Abstract The Africa Group has emerged as a leading voice in global health governance, advocating for equity in two key pandemic instruments: the 2024 revision of the International Health Regulations (IHR) and the WHO-led Pandemic Agreement. This study provides a review of the Group’s official proposals (2022–2025) for both instruments. It questions how – and with what objectives – they were articulated and assesses the extent to which they advance equity, especially in the sharing of health products and technologies. Grounded in Critical Global Health Studies, we hypothesize that the Africa Group’s equity demands were not fully addressed in the final texts. We categorize the proposals into four priority areas and compare them to the latest drafts of these international instruments to assess incorporation. Several proposals were partially included – such as language on allocating a share of health products to developing countries and a joint financing mechanism. However, many core demands, particularly enforceable equity measures and benefit-sharing obligations, were softened, reworded, or excluded. Political flexibility by African states enabled consensus, but effective implementation hinges on future negotiations and sustained advocacy. Overall, these instruments partially respond to the Africa Group’s agenda yet fall short of transformative reform, leaving equity commitments largely non-binding.
Abstract Private military companies (PMCs) have gained prominence in the international arena since the end of the Cold War. Offering a wide range of services, these companies have been contracted by state and private actors to operate in international conflicts. The use of these companies, however, has raised suspicions about the legitimacy of their actions, especially when they provide agents for direct involvement in conflicts occurring in fragile states. This is because these groups have promoted massacres against unarmed civilian populations, which no longer constitute collateral damage but rather a target. A target of necropower exercised by PMCs in the context of what Achilles Mbembe termed contemporary wars, where war is not only waged by states and their regular armies, but where coercion has become a market product, and military service can be bought and sold. The objective of this article, therefore, is to analyse the actions of PMCs in conflict situations in fragile states as an exercise of necropower, where technologies of destruction are used and sovereign decisions are made about life and death. To this end, the methodology employed is a conceptual and theoretical analysis, applying Foucault, Agamben, and Mbembe’s concepts to the PMCs’ actions in fragile states.
Abstract In recent decades, the increase in discussions on institutional change has relativised the assumption of institutional stability, linked to the effectiveness or durability of cultural and societal patterns. However, the main focus of these studies has been on the role of exogenous factors, neglecting slower processes independent of critical junctures. In dialogue with these efforts, this article seeks to answer the following questions:1) How can ideas incrementally impact an international organisation? 2) How endogenously do these ideas resonate in such a way as to bring about institutional change in terms of agenda, institutional design, and policy programmes? To this end, we propose an analytical framework based on the contributions of Mahone and Thelen (2010) and Campbell (2004). Applying the new framework, we analyse the impact and consolidation of feminist ideas on the United Nations, from a perspective of endogenous and gradual institutional change. We argue that feminist ideas have caused a broad and deep institutional change in the organisation with the insertion of the theme on the agenda, the creation of commissions, programmes, and new bodies, culminating in the creation of UN Women and the SDGs
Abstract This article aims to analyse the strategic actions of the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) in defence of ancestral territory in Colombia’s Pacific region, which has experienced an intensification of the armed conflict following the signing of the Peace Agreement between the Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) in 2016. It is argued that the CRIC, established in the 1970s, acts to protect its communities from forced displacement, preventing their uprooting and thereby ensuring the pervivencia –both physical and cultural – of its peoples. To this end, the following theoretical and methodological steps are undertaken: first, a dialogue is established between the fields of forced migration and resistance studies, through the articulation of the analytical frameworks of crisis migration and non-violent civil resistance; next, primary data collected through a digital platform, alongside secondary data regarding CRIC’s actions in the department of Cauca, are analysed. The outcome is the development of the concept of ‘self-confinement’ as an act of non-violent civil resistance, collectively organised through the political agency of these subjects, as well as the creation of a short comic strip that seeks to articulate the argument above through a different language, in order to contribute to the democratisation of scientific knowledge.
