Studies on South-South international relations, and science and innovation diplomacy are now more organically a part of IEA's research agenda. This became possible with the entry of the Center for the Study of International Negotiations (CAENI) - a research support center (NAP) of USP's Dean of Research and Innovation (PRPI) - to the academic structure of the Institute, after approval of the proposal of membership by IEA's Board.

Initially a research laboratory of the Department of Political Science (DCP) at USP's Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Human Sciences (FFLCH), the CAENI became a NAP in 2012. Having South-South trade relations as its central theme, the Center began to study the dynamics of the constitution and functioning of coalitions of countries considered to be sub-regional leaders.

In this initial phase, the emphasis of the work was given to studies on IBAS (India, Brazil, and South Africa) and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). Within this context, some works have been dedicated to the analysis of Brazilian foreign policy focused on South-South relations.

As of 2019, without abandoning these themes on country coalitions and Brazilian foreign policy, the Center began to more systematically focus on studies about scientific diplomacy and innovation. That year, it organized the first Advanced School on Science and Innovation Diplomacy (InnScid), whose fifth edition took place this month. The IEA has hosted the initiative for three years. The InnScid is linked to the program São Paulo School of Advanced Science (ESPCA), funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP).

In the last two years, the researchers of the CAENI have been developing projects on gender equality in science, technology, and innovation in the context of multi- and bilateral negotiations, global circulation of research data, the role of international networks in the advancement of science, and digital cooperation, among other topics. In 2022, the Center joined an international research network on data diplomacy, a research branch of science and innovation diplomacy.

The research projects carried out by the Center are financed by national and international funding agencies. In addition to these projects, the CAENI conducts extension courses on international negotiations, international relations, and science and innovation diplomacy.

In addition to the support from the President's Office at USP and the deans for Research and Innovation, Undergraduation, and Culture and University Extension, CAENI's projects also receive funding from FAPESP, the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development in Brazil (CNPq), the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, and the European Research Council.

With a multidisciplinary structure, the Center brings together professors, researchers, and undergraduate and graduate students from different units at USP, as well as collaborating researchers from other Brazilian and foreign institutions.

The CAENI is coordinated by Amâncio Jorge Silva Nunes de Oliveira, a full professor at USP's Institute of International Relations (IRI) and vice-director of the Paulista Museum. The deputy scientific coordinator is Janina Onuki, a full professor at the DCP-FFLCH, former director at IRI, and a participant in IEA's Sabbatical Year Program. The board is made up of four professors: Cristiane Lucena Carneiro and Pedro Feliú Ribeiro, both from IRI, and João Paulo Candia Veiga and Manoel Galdino, both from the DCP-FFLCH.

The Center's current research agenda focuses on two themes: Scientific and Innovation Diplomacy, and Brazilian Foreign Policy and International Cooperation. In addition to carrying out the annual editions of InnScid, the CAENI will keep several other projects until 2026, which marks the deadline for the current renovation of the Center as a NAP. Some highlights are:

• Gender STI: an analysis of women's participation in the various areas related to science, technology and innovation, with funding from FAPESP and the European Union.
• Science Diplomacy 2.0: carried out in partnership with the University of Manchester and funded by the Horizon Europe program of the European Union, it aims to map the main databases considered one of the main assets for science diplomacy.
• Multilateralism and Global Challenges: Past, Present, and Future: a project in partnership with the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) and funded by CNPq aimed at identifying the main topics under debate in multilateral arenas, the role of the states in these forums, and their capacity to produce results.

Throughout its 11 years of operation, the CAENI has carried out an intense training and qualification program aimed at a broad spectrum of the public, from high school students to members of high public administration positions.

The courses mainly address aspects of international negotiations in the context of South-South relations. The coordination highlights that the participation of personnel engaged in international negotiation processes, both in the private and governmental fields, subsidizes the research agenda, thus creating a feedback process between research and teaching.

