Rio Branco, grand strategy and naval power

This article addresses Baron of Rio Branco's grand strategy and the role played by the naval reorganization program (1904-1910) in this context. The ensuing case study determined the domestic and international constraints that affected the program, as well as the worldview of the patron of Brazilian diplomacy regarding military power's instrumentality to foreign policy.

Japan and India: soft balancing as a reaction to China's rise?

What are Indian and Japanese reactions to China's rise in economic, political and military terms? According to realist tradition, their option would be between balancing and bandwagoning. Applying Stephen Walt's balance of threats approach, this work aims to analyze Indian and Japan responses to an increasingly powerful China; its conclusions point to an evolving relationship between India and Japan, in military terms, especially after 2005.

Interests and Values in Obama's foreign Policy: Leading from Behind?

Abstract This study will exam the relative importance of values and interests in Obama's foreign policy, focusing on crucial cases: the military actions related to Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Non-Syria, Al-Qaeda and ISIL. We will argue that his "leading from behind" strategy is not very distant from the foreign and defense strategies of his post-Cold War predecessors, by which democracy is seen as an assurance to security. According to Obama's strategy, Americans will only provide support for the building of democracy in the target countries, while this task should be performed by the locals themselves. Americans will provide military training to the new governments as well so they can be responsible for their own security, including preventing regrouping of terrorists in their soil. If Obama opposes the imposing of democracy by the use of force, empirical data shows that his administration is "not prepared to accept" any option that threats US security or American liberal-democratic values, bringing in this way values and interests very close to each other.

Observations on the Brazilian presidency, democracy, and governance

This article presents the first results of research on the organization and administration of the Brazilian presidency and problems of democratic governance in Brazil. Biases of Euro-centrism in current views of presidentialism, democracy, governance, and representation are criticized and new comparative analysis of political experiences in the Americas called for. Initial analysis of the Brazilian presidency reveals a unique combination of executive-led electoral representation and muddling through governance since the transition from military rule.

Characterization of the non-apparent clinical form in the initial phase of schistosomiasis mansoni

In this paper the history of 115 recruits that had bathed simultaneously in streams contaminated with Schistosoma mansoni, during military maneuvers, is reported. Thirty four of the infected patients presented the initial phase of the infection diagnosed through epidemiologic, clinical and laboratorial parameters. Three out of the 34 patients did not reveal the clinical picture of the infection, thus being considered representatives of the non-apparent form of the disease. Differences between the intensity of blood eosinophilia, the area of immediate cutaneous reaction and the number of Schistosoma eggs eliminated in the stools proved not to be statistically significant (p>0.05) when the non-apparent and acute cases of schistosomiasis were compared. These cases actually may be considered evidences of the non-apparent form hitherto merely taken for granted in the literature.

Cystoscopy in the diagnosis and follow-up of urinary schistosomiasis in Brazilian soldiers returning from Mozambique, Africa

The assessment of urinary schistosomiasis in individuals coming from endemic areas often requires diagnostic resources not used in areas of exposure in order to determine complications or to establish more precise criteria of cure. Cystoscopy and 24-hour urine examination were performed, after treatments with praziquantel 40 mg/kg body weight, single dose, on 25 Brazilian military men who were part of a United Nations peace mission to Mozambique in 1994. The median age of the individuals was 29 years and all presented a positive urine parasitological exam. The alterations detected by cystoscopy were hyperemia and granulomas in the vesical submucosa in 59.1% of the individuals and only granulomas in 40.9%. A vesical biopsy revealed granulomas in all patients and viable eggs in 77.3% even after a period during which the patients no longer excreted eggs in urine. Cystoscopy after treatment, followed by biopsy and histopathological evaluation, performed in areas where the evolution of the disease can be better monitored, was found to be a safe criterion of parasitological cure.