The Revolution Unfulfilled: Brazil's Foreign Policy under Bolsonaro 
With Dawisson Belém Lopes 
Professor of International and Comparative Politics at the Federal University of Minas Gerais 
Visiting Researcher at the Latin America Centre, Oxford University 

When: 15 - 16:30, Monday, 13 February 
Where: R1.04 (Ramphal Building) 
Co-sponsored by PAIS International Relations and Security Cluster (IRS) & Latin America at Warwick Network (LAWN) 

Far-right populist leaders often take office promising a revolution in policies. They project themselves as counterpoints to other political competitors and defend radical positions regarding a set of issues. These contents may include nationalistic–chauvinistic measures, antienvironmental attitudes, conservative postures toward human rights, and religious leaning. According to our framework, though, leaders will only be able to pursue sharp foreign policy changes in pluralistic societies if, first, they win internal disputes at policymaking venues. Second, some policies will depend on external support or, at least, the non-imposition of unsurmountable obstacles. An acute foreign policy change may occur if such “battles” are won—home and abroad. Otherwise, a few incremental and superficial shifts are the maximum outcomes these leaders can get. A within-case study on Bolsonaro's Brazil provides useful evidence for our argument.

Date: Monday, 6th February

Time: 12:15-13:30

Place: R1.03, Ramphal Building

In the study of China’s foreign affairs, historians like to suggest that the past is always present. A ‘Century of Humiliation’ in the nineteenth century or fighting the Japanese in the 1930s and 1940s are often referenced. Yet another historic development, namely China’s development of nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s, is often absent from this assessment. In contrast to many other nuclear weapons states, China has largely been quiet about its nuclear past. Only in the last years of former leader Hu Jintao (2003-2012) and now the current leader, Xi Jinping (2013-) has China started to commemorate its nuclear weapons development more seriously. This paper sets out to understand both the nature and timing of this commemoration within China but also the wider implications of nuclear commemoration for regional and international security. Ultimately, under Xi Jinping, China’s nuclear past is finally becoming present.

Dr Nicola Leveringhaus is Senior Lecturer in East Asian Security and International Relations at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. Dr Leveringhaus specialises in nuclear weapons issues in Northeast Asia, especially related to China. She has lectured at Sheffield University (2015-16) and was a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2012-15) at the University of Oxford. She has been a Senior Visiting Scholar at Tsinghua University; and a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. She holds an MPhil in Modern Chinese Studies and DPhil in International Relations from St. Antony's College, Oxford. Her second book China and Global Nuclear Order, from Estrangement to Active Engagement was nominated for the 2017 ECPR Hedley Bull Prize.

ONLINE EVENT – 8th February 2023, 17:00-18:30

Presented by BREM – Borders, Race, Ethnicity and Migration Network

Join the meeting using this link on the day of the discussion: https://bit.ly/3WzTbFR

Thom Tyerman will discuss his book Everyday Border Struggles: Segregation and Solidarity in the UK and Calais with Ana Aliverti (University of Warwick) and Joe Turner (University of York)

In an age of mobility, borders appear to be everywhere. Encountered more and more in our everyday lives, borders locally enact global divisions and inequalities of power, wealth, and identity. From the Calais ‘jungle’ to the UK’s ‘hostile environment’ policy, this book examines how borders in the UK and Calais operate through everyday practices of segregation. At the same time, it reveals how border segregation is challenged and resisted by everyday practices of ‘migrant solidarity’ among people on the move and no borders activists. In doing so, it explores how everyday borders are key sites of struggles over and against postcolonial and racialised global inequalities. This talk will be of interest to scholars and students working on migration, borders, and citizenship as well as practitioners and organisers in migrant rights, asylum advocacy, and anti-detention or deportation campaigns.

The Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) nexus, also referred to as the triple nexus, is the latest approach to improving the outcomes of humanitarian interventions through coordination and integration of cross-sectoral programming. This talk will consider the dilemmas and challenges for large-scale international operations adopting a triple nexus approach. The presentation will draw on personal experiences of large-scale international interventions in Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Sudan.

Dr Roberts will also be willing to answer questions on her career trajectory from PhD to international development consultant.

When? Tuesday 24 January 2023, 5-6.30pm
Where? Oculus, OC0.05

This is an in-person event and all are welcome.

About the speaker: Rebecca Roberts is an Honorary Research Fellow in PAIS. She holds a PhD in Post-war Recovery and International Development and has over 20 years of experience conducting research in conflict-affected countries to inform the policy and practice of national and international responses. She specializes in stabilisation, governance and forced migration and has extensive experience in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia including in Sudan and South Sudan, Lebanon and Afghanistan. She has worked with governments, donors, UN agencies, local and national non-governmental organizations as well as affected populations.

As part of the AHRC-DFG funded project: Moral Obligation and Epistemology: The Case of Vaccine Hesitancy, we have launched a podcast series.

We will be interviewing academics in health psychology, philosophy, politics and public health, as well as professionals working in public health, government, and social media. Topics explored in the podcast include: the rationality of hesitancy, conspiracy theories, misinformation, and hesitancy among vulnerable communities.

The podcasts will appeal to academics interested in the causes of vaccine hesitancy, and in the tools and methods we can use to increase vaccine uptake.