and point out the instrumental role of social media in changing the dynamics of leader-follower relationship. The study contributes to public relations theory and practice by advancing the burgeoning public diplomacy scholarship at the intersection of social media and relational approaches.     

习近平新时代体育外交的实践探析

运用文献资料法和逻辑分析法等研究方法,以构建人类命运共同体为切入视角,对习近平新时代体育外交思想进行深入分析。研究认为,习近平新时代体育外交主要内容包括:赛事外交是主流;足球外交成亮点;多边合作是关键。习近平新时代体育外交思想是中国外交思想的重要组成部分之一,是对中共历代领导人体育外交思想的继承和发展,也是建设新时代体育强国的内在要求。习近平新时代体育外交思想内涵丰富且意蕴深远,不仅展现了我国新时代外交多元化发展的一面,也促进了中国对外沟通、交流及合作,具有十分重要的意义。     

马克思主义民族理论在新世纪的新发展--学习胡锦涛同志在中央民族工作会议上的重要讲话

胡锦涛同志在中央民族工作会议上的讲话,是新世纪新阶段我国民族工作的纲领性文件,是对党和国家的民族理论和政策一个新的丰富和发展,也是对马克思主义民族理论的新发展.     

以海洋自由为原则——试论美国早期对外条约中的海事条款(1776—1815)

美国建国伊始便把海洋自由视为外交活动的主要原则之一,主要体现在捍卫中立国权力和航行自由权益方面。在欧洲,美国同英法等传统强国就航行自由与中立国权益开展积极的外交乃至军事行动;在地中海,美国先同巴巴里海盗国家虚与委蛇,待国力强盛后通过武力彻底解决了这些国家对美国在地中海贸易的骚扰。这些外交和军事行动虽起因不尽相同,但最后签订的条约多有维护美国外贸、航运的条款,也表达了美国早期朴素的海洋自由思想。     

日朝关系的新动向及对东北亚局势的影响

2014年7月4日,朝鲜正式成立了由国防委员会特别授权的主要是针对“绑架日本人问题”的“特别调查委员会”,并开始启动对在朝鲜境内所有日本人的全面调查工作。同一天,日本首相安倍晋三则宣布解除了针对朝鲜的部分单边经济制裁作为积极回应。不过,日朝关系的一度趋热局面,至今仍然难以改变两国在东北亚地区深处外交困境的尴尬现实。日朝关系出现的诸多新变化,如果从冷战结束后日朝关系史的角度来考察,不过是两国处在与东北亚国家外交关系“寒冷”时期所采取的“抱团取暖”的应急性策略。日朝关系真正步入正常化阶段,尚需较长时日和更多的务实努力。