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2411. "Belt and Road Initiative": Challenges and Opportunities for China and for the World

Author:
Bruno De Conti and Petr Mozias
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
AUSTRAL: Brazilian Journal of Strategy International Relations
Institution:
Postgraduate Program in International Strategic Studies, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Abstract:
The “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) is quite impressive in the amount of resources and the number of countries involved, but also in the diversity of intentions it reveals. In one hand, it is a demonstration of strength for China in the international arena; in the other hand, it is an effort of the Chinese government to face important economic problems. Nevertheless, it may not be studied only from the point of view of China, since it has direct and indirect impacts over the whole globe. This paper aims therefore to analyze BRI under the framework of associated opportunities and challenges for China and for the rest of the world.
Topic:
Globalization, Infrastructure, Hegemony, and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
Political Geography:
China and Asia

2412. World System Mobility: The Relevance of the Semiperiphery Concept for Development Projects in the 21st Century

Author:
Alexandre Freitas
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
AUSTRAL: Brazilian Journal of Strategy International Relations
Institution:
Postgraduate Program in International Strategic Studies, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Abstract:
The objective of this article is to discuss the relevance of the concept of semiperiphery to analyze the world system in the 21st century. First, the main concepts of the world-system approach will be analyzed. In the second part, a more in-depth examination of the question of the semi-periphery will be made through its political and economic characteristics. Later, we will examine the empirical attempts to define the semiperiphery, its role in the reproduction of the capitalist world-economy and the question of mobility in the world-system hierarchy. In conclusion, the role of government apparatus in the issue of development and overcoming the status of semi-periphery in the capitalist world-system will be highlighted.
Topic:
Development, Capitalism, Mobility, and World System
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2413. The Poverty Trap: An Analysis of ther Contribution of Multilateral and Regional Institution to the Poor Economic and Social Performance of African Countries

Author:
Taiane Las Casas Campos and Alexandre Cesar Cunha Leite
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
AUSTRAL: Brazilian Journal of Strategy International Relations
Institution:
Postgraduate Program in International Strategic Studies, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Abstract:
This paper analyzes the conditions for seven countries located on the West African coast to practically set growth and economic development policies in order to overcome what we call the poverty trap. These countries could seek at the regional and multilateral levels the resources needed to overcome their backwardness. However, we identified that the main policy proposed by these institutions for these countries, which was trade liberalization, not only maintained the condition of being exporters of natural and agricultural resources and were unable to generate sufficient employment and income to overcome their poverty.
Topic:
Development, Poverty, Governance, Institutions, and Regionalism
Political Geography:
Africa and West Africa

2414. External Actors, Good Governance and Health Care Delivery in Africa

Author:
Benjamin Uchenna Anaemene
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
AUSTRAL: Brazilian Journal of Strategy International Relations
Institution:
Postgraduate Program in International Strategic Studies, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Abstract:
The structural adjustment programme imposed by the World Bank and IMF in the face of the serious economic crisis that confronted African states in the 1980s resulted in severe cuts in state spending on social services including health. State failure in the provision of social services led to the externalisation of responsibility for health and the proliferation of actors working in the field of health across the continent. Despite the positive and negative consequences of this development on Africa, the debate about the role of external actors in health care delivery in Africa has dwelt extensively on the degree they should participate neglecting the emphasis on how they participate, under what conditions and with what consequences. Using qualitative data techniques, this article examines the involvement of external actors in health care delivery in Africa illustrating the nature, pattern, dimensions, and dynamics of such engagements in the context of popular concerns with good governance. It found that governance challenges constitute a serious obstacle to better health outcome in Africa. It posits that African states can only maximise their gains from external assistance for health if they take leadership in coordinating health activities in their countries within the context of a comprehensive national health plan.
Topic:
Financial Crisis, Governance, World Bank, and Health Care Policy
Political Geography:
Africa

