Mara Caputo

Brazil Votes

vote sign on sidewalk
Brazilians go to the polls on 3 October to elect a new president, photo: Theresa Thompson/flickr

On 3 October, Brazilians will go to the polls to elect a new president and parliament. This weeks the ISN examines what impact the elections will have on the country’s growing regional, and increasingly global, reach – and how a new president can emerge from the long shadow of Lula da Silva’s popularity to built a legacy all her own.

This ISN Special Report contains the following content:

  • An Analysis by Eliot Brockner about how the next president can begin to fill Lula da Silva’s ‘big shoes’.
  • A Podcast interview with Paulo Sotero Marques about Lula da Silva’s domestic and foreign policy legacy.
  • Security Watch articles covering the spectrum of Brazil’s regional and international relations.
  • Publications housed in our Digital Library, including a monograph from the Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College on the ‘Dilemma of Brazilian Grand Strategy’.
  • Primary Resources, like the full-text of the May 2010 joint declaration by Iran, Turkey and Brazil on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
  • Links to relevant websites, such as the Washington, DC-based Center for Public Integrity’s website that presents the results of an investigative journalism project on the climate change lobby in eight countries, including Brazil.
  • Our IR Directory, featuring Brazil’s Ministry of External Relations.
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Iraq on Its Own

Lone US solider looks out over the Diyala River Valley in Iraq, photo: US Army/flickr
Lone US solider looks out over the Diyala River Valley in Iraq, photo: US Army/flickr

With US combat troop operations in Iraq at an end, less than 50,000 US service personnel remain in a country mired in political quagmire. This week the ISN looks toward Iraq’s future on its own in the wake of US occupation.

This ISN Special Report contains the following content:

  • An Analysis by Philip McCrum about the deleterious security and economic impact of Iraq’s stalled political process.
  • A Podcast interview with Dr Kristian Ulrichsen on the challenges facing Iraq on its path to post-war reconstruction and recovery.
  • Security Watch articles covering the US troop presence in Iraq from invasion to withdrawal.
  • Publications housed in our Digital Library, including US Congressional Research Service assessments of the March 2010 elections.
  • Primary Resources, like the full-text of US President Obama’s address to the nation on the end of combat operations in Iraq.
  • Links to relevant websites, such as ‘Ground Truth: Conditions, Contrasts, and Morale’, which provides the results of a survey of US troops in Iraq on the conditions and morale of service members in the war against terrorism.
  • Our IR Directory, featuring the Washington, DC-based Iraq Foundation, working for democracy and human rights in Iraq and for a better international understanding of Iraq’s potential as a contributor to political stability and economic progress in the Middle East.

Is Economic Recovery on the Horizon?

Navigating a mixed economic forecast, photo: (nz)dave/flickr

This week the ISN asks whether a global economic recovery could soon be in sight despite mixed economic indicators and rumblings of a ‘double-dip’ recession.

This ISN Special Report contains the following content:

  • An Analysis by Dr Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research about Europe’s prospects for economic recovery given belt-tightening austerity measures.
  • A Podcast interview with Dr Klaus-Jürgen Gern of the Kiel Institute discusses the forecast for global economic growth and the prospects of economic recovery in the US, Asia and Europe.
  • Security Watch articles about the impact of the Great Recession around the globe.
  • Publications on the financial crisis housed in our Digital Library from the likes of the Kiel Institute, the Center for Economic and Policy Research and much more.
  • Primary Resources, like the full-text of President Barack Obama’s speech on financial rescue and recovery of the US economy.
  • Links to relevant websites, such as the IMF’s World Economic Outlook website.

Surviving the Coming Scarcity

Middle-class consumption patterns place additional stress on already diminishing resources, photo: Daniel Kulinski/flickr

The world appears to be in the midst of transitioning from a planet of relative surplus to one of scarcity. This week the ISN examines what happens when ever-more acute resource limitations meet unsustainable consumption patterns.

This ISN Special Report contains the following content:

  • An Analysis by Vivian Brailey Fritschi about what happens when ever-more acute resource constraints collide with the entrance of new, insatiable consumers.
  • A Podcast interview with Stefan Giljum from the Sustainable Europe Research Institute on the unique challenge of non-renewable resources running out..
  • Security Watch articles about resource conflicts from Africa to the Middle East.
  • Publications housed in our Digital Library, including the Institut für Strategie- Politik- Sicherheits- und Wirtschaftsberatung on ‘The Geopolitical Dimension of Resource Scarcity’.
  • Primary Resources, like the full-text of UN Security Council Resolutions on natural resource depletion as a threat to international peace and security.
  • Links to relevant websites, such as the Oxford Research Group’s Sustainable Security website, which provides the latest news, comment, analysis and research relating to threats to global security and sustainable responses to those threats.
  • Our IR Directory, featuring the Global Footprint Network, an international think tank working to advance sustainability through use of the ecological footprint, a resource accounting tool that measures how much nature we have, how much we use and who uses what.
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Afghanistan in the Balance

Afghanistan in a precarious balance between great powers, photo: imagemonkey/flickr

Afghanistan has long been precariously positioned within the international balance of power, where it has served as both playground and graveyard of rival nation-states. This week the ISN takes a closer look at Afghanistan’s continued importance in relation to great power politics, in addition to its more closely documented localized conflicts.

This ISN Special Report contains the following content:

  • An Analysis by Professor John Brobst, on the importance of Afghanistan in relation to great power politics.
  • A Podcast interview with Professor Anatol Lieven of King’s College London explores the fundamental difficulties that the international community faces in trying to forge a peace or build a nation in a country with a fraught history, deep divisions and a disdain for outside interference.
  • Security Watch articles about the Wikileaks and McCrystal scandals, the donor gap and much more.
  • Publications housed in our Digital Library, including the Institute of South Asian Studies’ papers on President Zardari in China and the Afghan peace jirga.
  • Primary Resources, like the full-text of President Obama’s June 23rd statement on the General McCrystal firing.
  • Links to relevant websites, such as the ‘Afghanistan Conflict Monitor’ blog, an initiative of the Human Security Report at the School for International Studies at Simon Fraser University.
  • Our IR Directory, featuring the Afghanistan Women Council, designed to assist and empower Afghan women and children.