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Le président de la Confédération africaine de football, Patrice Motsepe, reconnaît des erreurs après la finale chaotique de la CAN entre le Maroc et le Sénégal qui a terni la réputation de la CAF.

Le président de la Confédération africaine de football, Patrice Motsepe, reconnaît des erreurs après la finale chaotique de la CAN entre le Maroc et le Sénégal qui a terni la réputation de la CAF.

In Kazakhstan, although Victory Day celebrations still took place on May 9, the Soviet focus is increasingly being replaced by expressions of national pride.

En Guadeloupe, le bois peine à trouver sa place dans l'économie locale. Longtemps oubliée, l'exploitation du Pin Caraïbes fait son retour dans l'archipel.

Voici le dernier classement de l'indice Henley Passport Index des passeports nationaux les plus puissants et les moins puissants.

Voici le dernier classement de l'indice Henley Passport Index des passeports nationaux les plus puissants et les moins puissants.

/ Pétrole, Énergie, Monde, Commerce international, Géopolitique - Energies / Pétrole, Énergie, Monde, Commerce international, Géopolitique

Can India and the Netherlands transform their growing cooperation into a fully-fledged strategic partnership with a clear long-term vision?

Der Industrieverband schlägt vor, die Erhöhung der Mehrwertsteuer für die Armee und die AHV in einer einzigen Vorlage zu verbinden. Das Volk könnte nicht separat über die beiden Fragen abstimmen. Ein neues Rechtsgutachten stützt diese Idee.

Southeast Asian countries are taking steps to counter drone threats. What’s really needed is a multilayered defense network.

Like other Global South countries, Pakistan would like to pursue cooperation with both the US and China. Will the Beijing summit facilitate that?

Vietnam’s critical minerals strategy applies the doctrine of strategic autonomy to a new sector. The visit by Japan’s PM shows what that approach can deliver and where it falls short.

Es gebe in Großbritannien einen überparteilichen Konsens, die Ukraine zu unterstützen, so Politikwissenschaftler von Ondarza. Starmer habe das Land pro-europäisch positioniert.

Three lockdowns conditioned a population to accept the airtight, but invisible, seal that followed

I am honored to have received the UACES scholarship to support my fieldwork in Brasília. As a doctoral candidate at KU Leuven, my research focuses on how the diplomatic cooperation between the European Union (EU) and Brazil unfolds in practice at the bilateral, inter-regional and multilateral level. By tracing the strategies and practices present in their every day cooperation between the EU and Brazil, my research aims to ask a larger question of how do diplomats sustain cooperation despite political contestation. While I have had the opportunity to conduct fieldwork in Brussels, it was a privilege to conduct a research trip to Brasília, with the generous support of the UACES PhD Field Scholarships, without which I could not have been able to collect data in person.

This scholarship has supported my one-week stay in Brasília. The award was spent on return flights to Brussels and accommodation fees. This fieldwork trip forms an integral part of my PhD research, as it allowed me to meet interviews in-person, observe their work in Embassies and in the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Itamaraty.

 

National Museum of the Republic designed by Oscar Niemeyer 

Understanding Brasília as a city geared towards diplomacy

I arrived in Brasília in the late afternoon, around 19h. Given Brazil’s position in relation to the Equator it means that it always becomes dark around 17h. I called my uber to the hotel and observed from the ride the city in the dark. You could already tell the white round brutalist Nieymer buildings from a distance: quiet, clean, and extremely well planned – to the smallest details. Every corner, every roundabout, every building was not there by chance. This was the view of a city who was entirely designed for civil servants, like career diplomats. In my walks to the interview locations, I would notice that, instead of street signs, you have country flags. ‘Turn right, into Wing South, for the Spanish, Peruvian, Paraguayan Embassy in SQN345,’ said the GPS. Having been only founded in the 1960s, the notion of space and time in Brasília us designed by its diplomatic headquarters, rather than schools, hospitals, or even commercial buildings. For a diplomacy nerd like me, Brasília was almost being like a kid in Disneyland.