2415. Post-Trump Diplomacy Outlook

Author:
Eurico de Lima Figueiredo
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
AUSTRAL: Brazilian Journal of Strategy International Relations
Institution:
Postgraduate Program in International Strategic Studies, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Abstract:
The electoral defeat of Republican candidate Donald Trump and the return to power of the Democrats with Joseph Biden cannot be left unexamined, considering its implications for international relations. Here we present notes from NERINT Strategic Analysis, written by experts and divided into thematic issues and bilateral relations between the United States and the most relevant nations at the global level.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Leadership, and Transition
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

2416. The Contemporary World-System: A Contribution tom the Debate on Development in the World-Systems Theory

Author:
Analúcia Danilevicz Pereira and Salvatore Gasparini Xerri
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
AUSTRAL: Brazilian Journal of Strategy International Relations
Institution:
Postgraduate Program in International Strategic Studies, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Abstract:
This work analyzes the development in World-System Theory as produced by the flow of appropriation of global surplus value through the international division of labor, creating the divisions between center, semiperiphery and periphery in the capitalist world-economy. It thus aims to explore how the global appropriation of surplus value in the capitalist world-economy produces variations in the level of development of its different regions. To this end, it contextualizes and conceptualizes its elements on its spatial and temporal dimensions. It defines surplus value and the form of its global accumulation, and in this sense explores the succession of capitalist hegemonies, in their dialectical relationship with the system's progress, enabling the approach to the international division of labor, and how the monopoly over finance and technologies allows the center of the system to consolidate a structure that ensures the transfer of capital and surplus value from the other regions to it. It follows that the development of a particular country or region in the capitalist world-economy depends on its ability to accumulate surplus value globally. Additionally, it is observed that the conditions imposed by the system structure prevent initiatives of autonomous development by its parts, being necessary to break with them for such a project to be possible
Topic:
Development, Globalization, Capitalism, and World System
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2417. Wallerstein, Arrighi, and Amin: Imperialism in Fordist Capitalism

Author:
Luiz Felipe Brandao Osorio
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
AUSTRAL: Brazilian Journal of Strategy International Relations
Institution:
Postgraduate Program in International Strategic Studies, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Abstract:
Imperialism takes on a new guise after the Second World War. In a panorama of expanding production relations, capitalism becomes, in fact, a mode of world production, based on Fordism. In this dynamic, new elements are incorporated into the analysis of international relations, such as the periphery, unequal exchanges, the transfer of value, and the world system, which end up not only eclipsing imperialism but also giving it other outlines. In this tone, it is necessary to investigate three influential authors, such as Wallerstein, Arrighi, and Amin, demonstrating their place and their limits in the central debate of international relations. Over time, the three, due to the vigor of their ideas and political engagement, became essential authors for criticizing the moment of capitalism in which we are inserted, even if it is to refute them. Studying it means unraveling yet another important knot in the task of investigating imperialism, an essential concept for understanding reality.
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Imperialism, and Capitalism
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2418. The (Re)emergence of the BRICS and the Reorganization of Power in Contemporary Geopolitics

Author:
Charles Pennaforte and Ricardo Luigi
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
AUSTRAL: Brazilian Journal of Strategy International Relations
Institution:
Postgraduate Program in International Strategic Studies, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Abstract:
The two first decades of the 21 st Century were marked by the recrudescence of two powerhouses, Russia and China. Given their important role on global geopolitics, these two countries took advantage of the gaps resulted from yet another crisis on the structure of global capitalism, which influenced the relative decline of the United States capacity to impose its will on the international system as they had been able to do so since the end of World War II. This article’s objective is to analyze the global geopolitical rearrangement due to a weakened United States which opened the possibility for the BRICS nations to emerge as possible sources of power. To reinforce this analysis, the world-systems perspective, (here on referred to as WSP) elaborated mainly by Immanuel Wallerstein and Giovanni Arrighi is used, as well as a geopolitical approach to provide a link to international relations theories. Therefore, this paper is divided on to four sections. The first one interrelates the geopolitical theories and those of the WSP. The second section is guided towards understanding the origins and fundamentals of the WSP. On the third section, an approach is made towards the motivations and the effects of the rearrangement of power on the world’s geopolitics. Finally, on the last section, the roles and opportunities that have arisen from the emergence of the BRICS nations on the international system are presented.
Topic:
Development, International Trade and Finance, Geopolitics, and Capitalism
Political Geography:
Africa, Russia, China, Europe, India, Asia, South Africa, Brazil, and South America

