Center of International Studies (CEI-IUL)

O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar brevemente os cenários previstos para o emprego da capacidade naval submarina de propulsão nuclear, de modo a verificar se há coerência entre a aquisição deste vetor e as previsões político-estratégicas do Brasil no momento, submetendo-as à teoria realista, especificamente na sua vertente ofensiva estrutural (ELMAN, 2008; MEARSHEIMER, 2001).

Além disso pretende também avaliar em que medida a decisão de obter este meio é parte de uma “política de prestígio”, tal qual definida por Hans J. Morgenthau (Cap. 6, 1967).

EN - Several important authors attain causal relation between the Cold War Détente to the establishment of a mutual assured destruction system supported by nuclear weapons. This article will discuss the methodological validity of this analysis, verifying the relation between the theory of nuclear dissuasion and it's practice during the Détente. I will argue that there is no causal relation and the nuclear weapons are mostly a interdependent variable.

PT - Uma série de autores consagrados relacionam de forma causal o período da Guerra Fria que ficou conhecido como Détente ao estabelecimento do sistema de destruição mútua assegurada por meio da obliteração nuclear. Este artigo pretende discutir a validade metodológica desta análise, verificando a relação entre a teoria da dissuasão nuclear e a prática durante o período da Détente. A linha de argumentação seguida é a de que não há relação de causalidade e que a as armas nucleares atuam no máximo como variável interveniente.

Available at: http://imminentcrisis.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/the-2012-coup-in-guinea-bissau-cplp-portugal-angola-brasil-andwaitguinea/

Please access the text on the blog and leave your comments to improve discussion! Thank you!

Piece written for the Imminent Crisis Blog - http://imminentcrisis.wordpress.com/

The increased participation of emerging countries in peacekeeping operations (PKOs), imply on a series of new approaches to the way these operations are carried out. The current framework for peace operations is still mainly based on a post-war setting of international intervention, and as in other sectors of International Relations, the emerging countries are trying to have an input on those - refitting the foundations for PKOs that they didn't have a participation on laying. This work tries to understand how the emergence of “emergent peacekeeping” affects the daily work at the UN and at the field. In other words, how normative changes imposed by the emergent approach affect the peacekeeping practice. It will be based on the argument that these changes imply in redefining the bases of peacekeeping and intervention as currently boasted by UN and developed countries, through looking at a case study on what Brazil is bringing to the field operations in PKOs in ongoing peace operation in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

This paper addresses the evolution of the conflict in Guinea-Bissau using a model based in Kalyvas (2010) concept of technologies of warfare. We follow the conflict from it's onset as a revolutionary anti-colonial struggle since the late 70s to the actual bandit narco-state situation, going through the "traditional-civil-war-like" conflict after the fall of the Berlin wall. We find that this model, coupled with a international relations neorealist perspective, allows for a strong understanding of violence, looking at the interactions between the two different structural levels (international and state). Using the framework set by Holsti (1996), we look at Anarchy as the structural factor that defines the use of conflict (and therefore violence) to reach political objectives. The implications of that is some degree of cross-theorization between what is used to explain internal conflict and international conflict (within, between and both within and between boundaries). We want to evaluate how the change in international structure causes changes in national structure, how do they dialogue and what is the effect to what happens on the field. Our primary findings indicate that there is a strong and intertwining effect of one structure affecting each other, specially because sub-state actors in conflicts tend to see themselves as sovereign peers, and to adopt actions and strategies similar of the ones by state actors, both historically and conflict-specifically.

Nesta dissertação, procuro argumentar que existe um espaço de interseção entre dois corpos teóricos distintos, que focam-­‐se em explicar dimensões distintas de um mesmo evento. A violência com fins políticos, enquanto fenômeno amplo, pode acontecer dentro ou fora das fronteiras territoriais do Estado. A Teoria de Relações Internacionais, dedica-­‐se a entender como o fenômeno da violência política ocorre entre Estados, e a literatura dedicada à violência intraestatal e as guerras civis analisa as dinâmicas internas de violência entre agentes confinados ao Estado ou, de uma maneira geral, sub-­‐estatais. Mais argumentando que a Anarquia é um espaço de interseção teórica e prática entre os dois corpos teóricos, e considerando que é este o ponto central que define a mobilização da violência para fins políticos nas explicações oferecidas por ambos deverá servir de elemento articulador em uma tentativa de alcançar um modelo de análise que tenta combinar os ensinamentos do Realismo Estrutural, e com estado da arte no estudo racional da relação entre institucionalização, forma de fazer a guerra, uso da violência com fins políticos e dos processos de conflito. Objetivando verificar a validade desta proposta, organizei um modelo baseado em testes simples baseados em perguntas referentes ao aparecimento de fenômenos ou dinâmicas de identificação relativamente simples, mantida a coerência interna e o valor explicativo complementar entre os diversos aspectos avaliados. Finalmente, conduzi um plausibility probe, submetendo o modelo de análise ao caso da Guerra Civil Angolana, de modo a demonstrar que a proposta é no mínimo, intelectualmente válida.