After having done nearly three years of fieldwork in Brussels about how the EU – Brazil multi-level partnership works in practice, I came to Brasília with the goal of understanding how this is being done on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. From afar, which is often where the researcher is, one can read about these practices through joint statements of the EU – Brazil Strategic Partnership, public statements from political leaders, or through social media posts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the European External Action Service. I have also heard the side of the story from Brussels, by conducting interviews with European and Brazilian diplomats stationed there. Yet, what I have realised in the last three years of talking to diplomats is that, as a researcher who is interested in knowing about the nitty-gritty details of world politics, more often than not, it is not enough to just hear, if you are interested in diplomatic practices. There is an imperceptible value in the mundane, every day, routine aspects of diplomacy. Details, such as informal discussions, diplomatic demarches, lunches with colleagues, which we often regard as irrelevant. But, as political ethnographers will tell you: it is about making the familiar strange, and the strange familiar.

 

Itamaraty Palace

Making the familiar strange and the strange familiar

For this reason, I wanted to have a grasp of how this partnership was viewed from those working in Brasília: how did the EU matter in the current geopolitical landscape for Brazil? Was the EU important in Brasília in the day-to-day tasks of Brazilian diplomats working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs? Do they meet frequently or not at all? What did an everyday of a Brazilian and European diplomat looked like in Brasília? More concretely, what diplomatic practices help to sustain cooperation when there is political contestation? Given that my focus rests on tracing the logic behind these diplomatic practices to understand how they matter in world politics, my fieldwork in Brasília was informed by an ethnographic approach towards practice-tracing. In other words, I conducted several (on and off the record) interviews with Brazilian and

European diplomats about their routines in Brasília, and spent some dedicated time to observing the spaces (embassies, receptions, waiting halls, cafeterias, institutional buildings, offices) in which they circulate in. It is important to note that this fieldwork in Brasília would not have happened without UACES’s support through the PhD Fieldwork Fellowship, of which I was lucky to have been selected.

The EU and Brazil have shared a strategic partnership since 2007; however, this has not been without its political crises. Due to the nature of democracy, political governments, with different visions about world politics, change throughout time. Some governments, such as the current one in Brazil are more favourable to having a strong partnership with the EU, while others, such as the government of Bolsonaro, have not. In October 2026, Brazil is heading towards another Presidential election. While Lula enjoys a narrow majority, Bolsonaro’s son, Flávio Bolsonaro, is doing well in the electoral race, too. How can then the career diplomats working in Brasília ensure that there is continuity in this partnership, knowing that in October 2026, the political willingness of the Brazilian government might change soon? In the specific case of the everyday cooperation between Brazil and the EU, interviewees revealed these relational strategies are key to ensuring continuity in their cooperation.

Looking back at the interviews I had with diplomats in Brasília, one thing is certain: the devil is in the details. The current geopolitical and societal landscape is certainly forcing diplomats to adapt to new realities: both Brazilian and European diplomats are being faced with structural challenges as to how diplomacy is done. To be a diplomat entails no longer the traditional political work of mediation but demands that career diplomats are able to work in different policy fields. As one of the interviewees explained to me, ‘diplomats are like radar people’, that is, diplomats need to be able to anticipate potential political storms ahead, and if so, to know how – and most importantly whom to talk to – to deal with it. In times of growing political turmoil, interviewees revealed that there can be certain relational strategies and rituals which help to manoeuvre potential disruptions. For example, having a coffee with your regular diplomatic counterpart, a short phone call to update on negotiations, or a diplomatic demarche can often help to facilitate the continuation of international cooperation.

 

Hallway, while waiting for an interview (somewhere in Brasília)

Methodological challenges: positionality, confidentiality and trust

Nevertheless, it is important to note that this fieldwork was not without its challenges. While, in theory, doable, access to these elite spaces is not always easy for a researcher. These are often closed-door and secretive rooms for diplomats: an essential part of diplomacy, yet the one that is probably the most hidden away. In effect, this was one of the issues that I encountered in preparation and during my fieldwork in Brasília. To prepare for my fieldwork, I drew in from my own professional network which I have built for over the last three years for contacts (and willingness to meet, which made a world of difference). Yet, during my interviews, I still encountered some issues about questions of confidentiality. For example, one of the most insightful conversations I had was not recorded given that it was more informal and to respect the privacy of the interviewee. The fact that I did not record it allowed me as well to build a level of trust which would have not been possible otherwise. While ethnographic is an incredibly rich methodology, it does raise some considerable questions about how to study such an elite can demand significant trade-offs in research.