2419. Geopolitics and the Constitution in Light of the Democratic Constitutional State

Author:
Guilherme Sandoval Goes
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
AUSTRAL: Brazilian Journal of Strategy International Relations
Institution:
Postgraduate Program in International Strategic Studies, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Abstract:
This article is the result of research carried out in the postdoctoral stage of the Postgraduate Program in Aeronautical Sciences at the University of Aeronautics (PPGCA), whose theme was “Geopolitics, Culture and Law: Epistemological dialogues needed in times of postmodernity” Thus, it collimates to examine the scientific connections that unite geopolitics and law, disciplines that overlap in such a way that they end up guaranteeing fundamental rights for ordinary citizens, aiming to analyze the geopolitical control of law from the influence of neoliberal geopolitics on constitutionalism. of the countries of late modernity, as is the case of Brazil, thus it was possible to demonstrate the influence of real factors of world power in the legislative process of the countries of the Global South of neoliberal globalization, whose leadership is being disputed by the United States and China.
Topic:
International Relations, Globalization, Government, Governance, Law, and Neoliberalism
Political Geography:
China, Asia, Brazil, South America, North America, United States of America, and Global South

2420. The Declining Hegemony of the United States and the Growing Influence of China: A Critical Perspective on Power Transition Transition Theory in the 21st Century

Author:
Nasa'i Muhammad Gwadabe
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
AUSTRAL: Brazilian Journal of Strategy International Relations
Institution:
Postgraduate Program in International Strategic Studies, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Abstract:
The apparent eroding in the hegemonic power of the United States and the sustained growth of China has triggered debate as to whether the rise of China will be peaceful or conflictual. Structural realism posits that the world is characterised by the anarchic ordering principle in which there is no central authority sitting above the states. Therefore, the absence of a “leviathan” on the international system automatically makes every state equal on the system which created an atmosphere of competition for the maximisation of power for survival. On a similar line of reasoning, the Power Transition theory as a variant theory within realism postulates that when the international system is structured based on the principle of hierarchy, peace will reign. It means that when international relations are regulated and influenced by a dominant power, the international system becomes stable. But the emergence of a dissatisfied powerful nation to challenge the hegemon usually ends up in war. Based on this assumption, Power Transition theorists argued that the rise of China to rival the dominance of the United States could not be peaceful. The Power Transition theory has influenced many academics to have the belief that the two nations will end up in “Thucydides’ Trap”. This belief has aggravated the matter beyond the reasonable level and has instilled panic in the mind of foreign policymakers which could jeopardise world peace and international cooperation. Hence, this paper aims to critically evaluate the deficiency of the Power Transition theory in the 21st century in explaining the current United States-China relations and the prospect of peace or war between the two nations using process tracing. Accordingly, in this paper, it is argued that in the 21st century, an armed confrontation between the United States and China is highly unlikely. Because in today’s world, nations (including the United States and China) are intertwined by the forces of globalisation which created inexorable economic interdependence. Additionally, there is rapid advancement in military technology and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction which came with the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). Consequently, there is a need to revisit the Power Transition theory to accommodate contemporary factors. The inclusion of the current variables into the Theory will make it applicable and adequately fit in the discourse of international relations and global politics of the 21st-century international system.
Topic:
Globalization, Military Strategy, Hegemony, and Conflict
Political Geography:
China, Asia, North America, and United States of America