Abstract In recent years, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala - which make up the so-called Northern Triangle States (NTS) - have maintained changing relations with Israel and Palestine. Alternating between rapprochement and distancing, it is intriguing that such small states intervene in diplomatic issues that are geographically far from them and costly in diplomatic terms. If NTSs have historically been under the influence of Washington, we take some distance from mainstream conceptions of alignment and hegemonic domination, by exploring the various determinants of three Central American states’ foreign policy changes. We argue that the NTS’ foreign policies toward Israel and Palestine is a means to speak to Washington and a diplomatic relationship that is highly reactive to democratic regime changes, presidential preferences and diasporic influences. Building upon Hermann’s conceptualization of foreign policy change, we examine empirically the variations of the NTSs’ foreign policy toward Israel and Palestine between 2009 and 2023. This article makes a major contribution to the comparative analysis of Latin American foreign policy and addresses a wider IR audience by demonstrating that despite the strong structural characteristic of smallness, domestic and leadership factors should not be underestimated when it comes to understanding changes in small states’ foreign policies.
Abstract This article adopts the theoretical framework of memetic warfare and International Relations (IR), applying a qualitative, interpretive case study to a curated dataset of 192 memes circulated in pro-Bolsonaro WhatsApp groups in Brazil. These visual artefacts are examined as discursive tools that reframe global events - most notably the 2022 war in Ukraine - within national political cultures. The findings reveal how memes have been mobilised to construct political identities, reinforce authoritarian populist narratives, and disseminate disinformation. By analysing how international crises are appropriated to shape domestic discourse, the article contributes to IR by highlighting the role of digital media in political communication and opinion formation, particularly in the Global South.
Abstract In this article, our focus is twofold: we seek to understand how relevant conservative/libertarian think tanks perceive America’s position and policies toward Latin America in the 21st century, and their evaluation of Donald Trump’s foreign policy in Latin America. We carried out a qualitative content analysis (QCA) of the documents produced between 2016-2022 about Latin America during the Trump administration by four institutes – Heritage Foundation, Hudson Institute, American Foreign Policy Council, and the Cato Institute. Our findings reveal a consistent concern with how American leadership should advance conservative and libertarian values abroad, and a shared perception that Trump fell short in this regard — a failure seen as undermining U.S. regional leadership. This study seeks to address a gap in the literature on the perspectives of American conservative knowledge regimes toward Latin America, and to contribute to our understanding of how these political actors frame regional problems and legitimize their policy agendas.
Abstract This article aims to analyse, based on the theoretical contributions of neo-Gramscian authors, the narrative mechanisms mobilized in the construction of the feminist turn of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during Christine Lagarde’s tenure. Through network analysis, discourse analysis and content analysis, we conclude that although Lagarde, besides being the first female director, did not represent a turning point compared to her predecessors. However, she did use her authority from being a woman in a position of power to legitimize free market values as part of a feminist agenda. The director’s speeches and documents from the period emphasize free market and economic insertion as solutions for gender equality. Thus, the IMF’s feminist turn mobilizes concepts such as empowerment and leadership in an effort to link greater market participation to the promotion of gender equality. Therefore, there is an adoption of narrative elements related to feminist ideas in an instrumental way, aiming to legitimize the institution’s traditional neoliberal policies.
Abstract The disposal of wastewater from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean, with the approval of the International Atomic Energy Agency, began in 2023 and has sparked a series of questions from some countries about ‘security.’ In International Relations, the use of nuclear energy gains greater notoriety when studied from a military perspective. However, more recently, it is possible to note that issues not directly related to military affairs have been dealt with under this scope, being described as ‘risks’ or ‘threats’; this approach is defined by the Copenhagen School (1985) as ‘securitisation’. The aim of this work is to analyse whether cases of dumping radioactive wastewater from nuclear power plants could be securitised, limiting, or preventing other countries’ access to this type of energy matrix. The research was based on the contributions of Securitisation Theory and the debates on Energy Security and Environmental Security. By presenting and problematising the possibilities for managing and disposing of nuclear waste, the article concludes that underdeveloped or inadequate disposal mechanisms can generate serious risks for the international community, as well as limiting other countries’ access to nuclear technology for generating electricity, undermining the search for a balance between environmental and energy securities.