InnScid will bring together representatives from the private sector, governments, universities, and international organizations who will present theoretical and case studies on innovation and science diplomacy.

The main topics that will be addressed at the event are: scientific diplomacy, innovation diplomacy, scientific data, data through social networks, innovation ecosystem, global dissemination of research data, general circulation of data, academic databases, open science and management data, data economics, and related topics.

The target audience consists of students enrolled in master's, doctoral, or post-doctoral programs with an interest in the topics covered by the School. If there are several candidates with similar skills, the InnScid selection committee will seek to diversify/balance those selected by gender and geographic origin.

Postgraduate students of any nationality and field of knowledge can apply through this online form until May 21. Up to 80 participants will be selected, with 40 vacancies for Brazilians and 40 for foreigners.

The School is co-organized by the Institute of Advanced Studies (IEA) and the Department of Political Science at USP's Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Literature, and Human Sciences (FFLCH). The activities will take place at the University's main campus in São Paulo.

Further information at https://2023.innscidsp.com/.

"Dialogue" is the 2020 and 2021 theme of the international network of University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study (UBIAS), of which the IEA-USP is a member. Chosen for being a topic of global importance, it can be explored in different formats and perspectives. The intention is each member institute to promote academic activities motivated by the common theme.

UBIAS justifies that the practice of dialogue is present and indispensable in several contexts, and that the world is in need of it, "although the tendency is to neglect its importance and try a shortcut towards brief conclusions."

In society, dialogue is essential to resolve long disagreements and deepen understandings. "It could be a solution to a deep social problem of 'fake or fact,' argue the members of the network. As much as it is implicit in modern society as the basis of its formation, it is not yet clear how dialogue will be valued in a future that can be highly regulated by artificial intelligence.

Topic of the Year

Topic-of-the-year activities can range from an event to a series of meetings, including public conferences, discussions, workshops, and/or seminars. UBIAS encourages the member institutes to invite researchers from colleague institutes as lecturers or visiting professors, as well as to carry out joint activities between each other. It is a way to promote interchange within the network.

In 2019, the Topic of the Year was "Migrations," which came after "Aging - Life, Culture, Civilizations" (2018) and "Fear" (2017). The first theme chosen by the network was "Media and Data Control," in 2016.

Photo by Basil D Soufi/Wikimedia

Former FIFA President Joseph Blatter between Dilma Rousseff and Vladimir Putin, presidents of Brazil and Russia, during a ceremony in 2014 | Photo: Press Release / Kremlin

Physical educator Marco Antonio Bettine, a professor at USP's School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities (EACH) since 2013, started the development of his research project on the geopolitical dynamics involved in the choice of host countries for the FIFA World Cup. He has been one of the selected researchers to participate in this year's Sabbatical Year Program.

With "Soft Power: A Look at the Strategic Use of BRICS Hosting the FIFA World Cup - Analysis of South Africa, Brazil and Russia," Bettine will try to understand how FIFA has become an economic, political and legal power capable of governing a cultural asset such as football, the most popular and practiced sport in the world. At the same time, he intends to build relationships between the participation of three BRICS members - Brazil, Russia, and South Africa - as host countries of the World Cup and the variations in their soft power.

The concept of soft power has been developed by American political scientist Joseph Nye in contrast to hard power. According to Nye's definition, while hard power provides for the use of the economic and war power of a state to influence decisions of another state or political body, soft power presupposes the use of diplomacy and culture as instruments of influence. "Examples of hard power used by the USA government are the economic sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela, and the military actions in the Middle East," explains Bettine. "The American soft power, on the other hand, aims to reach other countries through persuasion, example and the film industry."

The researcher's analysis will focus on the World Cup editions held in South Africa (2010), Brazil (2014) and Russia (2018). News stories that were published during these events by some of the world's top media outlets will be the main source of information. With data from Google Trends, Bettine has compared the number of hits from eight outlets based in four countries to determine which ones would be analyzed. Le Monde (France), BBC (UK), and El Pais (Spain) have been chosen due to greater methodological adaptation.

