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Project

Brazil's contestation of global norms and its impact on international cooperation

This PhD focuses on the interpretation and contestation of global norms by Brazil and its effects on the possibility for international cooperation. In an era of increasing contestation but also ever growing connectivity the paradox of these simultaneously occurring phenomena calls for systematic scholarly attention. The proposed research aims to provide such a systematic and nuanced assessment of the dynamics of Brazil’s interaction with international norms by focusing on three fields of international cooperation and global governance, namely international security, migration and climate change, selected based on their salience and contemporary relevance both in the agendas of the international community and Brazil. By asking “Why does Brazil contest international norms and how does that impact inter-regional cooperation?” this research is informed by the following research objectives: First, mapping Brazil’s evolving discourse and practice regarding selected international norms in the three fields of international cooperation; Second, grasping the reasoning and rationale behind what drives Brazil’s contestatory practices and discourse concerning international norms; Third, understanding how the previously identified contestation impacts upon Brazil’s cooperation with the European Union, with whom the country shares a significant partnership and possibly future major trade deal. To that end, this research not only aims to contribute to the literature on norm contestation, its practices and discourses, but also seeks to address the still understudied potential possibility of cooperation in the shadow of contestation. In doing so, the objective is to generate novel and original knowledge on why states, in this case Brazil, contest certain norms, whether contestation practices and discourses are always coherent (both between each other and at different local, regional and global levels), and what the future of cooperation in this world order might look like.

Date:15 Nov 2018 →  15 Nov 2022
Keywords:Brazil, Norm contestation
Disciplines:International and comparative politics, Multilevel governance, National politics, Political behaviour, Political organisations and institutions, Political theory and methodology, Other political science
Project type:PhD project