Abstract This article examines the asymmetries and power dynamics within the international monetary and financial system (IMFS), emphasizing its structural and geopolitical interconnections. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, followed by United States (USA) sanctions such as the freezing of Russian dollar reserves and the exclusion of banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) network, demonstrated the capacity of the USA to mobilize monetary and financial instruments for geopolitical purposes. This takes place amid a relative decline in US influence and the rise of alternative powers, notably China, in terms of economic weight, trade, and security. To date, although China meets virtually all theoretical prerequisites for the expansion of its monetary and financial power, this potential has not (yet) materialized into a concrete challenge to the USA-led IMFS. This context brings traditional notions of power in the IMFS into question, revealing the limitations of analyzing the monetary and financial dimensions in isolation. Drawing on the literature on power, economic power, and asymmetries, particularly concerning the dominant role of the dollar, it is argued that the US overuse of its ‘exorbitant privilege’ in pursuit of geopolitical objectives, particularly via financial sanctions, may ultimately erode its own position.
Abstract How does neurotypical education manage neurodiversity? This article combines slam poetry with autoethnography to show how neurotypical International Relations (IR) classrooms manage neurodiversity by shaping students into ‘abled’ or ‘disabled’ identities. It also examines how Autistic students resist ableist pressures to conform through practices of fortified self-love. The article highlights how IR classrooms in Mexico and the United States of America construct dis/abled students through requirements of masking, ableist evaluation methods, care labour to comfort neurotypical peers and professors, and inadequate or non-existent university accommodations. It delves into the tension between students’ lived experiences and the policies created by universities, governments, and global activist networks—with and without input from Autistic people. Emphasising the need for concrete tools by and for Autistic people, this article offers survival tools to students for transforming their social context, creating communities of mutual aid, and cultivating fortified self-love. In doing so, it argues that managing neurodiversity within and beyond a neurotypical educational system could be more ethical if students and professors cultivate a praxis of listening to the bodies and experiences of Autistic people from different backgrounds and are attentive to the communal processes of nurturing survival and love according to the possibilities and limitations of local social ecosystems.
Abstract Child protection is a well-known imperative of multidimensional United Nations (UN) peace operations, especially its stabilization operations. However, as illustrated by the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), protection is guided by a political imaginary that places children affected by conflict in a place and time devoid of political agency: childhood. Resisting the universalizing and seemingly incontestable nature of this space-time, this study is guided by the following question: How do child protection mechanisms in the context of MONUSCO simultaneously reproduce and inform a universalizing conception of childhood and of the child as passive and irrational? Our central argument is that a number of pillars form the basis of the ways child protection mechanisms reflect and inform this conception of childhood: reintegration into the family, promotion of physical health, the assurance of education, and the assurance of leisure. However, this last pillar was found to be absent from MONUSCO documents. Consequently, leisure becomes dependent on the mission fulfilling its security objectives and peace becomes no more than a promise that is repeatedly made and deferred by the UN to Congolese children and to the DRC.
Abstract Taking as a starting point Philip Steinberg’s seminal insights on the social construction of the ocean, in this article we examine the maritime environment as a social space, seeking to connect contemporary debates on ocean governance, maritime security, and International Relations (IR). From this standpoint, we investigate how different narratives about the sea guide the way ocean governance has developed in the past and projects into the future. Furthermore, we argue that despite the lack of centrality of the sea in IR theorising, these different narratives and the way they guide ocean governance can be framed within the main theoretical approaches of the IR discipline. To advance this discussion, we draw on primary documentary sources, including international law and government and non-government reports, as well as on secondary bibliographic sources, in order to examine how narratives about the sea lead to alternative approaches to ocean governance. Based on this analysis, the article contributes not only to synthesise the debate on ocean governance, but also to connect this debate to the theoretical discussion in the IR field.
Abstract The last decades have witnessed the increasing weight of sustainability on the global agenda and the consequent entry of seas and ocean into this realm. Hence, IR theories have been progressively pressured to address such concerns, although it is well known and recognized that many depend on dichotomous policies and sovereignty (land) boundaries. This article then outlines the need to overcome this bias, shedding new light on the need to review the relationship between land and sea in the international agenda. In the IR literature, the ocean is rarely a particular object of analysis; in practice, contemporary global politics mostly addresses the issue in the 2030 Agenda (in general, only through SDG 14) and BBNJ. The results support the idea that the cross-cutting nature of this agenda calls for a change of attitude from different stakeholders and a new understanding from academia, particularly since 2015. To deal with these limitations, we propose international ocean relations (IOR) approach, reinforcing the co-constitution between land and sea and deeply relying on the blue economy concept. The blue economy perspective can help shape bold and novel ways of thinking and deal with global emerging cha(lle)nges, which range from illegal fishing to modern piracy and ocean-climate nexus.