Brazilian, Russian and South African outlets will not be considered for the project "because the objective of the work is the analysis of foreign visions on the BRICS. And who holds the power of international decisions in the political sphere are the foreign newspapers."

Researcher Marco Antonio Bettine | Photo: Personal archive

Mega-sport events and soft power

Bettine understands that sport, because of its undeniable cultural and social influence, has become a powerful instrument of soft power. As a result, organizations such as FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have acquired a great capacity for persuasion towards potential host countries for events such as the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics. From the perspective of the countries, these competitions are commonly seen as opportunities to spread their culture, infrastructure and sovereignty to the world, as well as to strengthen local trade and tourism. For the researcher, the interest is mutual: to FIFA, the financial gains and the increase of its political force is very attractive, while for the host countries there is a desire of increasing soft power and international influence.

South Africa saw the event as an opportunity to become the representative country of pan-Africanism - a movement that seeks the emancipation and socioeconomic development of the African continent -, explains the researcher. Brazil wanted to consolidate the national image abroad. Among other things, the Brazilian government sought a permanent member position in the United Nations Security Council, a more active participation in international relations, and the gain of relevance within BRICS and MERCOSUR.

According to Bettine, Brazil was seen with disrepute by the foreign press, which believed the country was unable to carry out a mega-sport event. He recalls, however, that a week after the start of the matches, the outlets declared themselves deceived: without major problems, Brazil conducted the World Cup in an efficient way. For him, in terms of soft power, "the Cup was a success for Brazil and Dilma Rousseff's government."

In a contrary movement by the time of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil had undergone a presidential impeachment process in addition to several economic and social fragilities which damaged the image of the event. The clear vulnerability of Brazilian democracy led international outlets to pay more attention to the malfunctions practiced during the Olympic Games.

"If the country is doing well internally and has a certain international strength, it is able to influence the ways and choices of the media," explains the researcher. "If it is destabilized, it can not create its own agendas for dissemination in international media."

Germany and Argentina face off in the final of the World Cup 2014 | Photo: Danilo Borges / Wikimedia Commons

BRICS and the World Cup legacy

The last three editions of the FIFA World Cup have been hosted by BRICS-member countries. According to Bettine, this is due to the fact that they are, in general, "nations with fragile democracies, but with great financial potentials and in search of greater international visibility". The democratic weakness of host countries is, according to him, a fundamental part of FIFA's decision-making process: "Jérôme Valcke, former FIFA secretary general who was dismissed on charges of corruption and misconduct in ticket sales for the 2010 and 2014 events, said that 'too much democracy hampers the holding of the World Cup.'"

One of the mechanisms of influence and co-optation used by FIFA to persuade countries to host the World Cup is the promise of structural reforms and the improvement of the country's infrastructure, according to the researcher. In the events hosted by BRICS members, however, the promises have been disregarded almost completely. The improvement of the regional HDI, public transport, and access to basic sanitation have been the main broken pacts. "Brazil and South Africa are countries that continue to have basic infrastructure problems, even around the big stadiums built for the matches," says Bettine.

The researcher points out that from 2015 FIFA's mistakes have come to an inflection point. Several high-ranking members of the organization started to be tried and convicted of crimes committed during the World Cups in 2010 and 2014, and in the choices of Russia and Qatar as host cities for 2018 and 2022, respectively. The convictions, however, were not motivated by noncompliance with promises made in the periods prior to the events, by frauds in ticket sales, or by gentrification processes influenced by sporting events, but by attempts at money laundering in shell companies In the USA.

Interdisciplinarity

According to the professor, the interdisciplinary character of the project comes from the simultaneous approach of themes such as international relations, global governance, media influence, Brazilian culture, and the cultural importance of football.

For him, the main focus of the research is to understand how all of these news stories can help "to define the role of FIFA, of sociological theory, and of soft power's and hard power's political theory during the organization of the World Cup by the BRICS members."