The greed-and-grievance debate has been one of the major focuses of interest in the study of civil wars, but many pitfalls have arisen from the limitations of a highly ‘economics-driven’ model. Departing from a critique of this literature, this study revisits the debate on security-driven analysis of civil war dynamics. It does so by looking at the process of the outbreak of armed violence within a state and calling upon a cornerstone theoretical landmark: the security dilemma. The argument engages concurring explanations for civil wars, trying to uncover whether (in)security begets dynamics that are present in, or are part of other previously highlighted mechanisms. It departs from a specific concept of anarchy emergence — state shattering/implosion (or colonial retreat) — and focuses on evaluating the performance of the security dilemma logic as an explanation for the outbreak and dynamics of violence in each situation. After presenting the theoretical considerations, I discuss some preliminary empirical evidence from a plausibility probe, analysing the outbreak of armed conflict that followed the decolonisation process in Angola between 1974 and 1976.

As evidence mounts that Germanwings flight 4U9525 was crashed deliberately by its co-pilot who locked the flight’s captain out of the cockpit, there have been renewed calls to enforce a “two-person rule”, where two members of the flight crew are on the flight deck at all times.

The Swiss blog Offiziere.ch has recently published a piece by Paul Pryce, analysing the Brazilian Navy’s current endeavours whilst trying to figure out what bearing it is sailing. Pryce evaluates the ‘quiet expansion’ of the Brazilian Navy, and whilst he delivers a brief but sound level of analysis, he fails to deliver an accurate reading of some of the key underlying issues. Pryce maps out the debate about whether Brazil wants a brown, green or blue water Navy, but fails to contextualise the process in the hardships of a troubled civil-military relationship in a ‘recently established’ democracy. He analyses the Navy as if it was a single by-product of wider state determinations, without opening up the ‘black-box’ and examining the diverse layers of interaction between the various existing actors. As I will argue, Brazil’s naval expansion is not a ‘quiet’ one, nor is it particularly surprising. It is rooted in the way the Brazilian defence establishment rethinks its role in a ‘new, global Brazil’ whilst taking into account the complex relationship between the country’s Armed Forces and the Executive branch.

The security dilemma mechanism has been widely used to explain interstate conflict since its original conceptualisation in the 1950s, but it has been applied to the study of civil wars only since the early 1990s. Despite valiant attempts, major theoretical gaps remain unaddressed in the literature, the most important of which is the missing link between the security dilemma and the outbreak of armed violence. This thesis intends to fill this gap, employing process tracing methodology on the post- independence civil wars that erupted in Angola and Mozambique after the collapse of the Portuguese empire. The research engages alternative
explanations for the causes of civil war, assesses the role of the security dilemma in this context, and demonstrates that mutual insecurity was instrumental to the outcome of violence in the studied cases. Hence, this research dispels concerns about the concept's fundamental incompatibility with civil wars and advances the literature discussing several issues related to the intrastate application of an originally interstate concept. The application of the model to two novel cases enhances the theoretical and empirical relevance of the concept for the study of civil wars and reinforces claims of its potential generalisability.

Ensaio produzido no âmbito da cadeira de História das Culturas da Antiguidade Clássica (1º ano da Lic. de História da FLUL). «Neste trabalho procuramos fazer uma comparação dos concílios dos deuses e da sua
acção nas duas principais obras atribuídas a Homero. Recorrendo à opinião reflectida de
diversos autores pertinentes e suportando a nossa opinião com excertos das duas obras
em análise, apresentamos as semelhanças e diferenças, neste tópico, entre estes dois
épicos».

Neste breve trabalho pretendemos enquadrar a peça Medeia no género trágico e justificar o derradeiro acto da princesa bárbara que mata os seus filhos (nesta óptica). Assim, analisaremos estes dois pontos e excluiremos explicações preliminares desta tragédia, mito e suas versões.
  Em que medida Medeia se enquadra, então, na tragédia? Porque comete o infanticídio?

Trabalho apresentado no âmbito da cadeira de "História da Cultura da Antiguidade Clássica" da Lic. de História da Fac. Letras da UL. Pretende-se analisar o filme "Mighty Aphrodite", de 1995, escrito, realizado e protagonizado por Woody Allen. Os objectivos desta análise são expor o que existe de comum à tragédia grega tal como ao cómico nesta película.

Trabalho feito no âmbito da cadeira de História Medieval (Economia e Sociedade) na FLUL, Lic. de História.
  Propomo-nos, aqui, analisar três textos unidos pela temática central - as relações de vassalidade nos séculos VIII e IX na Europa. Os textos são retirados da Monumenta Germaniæ Historica.

Trata-se de um hipotético verbete  de enciclopédia sobre a temática "Política e Sociedade Romanas", em 1500 palavras. Sobretudo apresenta algumas questões que podem originar bons debates que a História de Roma levanta. Feito no âmbito da cadeira Política e Sociedade Romanas, na Lic. de História (na FLUL), regido pelo Prof. Doutor Rodrigo Furtado.