Abstract Covering more than seventy percent of the Earth’s surface, the sea is a pivotal element in International Relations. It has served as the stage for critical global interactions, conflicts, and shifts, from the ascendancy of the Iberian empires in the 16th century to the waning of British dominance in the 20th century. Today, it remains at the heart of contemporary geopolitical tensions, exemplified by disputes in the South China Sea and the opening of new maritime routes in the Arctic due to global warming. Yet, despite its undeniable importance, the sea poses a unique challenge to International Relations, stemming from its intrinsic complexity and the tendency to apply land-based frameworks to maritime contexts. In order to help the field to overcome some of these theoretical challenges, this article draws on psychoanalytic theories and current discussions in philosophy and anthropology to suggest that the discipline’s difficulty in addressing maritime issues arises from a rigid adherence to obsolete, binary views on nomadism and sedentarism. Therefore, the interplay between nomadic and sedentary drives is sublimated in the development of institutions and maritime technologies, enabling state territorial nomadism, contrasting with the suppression of dominance through the embrace of alterity.
Abstract Timor-Leste is one of the youngest States of the twenty-first century. It was a Portuguese colony, occupied by Indonesia, the stage of United Nations interventions, and since its restoration of independence, it has been undergoing the process of state- and nation-building. The sea is important for Timor-Leste in several dimensions. The question of the maritime borders of Timor-Leste and the interest in natural gas and oil have been the target of disputes in the region. The strategic dimension of the sea combines traditional cultural values and practices with the policies of a modern state, defining both its international relations and Timor-Leste’s national identity. Education plays a fundamental role in the construction of collective understandings on the subject, since schools serve as important communication channels of ideas and state values. Thus, the aim of this paper is to understand the place of the Mar de Timor in Timor-Leste’s geopolitics, culture and education. The study is framed by documents relating to maritime border treaties, as well as the analysis of the Timorese curriculum of general secondary education currently in force. This methodological option is based on the recognition that the curriculum is in itself a product of international co-operation in the process of state-building.
Abstract In this article, we move into the water and engage with maritime traces of constitutive outside(r)s and international ontopolitical lines. Inspired by João Guimarães Rosa’s ‘The Third Bank of the River’ and by Jacques Derrida’s work, we offer a decolonial deconstructionist rethinking of the problem of the constitutive outside in relation to Atlantic traces of constitutive outsiders of the modern international world. Our main argument is that, negatively and ontopolitically constituted as constitutive outside(r)s of the modern international world, the outlawed pirate, the enslaved Black African and the savage Indian legitimized asymmetrical structures of relations, counterconcepts and grammars of violence. In other words, we argue that their individual bodies, histories and (counter-)archives provide Atlantic traces of a profoundly dehumanizing, abject, and racist form of world othering and ordering. In order to articulate its contribution, the article is structured in four sections. The first section engages with maritime traces of constitutive outside(r)s of the modern international world. The second section engages with the exceptional category of the outlawed pirate. The third section turns to the enslaved Black African and the Atlantic colour line. The fourth section questions the international ontopolitical lines and asymmetrical relations accompanying these exceptional categories of constitutive outside(r)s.
Abstract As Epeli Hau’ofa (1994) observes, the deterministic narratives that repeatedly portray Island States as small and vulnerable fail to reflect these communities’ own perceptions of their territorial space. Hau’ofa argues that such narratives do not represent an objective reality but are instead the legacy of a long colonial project that imposed artificial boundaries on peoples who traditionally viewed the ocean not as a frontier, but as an extension of their territory and identity. These deep and meaningful connections have historically been undermined—first by colonial and violent interventions and, more recently, by human-induced global environmental change. During the Cold War, the Marshall Islands became a testing ground for 67 thermonuclear weapons, an event that had devastating consequences: entire islands were vaporized, entire communities were permanently displaced, and the Marshallese people’s ancestral ties to their atolls were disrupted. By illustrating how colonialism and nuclear testing disrupted both the physical security of the Marshallese and their relationship with their natural environment, this article argues that contemporary climate threats endanger not only the territorial integrity of this sovereign low-lying state but, more profoundly, the ontological security of its inhabitants.
