Brazil: an emerging military power? The problem of the use of force in Brazilian international relations in the 21st century

The central goal of this paper is thinking about the Brazilian military power and its linking to the international ambitions of the country in the 21st century. After a comparative analysis to other BRICs and with a historical one about Brazil's strategic irrelevance, we aim to establish what the minimum military capacity Brazil would need in order to meet the country's latest international interests. Similarly, it will be discussed if the National Strategy of Defense, approved in 2008, and the recent strategic agreements signed with France represent one more step toward this minimum military capacity.

A new Strategic Dialogue: Brazil-US relations in Lula's presidency (2003-2010)

The aim of this article is to examine Brazil and the United States bilateral relations from 2003/2010 and their strategic patterns during the Presidency of Luis Inácio Lula da Silva. The goal is to understand the development of this dialogue in the 21st century and its previous background in the Post Cold War world, identifying its evolution and change due to Brazil's growing regional and global role and US relative position

Exploring the interplay between Framing and Securitization theory: the case of the Arab Spring protests in Bahrain

This article advances the theoretical integration between securitization theory and the framing approach, resulting in a set of criteria hereby called security framing. It seeks to make a twofold contribution: to sharpen the study of the ideational elements that underlie the construction of threats, and to advance towards a greater assessment of the audience's preferences. The case study under examination is the 2011 military intervention of the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Bahrain. The security framing of this case will help illuminate the dynamics at play in one of the most important recent events in Gulf politics.

China's rising Soft Power: the role of rhetoric in constructing China-Africa relations

As China turns increasingly to the cultivation of soft power in the course of developing its foreign policy, the use of political rhetoric and its explicit and implicit audiences become more and more important, both on a bilateral level and within the international arena at large. Using the case of China's relations with African countries, this article examines key themes within China's diplomatic narrative regarding its role on the African continent and contrasts with Western and African responses.

South-South relations and the English School of International Relations: Chinese and Brazilian ideas and involvement in Sub-Saharan Africa

The rise of large developing countries has led to considerable discussions of re-balancing global relations and giving greater priority to understanding South-South relations. This paper, in exploring the central ideas of Chinese and Brazilian foreign policy and the behavior of these two rising Southern countries toward Sub-Saharan Africa, argues that the English School of International Relations is well suited to understanding the intentions and actions that characterize South-South relations.

Macau in China's relations with the lusophone world

After the transfer of the Portuguese administration to China, Macau kept its role as a bridge between East and West, inspired in the Portuguese settlement 500 years ago. The pragmatism of the Chinese central government, using the Lusophone specificities of this Special Administrative Region, supported the creation of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries, reviving the statute of the Portuguese language and culture in its own territory.

Environmental issues and international relations, a new global (dis)order - the role of International Relations in promoting a concerted international system

Is it possible to talk about the rise of a new global (dis)order founded on the challenges posed by environmental issues? Through the review of the state of the art on the subject, this article analyzes the growing importance of the environment, and natural resources in particular, in international relations; and aims to raise awareness among International Relations scholars to the potential positive impact of the development of the discipline in integration with global environmental change studies.

Forty Years of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 (XXX) on Zionism and Racism: the Brazilian Vote as an instance of United States - Brazil Relations

Abstract In 1975, Brazil voted in favor of the United Nations General Assembly resolution 3379 (XXX), equating Zionism with a form of racism. Focusing on the decision-making process of president Ernesto Geisel's (1974-1979) foreign policy, "responsible pragmatism", this article discusses how the ultimate decision to vote in favor of resolution was taken taking into account mainly US-Brazil relationship.

Radial Distortion Self-Calibration

In cameras with radial distortion, straight lines in space are in general mapped to curves in the image. Although epipolar geometry also gets distorted, there is a set of special epipolar lines that remain straight, namely those that go through the distortion center. By finding these straight epipolar lines in camera pairs we can obtain constraints on the distortion center(s) without any calibration object or plumbline assumptions in the scene. Although this holds for all radial distortion models we conceptually prove this idea using the division distortion model and the radial fundamental matrix which allow for a very simple closed form solution of the distortion center from two views (same distortion) or three views (different distortions). The non-iterative nature of our approach makes it immune to local minima and allows finding the distortion center also for cropped images or those where no good prior exists. Besides this, we give comprehensive relations between different undistortion models and discuss advantages and drawbacks.

