Brazil’s Position for UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen

Brazil aspires to a leading role in international negotiations on an agreement to counter climate change. It stipulates that future commitments be based on the principle of common but differen- tiated responsibility. In Copenhagen, it will declare its voluntary emissions reduction target and it will unveil its own national climate policy concept, so as to spur developed countries into making ambitious reductions commitments, contributing more funds, and facilitating the transfer of technol- ogy to developed countries. It will attempt to encourage investment by rich states in its own low-emissions projects.

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Author:Bartłomiej Znojek
Editor:Sławomir Dębski, Łukasz Adamski, Mateusz Gniazdowski, Beata Górka-Winter, Leszek Jesień, Agnieszka Kondek, Łukasz Kulesa, Ernest Wyciszkiewicz
Series:PISM Bulletins
Issue:71
Publisher:Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM), Warsaw, Poland

Using BRIC to Build at Sea: The Brazil-China Aircraft Carrier Agreement and Shifting Naval Power

On 7 December 2009, the United States commemorated the 68th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This attack not only drew the U.S. into World War II, it also marked the beginning of the modern era of naval warfare, in which aircraft carriers are essential for force projection. While Japan subsided as a military power after its defeat in World War II, its neighbor across the sea, China, has been steadily building its military capabilities over the past sixty years and more recently seeking to bolster its economic growth with increased international military (and consequently diplomatic) power.

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English (PDF · 5 pages · 139 KB)

Author:Kai Thaler
Series:IPRIS Viewpoints
Issue:9
Publisher:Portuguese Institute of International Relations and Security (IPRIS), Lisbon, Portugal

Brazil's WTO Case Against the US Cotton Program

On December 21, 2009, Brazil announced that it was authorized by the WTO to impose trade retaliation against up to $829.3 million in U.S. goods in 2010 in a long-running dispute over U.S. cotton subsidies. Brazil states that it may levy duties of up to 100% on a preliminary list of 222 goods of U.S. origin valued at $561 million, then apply the remaining value of $268.3 million in cross-retaliation (i.e., retaliatory countermeasures in sectors outside of the trade in goods, most notably in the area of U.S. copyrights and patents). Brazil has not yet finalized its decision to actually impose retaliatory measures; however, Brazil has said that it would announce a final list of potential retaliatory products in February 2010, when U.S. trade data becomes available.

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Author:Randy Schnepf
Series:US Congressional Research Service Reports
Publisher:Congressional Research Service (CRS), Washington DC, United States

Contested Leadership in International Relations - Power Politics in South America, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa

Given the importance of the assertion or prevention of regional leadership for the future global order, this paper examines the strategies and resources being used to assert regional leadership as well as the reactions of other states within and outside the respective regions. Three regional dyads, marked by different degrees of “contested leadership,” are analyzed: Brazil vs. Venezuela, India vs. Pakistan, and South Africa vs. Nigeria.

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Author:Daniel Flemes, Thorsten Wojczewski
Series:GIGA Working Papers
Volume:2010
Issue:121
Publisher:German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Hamburg, Germany

The Potential Role of Non-Traditional Donors' Aid in Africa

This paper challenges the perception that non-traditional aid lacks transparency and contains little or any conditionality thereby undermining the development efforts of ‘traditional’ donors. Moreover, this paper examines the implications of the re-emergence of China, India, Brazil and South Africa as important ‘non-traditional’ donors to Africa on sustainable development and aid flows and governance.

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Author:Peter Kragelund
Series:ICTSD Publications
Publisher:International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), Châtelaine (Geneva), Switzerland

IPRIS Lusophone Countries Bulletin No. 7

This issue of the Lusophone Countries Bulletin assesses the relationship between Brazil and Iran, the political situation in Guinea-Bissau, and a micro-credit program in Mozambique. Further articles discuss the challenges facing local government reform in Timor Leste, and Portuguese policy toward the Arabian peninsula. It also includes a timeline of notable events which occurred in lusophone states in May 2010.

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Author:Pedro Seabra, Paulo Gorjão, Aslak Orre, Diogo Noivo, Dennis Shoesmith
Editor:Paulo Gorjão, Pedro Seabra, Kai Thaler
Series:IPRIS Lusophone Countries Bulletin
Issue:7
Publisher:Portuguese Institute of International Relations and Security (IPRIS), Lisbon, Portugal

Approaches to Fostering Productivity Growth in Brazil, China and India

Productivity growth is a significant contributor to GDP growth, particularly to increases in per capita income. However, there is considerable ambiguity regarding how to measure the concept of technical progress, and consequently on policies that would foster productivity growth. Brazil, China and India, three important emerging economies, are seeking to foster productivity growth through encouraging innovation and technology transfers from the more developed economies. But given the ambiguities about how to encourage innovation and technology transfers, governments in these countries adopted a plethora of policies in the hope that the combination will be effective. This ambiguity can also be seen in the much slower growth of productivity in Brazil than China, even though Brazil has scored higher on the World Bank’s Knowledge Assessment Methodology.

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Author:Manmohan Agarwal, Yao Li, John Whalley
Series:CIGI Working Papers
Issue:47
Publisher:Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), Waterloo, Canada

The End of Deference: Iran, Brazil and Turkey and the Nuclear Fuel Swap (ARI)

On 17 May 2010 Brazil, Iran and Turkey signed a tri-partite Joint Declaration asserting that a nuclear fuel exchange could lead to wider cooperation to exploit nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. This paper looks at the implications of the nuclear fuel swap agreed on 17 May 2010 between Brazil, Iran and Turkey in the context of Iran’s nuclear programme as well as the reasons and expectations of the Brazilian and Turkish emerging powers with regard to their deal with the Iranian proliferator power.

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Author:Ian Anthony
Series:Elcano Analyses
Volume: 2010
Issue: 96
Publisher: Elcano Royal Institute of International and Strategic Studies, Madrid, Spain

Too Big a World? Lula, Brazil and the Middle East

The decision to enter the tangled web that is Middle Eastern politics as an extra-regional player, in order to push peace negotiations and help solve conflicts in the region, is a brave one by the Brazilian President Lula da Silva. This drive appears to correspond more closely to motives of presidentialist diplomacy than to the cool and considered calculation of an emerging country’s foreign policy.

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Author:Günther Maihold
Series:Elcano Analyses
Volume:2010
Issue:62
Publisher:Elcano Royal Institute of International and Strategic Studies, Madrid, Spain