In conclusion, the fieldwork in Brasília became a crucial part of my doctoral research. Often times, research in international relations tends to focus on the understanding the macro picture of diplomatic relations between different countries, yet, it is crucial to not lose sight of the fact that world politics takes place between every day human interactions.

The post UACES Fieldwork Scholarship: Exploring EU–Brazil Diplomacy in Practice appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Le procès du chef présumé du clan Yoda, Félix Bingui, débute lundi prochain à Marseille. Il est accusé, aux côtés de 19 coprévenus, de trafic de stupéfiants, d'association de malfaiteurs et de blanchiment. 

Three years ago, only a fraction of the global public held more favorable opinions of China than of the U.S. Today, China and even Russia have a better global image.

Donald Trump est en visite en Chine ces 14 et 15 mai pour un sommet très attendu avec Xi Jinping à Pékin. Cette rencontre, la première entre les deux dirigeants depuis 2017, intervient dans un contexte international particulièrement tendu : rivalités commerciales entre Washington et Pékin, guerre au Moyen-Orient et montée des tensions autour de Taïwan.

Pourtant, malgré les déclarations très positives, ce sommet n’a pas l’air d’avoir abouti à de véritables avancées. Les principales annonces, comme l’achat par la Chine de 200 avions Boeing ou de 10 milliards de dollars de produits agricoles américains, restent symboliques. Sur des sujets plus sensibles, notamment les terres rares ou la question iranienne, Pékin ne semble avoir fait aucune concession majeure. La Chine a toutefois réaffirmé son opposition à la prolifération nucléaire et son souhait d’éviter une escalade des tensions internationales.

Mais le véritable enjeu des discussions reste Taïwan. Xi Jinping a clairement indiqué que cette question était la priorité des relations sino-américaines. Il a averti que toute mauvaise gestion de ce dossier pourrait mener à un conflit ouvert, message adressé à la fois aux américains et aux taïwanais. Une stratégie de dissuasion visant à pousser Taïwan à se rapprocher de la Chine par crainte d’un abandon américain.

Le sommet de Pékin marque-t-il une nouvelle étape dans le basculement du rapport de force mondial entre Washington et Pékin ? La Chine est-elle en train de s’imposer comme une puissance diplomatique incontournable pendant que les Etats-Unis s’enlisent dans leurs contradictions stratégiques ?

Mon analyse dans cette vidéo.

L’article Xi Jinping la substance, Trump les apparences est apparu en premier sur IRIS.

La route des Balkans reste toujours l'une des principales voies d'accès l'Union européenne, pour les exilés du Proche et du Moyen Orient, d'Afrique ou d'Asie. Alors que les frontières Schengen se ferment, Frontex se déploie dans les Balkans, qui sont toujours un « sas d'accès » à la « forteresse Europe ». Notre fil d'infos en continu.

- Le fil de l'Info / Bosnie-Herzégovine, Albanie, Kosovo, Bulgarie, Questions européennes, Populations, minorités et migrations, Migrants Balkans, Courrier des Balkans, Croatie, Turquie, Grèce, Moldavie, Macédoine du Nord, Monténégro, Slovénie, Roumanie, Serbie, Gratuit, Grèce immigration

La route des Balkans reste toujours l'une des principales voies d'accès l'Union européenne, pour les exilés du Proche et du Moyen Orient, d'Afrique ou d'Asie. Alors que les frontières Schengen se ferment, Frontex se déploie dans les Balkans, qui sont toujours un « sas d'accès » à la « forteresse Europe ». Notre fil d'infos en continu.

- Le fil de l'Info / Bosnie-Herzégovine, Albanie, Kosovo, Bulgarie, Questions européennes, Populations, minorités et migrations, Migrants Balkans, Courrier des Balkans, Croatie, Turquie, Grèce, Moldavie, Macédoine du Nord, Monténégro, Slovénie, Roumanie, Serbie, Gratuit, Grèce immigration