Applying complex network theory to the understanding of high-aspect-ratio carbon-filled composites

This work demonstrates that the theoretical framework of complex networks typically used to study systems such as social networks or the World Wide Web can be also applied to material science, allowing deeper understanding of fundamental physical relationships. In particular, through the application of the network theory to carbon nanotubes or vapour-grown carbon nanofiber composites, by mapping fillers to vertices and edges to the gap between fillers, the percolation threshold has been predicted and a formula that relates the composite conductance to the network disorder has been obtained. The theoretical arguments are validated by experimental results from the literature.

Lições de Direito e Processo Penal, 2012/2013

§ Parte I A: DIREITO PENAL: CAPÍTULO I – CONCEITO DE DIREITO PENAL, COM ESPECIAL RELEVO DA DIFERENCIAÇÃO ENTRE DIREITO PENAL CLÁSSICO, DIREITO PENAL ECONÓMICO E SOCIAL E DIREITO DAS CONTRA-ORDENAÇÕES; CAPÍTULO II – O PROBLEMA DOS FINS DAS PENAS; CAPÍTULO III – BREVE ABORDAGEM DA EVOLUÇÃO HISTÓRICA DO DIREITO PENAL; CAPÍTULO IV – TEORIA GERAL DA LEI CRIMINAL; CAPÍTULO V – TEORIA GERAL DA INFRACÇÃO CRIMINAL: A) ELEMENTOS; B) CONSTRUÇÕES; C) ANÁLISE: 1) ACÇÃO; 2) TIPICIDADE; 3) ILICITUDE; 4) CULPA; 5) PUNIBILIDADE; CAPÍTULO VI – FORMAS DO CRIME:A) TENTATIVA; B) AUTORIA E COMPARTICIPAÇÃO; C) CONCURSO DE CRIMES § Parte I BDIREITO PROCESSUAL PENAL; CAPÍTULO I – A DELIMITAÇÃO DO DIREITO PROCESSUAL PENAL; CAPÍTULO II – OS PRINCÍPIOS FUNDAMENTAIS DO PROCESSO PENAL; CAPÍTULO III - A LEI PROCESSUAL PENAL E A SUA APLICAÇÃO; Parte II: CAPÍTULO I- OS SUJEITOS DO PROCESSO; CAPÍTULO II - O OBJECTO DO PROCESSO; CAPÍTULO III - AS MEDIDAS DE COACÇÃO E DE GARANTIA PATRIMONIAL; CAPÍTULO IV - TRAMITAÇÃO PROCESSUAL PENAL. § § Part I: CRIMINAL LAW: CHAPTER I - CONCEPT OF CRIMINAL LAW, WITH SPECIAL RELIEF OF THE DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN CLASSIC CRIMINAL LAW, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CRIMINAL LAW AND THE “AGAINST ORDINANCES” LAW ("LAW OFFENSES"); CHAPTER II - THE PROBLEM OF THE ENDS OF THE PENALTIES; CHAPTER III - BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE EVOLUTION HISTORY OF CRIMINAL LAW; CHAPTER IV - GENERAL THEORY OF THE CRIMINAL LAW; CHAPTER V - GENERAL THEORY OF THE CRIMINAL INFRACTION: A) ELEMENTS; B) CONSTRUCTIONS; C) ANALYSIS: 1) ACTION; 2) VAGUENESS DOCTRINE; 3) ILLEGALITY; 4) GUILT (FAULT); 5) PUNISHMENT; CHAPTER VI - FORMS OF THE CRIME: A) ATTEMPT; B) AUTHORSHIP AND "CO-PARTICIPATION"; C) CUMULATION OF OFFENCES. § Part I - B: CRIMINAL PROCEDURAL LAW: CHAPTER I - THE DELIMITATION OF THE CRIMINAL PROCEDURAL LAW; CHAPTER II - THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF THE CRIMINAL PROCEDURE; CHAPTER III - THE CRIMINAL PROCEDURE LAW AND ITS APPLICATION; Part II: CHAPTER I - THE FIGURES OF THE PROCESS; CHAPTER II - THE OBJECT OF THE PROCESS; CHAPTER III - THE MEASURES OF COERCION AND PATRIMONIAL GUARANTEE (WARRANTY); CHAPTER IV - CRIMINAL PROCEDURE.