Suchergebnisse

The Treaty of Lisbon, in line with the failed Constitutional Treaty and in the sequence of several initiatives which had taken place, came to provide for the mechanism of permanent structured cooperation. The goal of this mechanism is to enable the arising of a vanguard of Member States, eventually ready to form the embryo of a future European Union's exclusive defence system. Although permanent structured cooperation represents a step towards the application of the "community method" to security and defence of the European Union, it doesn't still fit in that pattern. Only future can tell, if permanent structured cooperation is likely to provide the European Union with a security and defence policy based on the "community method".

The generalized perception that the international system is changing due to the emergence of new great powers has been motivating analysts & policy makers to advance new proposals for institutional cooperation among democracies. This article studies two of those proposals -- John McCain's "League of Democracies" & the one of a study group of Princeton University -- and argues that they have very different origins & possible outcomes. Their differences are grounded in two competing conceptions of the United States role as global liberal actor. Adapted from the source document.

Regarding the context of crisis and transformation of the European project, Portugal, as well as all the European member states, must define its goals concerning that transformation. This article presents a wide range of proposals in order to help the definition of a Portuguese Agenda to the eu focusing on the policies of trade, cohesion, agriculture, cooperation, competition and on the transEuropean networks. Adapted from the source document.

This article is about the Euro crisis. It intends to present a small contribution concerning the political interests that guided member states on the issue of monetary cooperation, since the so-called "Snake" to the European monetary system, and later on the creation of the Monetary Union. Then it concentrates on the Euro crisis, trying to identify the interests that prevailed on what was done by the area countries to overcome the current crisis, and also on what remains to be done. It ends up with a brief reflection on the political effects of the crisis on the EU balance of power. Adapted from the source document.

The aim of this article is to analyze Brazil's foreign policy towards the South American region during President Lula's administration. As such, the article intends to highlight two specific dimensions: the extent to which foreign policy during this period has differed from previous periods and the relative importance granted by Brazilian diplomacy to recent cooperation and integration efforts, more specifically the Unasur and Mercosur. The article argues that the Lula administration has behaved differently from its predecessors by prioritizing the building up of Brazilian leadership in South America on several different fronts, especially by strengthening multilateral institutions in the region. Adapted from the source document.

Qual o papel que a política social desempenha no desenvolvimento? Que ferramentas teóricas e conceptuais podemos usar para compreender melhor esse papel - considerando que as de que dispomos actualmente são, na maioria, as associadas aos modelos socioeconómicos e políticos dos países mais industrializados? Neste trabalho procuramos analisar estas questões, com base na reflexão sobre os modelos de regimes de bem-estar aplicados à realidade dos países em desenvolvimento. Nesta discussão recorremos a um conceito de política social abrangente e, nesse sentido, procurámos identificar a multi-dimensionalidade de funções que aquela pode desempenhar no desenvolvimento, designadamente em sociedades caracterizadas pela instabilidade e pela fragilidade institucional. Por outro lado, considerando a dependência que grande parte dos PED vive em relação à ajuda pública ao desenvolvimento, procurámos perceber também, de que modo a política social é entendida pelos actores-chave da cooperação – qual a posição que ocupa na agenda actual, dominada pelos objectivos da luta contra a pobreza, da melhoria dos níveis de saúde e de educação? Este articulado de questões está vertido na análise do caso da Guiné-Bissau numa perspectiva de regime de bem-estar, cuja evolução recente tem sido marcada pela instabilidade política, conflito, e degradação dos níveis de bem-estar. Palavras-Chave: Política Social, regimes de bem-estar, cooperação para o desenvolvimento, Estados "frágeis," Guiné-Bissau ; What's the role of social policy in development? Which theoretical and conceptual instruments can we use to better understand that role – considering that the ones we usually have are, mostly, associated with the socioeconomic and political contexts of industrialized counties. In this work, we aim to discuss those questions, using the welfare regimes theoretical framework, as it has been applied to the reality of developing countries. In this discussion we have used a broader concept of social policy and, in that sense, we've tried to identify the multi-dimensionality of roles that it can perform in development, particularly, in societies characterized by instability and institutional fragility. On the other hand, considering the great dependency on foreign aid that many developing countries face, we've tried to understand the approaches of the main development cooperation actors' towards social policy – what's the position of social policy in the present agenda, characterized by the importance given to poverty, health and education? This set of questions is integrated in the analysis of the Guinea-Bissau case in a wellbeing regime perspective, considering that it recent history has been characterized by political instability, conflict and the falling of wellbeing levels. Keywords: Social policy, welfare regimes, development cooperation, "fragile" states, Guinea-Bissau

The debate about NATO strategy is entering the decisive stage in the run-up to the Alliance's Summit, November in Lisbon. Portugal should try to incorporate its vision about Alliance's future in the strategic document namely its views on the transatlantic relations, on the NATO/EU partnership & on the strategic cooperation with Africa & Brazil, among others. Adapted from the source document.

