International Organizations

This research aims to broaden the understanding of South-South coalition or alliance formation within the new multilateral agenda context. The analysis will focus on two South-South coalitions, the G-3 (also known as IBSA) and the G-20 given their importance in terms of trade multilateralism. Through the use of spatial models and based on G-3 and G-20 coalitions, this project tries to understand the bases of south-south alliance formation understood as multilateral games. Based on preference assessment (ideal points of countries, the unit of analysis in this case), the situation of regimes (the status quo) and the indifference curve for countries, spatial models are used to analyze the prospects of international coalition formation.

From Janina Onuki e Amâncio Jorge de Oliveira.

The goal of this project is to analyze the perspectives of regional south-American integration with a focus on the main barriers and potentialities within the institutional and political fields. More specifically, it tries to identify the main domestic institutional aspects that appear as barriers to a south-American integration.

Researchers involved

The main objective of this research was to contribute to a larger comprehension about the (domestic and international) bases to form domestic coalitions, or partnerships, of a South-South type within this new context of multilateral agenda. In order to do so, the first phase of the research is concerned with the construction of a database and presented the following results:

1. an in-depth literature review of coalition formation;
2. discussions on methods and database improvement;
3. the feeding of the database, which includes data on the position taken by the three countries during the WTO negotiations and their votes on UN Committees (Human Rights and Security). 

Researchers involved

The fundamental question of this project is to analyze the relation between interdependence and political cooperation in international organizations. More specifically, it observes how the degree of interdependence among countries may affect their behavior in international institutions, and in particular the United Nations. The hypothesis tests whether countries with greater interdependence will cast a similar vote in the UN General Assembly more frequently than countries with lower levels of interdependence. Expected contributions of this research include: to give the concept of interdependence a more comprehensive dimension in comparison to the common use of the literature (usually measured by variables related to trade) and to classify votes according to the main themes discussed in General Assemblies (International Defense and Security, Human Rights, Environment, International Trade and Economics, Migration, Health and others) and additional features (such as total abstention and polarization between groups of countries). The goal is to understand the behavior of specific countries within a multilateral context and in certain topics with the aid of the concept of interdependence.
 

Researchers involved

This research project analyzes the challenges of negotiating an international treaty on arms trade based on a recent literature that focus on the design of international regimes, the efficacy of these regimes and the decision-making mechanisms to approve international instruments. Concerning the design of international regimes, the work of Koremenos, Lipson and Snidal (2001) constitutes a supporting theoretical platform. Regarding the efficacy of the international regimes, I assume that during negotiations countries will attempt to incorporate institutional mechanisms that increase the likelihood of legal obligations compliance. In this sense, Gilligan (2004, 2006) and Downs and Jones (2002) offer a key contribution to understand the reasons and interests that lead countries to abide (or not) by the committed legal obligations within the international sphere. As to the decision-making process, this research project verifies to what extent the mechanisms of approval of treaties and committee elections proposed by Brams, Kilgour, e Sanver (2004, 2007) could contribute to the main object of this study: an international treaty on arms trade. In a first stage, hypotheses related to the positions taken by countries regarding the feasibility, scope and standards of an international treaty for arms trade are tested based on data made available by the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research.

From Cristiane de Andrade Lucena Carneiro.

Mini CV:

Professor Onuki obtained a degree in Social Sciences from the University of São Paulo (USP) in 1996 and masters and doctoral degrees in Political Science from USP. She was a visiting researcher at the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University (USA, Washington, DC) and at the City University of New York (1999 to 2000). She is currently an associate professor of the International Relations Institute and the academic coordinator of the research lab in international negotiations in the DCP-USP (CAENI). Her field of interest is Political Science, especially Foreign Policy Analysis, in the following themes: policy, international regimes, and regional integration. She is also a CNPq Productivity Researcher, level-two.
 

Lattes Curriculum
Researches
Publications

Mini CV:

Carneiro received a degree in Law in 1992 and a Masters degree in Political Science in 1997, both from the Federal University of Pernambuco, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from New York University in 2006. She was a visiting professor of the International Relations Institute (IRI) where she was postdoctoral research fellow. She is a researcher at the Center on International Negotiations (CAENI). Her areas of interest are dispute resolution, international regimes and human rights. She has publications on dispute settlement in the WTO, the design of international treaties, and on economic sanctions and human rights.
 

Lattes Curriculum
Researches
Publications