The new paradigm in which the People's Republic of China is perceived (from weak & politically fragile to strong) & its growing soft power, in part due to the high rates of economic development, led to the general acceptance of its influence in the South. Perceived as a more convenient partner than the Western countries, China legitimates its presence in Africa & Latin America presenting its own development model, in which economic progress is not linked with political democratization. Using the slogan of South-South cooperation & replacing the so-called Western norms by others with "Chinese characteristics," as the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, Beijing challenges European & US interests in those regions. Adapted from the source document.

Over the past decade, Brazil has launched a foreign policy that has revealed its aim to broaden its influence in the design of the global multilateral architecture, and increase both its presence in UN peace operations and its cooperation in the development of low-income countries (LICs) in Latin America and Africa. In order to achieve this aim, the Brazilian government has been stimulating the country's international participation in humanitarian assistance actions, in UN-led peace missions and in cooperation for development initiatives. This paper will present three illustrative cases, which demonstrate the different forms this participation can take and the variety of methods of intervention they may involve: Haiti, Bolivia and Guinea-Bissau. These cases reveal the diversity of Brazilian involvement in Sousth-South Cooperation( SSC), regarding political motivations, cultural affinities and regional/global aspirations. They also help illustrate certain plasticity in Brazil's performance as an emerging donor. The three cases portray the multidimensional nature of the Brazilian South-South agenda, in which security, development, and political and institutional support are intertwined. In addition, these countries represent areas of high interest in Brazilian foreign policy. In the case of Bolivia, its importance relates to the Brazilian interest in promoting democratic stability in South America. In the case of Guinea-Bissau, its importance relates to the Brazilian aim to strengthen its commitments to the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), as an instrument to foster relations with the African continent. Finally, in the case of Haiti, its significance is related to Brazil's stance when intervention takes place in vulnerable states with the aim to improve Brazil`s presence in global governance associated with the promotion of sustainable development in the low income countries.

Partindo de um quadro teórico neo-gramsciano crítico à globalização, este artigo aplica a nova teoria do regionalismo (NTR) e a teoria do regionalismo regulatório (TRR) à sua análise e teorização dos tratados de comércio da Aliança Bolivariana para os Povos da Nossa América (ALBA-TCP) como regionalismo contra-hegemônico na América Latina e Caribe (ALC). A ALBA está centrada na ideia de um Socialismo do Século XXI, que, como (inicialmente) também a Revolução Bolivariana da Venezuela, substitui a 'vantagem competitiva' pela 'vantagem cooperativa'. Em seu caráter de conjunto de processos multidimensionais e transnacionais a ALBA-TCP opera dentro de/transversalmente a um número de setores e escalas, ao mesmo passo que as transformações estruturais são movidas pela interação de agentes do Estado e agentes não estatais. A política de Educação Superior para Todos (ESPT) do governo venezuelano rejeita a agenda neoliberal globalizada de mercadorização, privatização e elitismo e reinvindica educação pública gratuita em todos os níveis como um direito humano fundamental. A ESPT está sendo regionalizado em um espaço educacional emergente da ALBA e assume um papel-chave nos processos de democracia direta e participatória, dos quais a construção popular (bottom-up) da contra-hegemonia e a redefinição política e econômica da ALC dependem. Antes de produzir sujeitos empreendedores conformes ao capitalismo global, a ESPT procura formar subjetividades ao longo de valores morais de solidariedade e cooperação. Isso será ilustrado com referência a um estudo etnográfico de caso da Universidade Bolivariana da Venezuela (UBV). ; This paper employs new regionalism theory and regulatory regionalism theory in its analysis and theorisation of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) as a counter-hegemonic Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) regionalism. As (initially) the regionalisation of Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution, ALBA is centred around the idea of a 21st Century Socialism that replaces the 'competitive advantage' with the 'cooperative advantage'. ALBA, as a set of multi-dimensional inter- and transnational processes, operates within and across a range of sectors and scales whilst the structural transformations are driven by the interplay of state and non-state actors. The Venezuelan government's Higher Education For All (HEFA) policy, which is being regionalised within an emergent ALBA education space, assumes a key role in the direct democratic and participatory democratic processes upon which a bottom-up construction of counter-hegemony depends. HEFA challenges the globalised neoliberal higher education agenda of commoditisation, privatisation and elitism. Rather than producing enterprising subjects fashioned for global capitalism, HEFA seeks to form subjectivities along the moral values of solidarity and cooperation.