Sumários
SESSION 4 – DEMOCRACY PROMOTION AND THE INTERNATIONAL DIMENSIONS OF DEMOCRATIZATION
19 Novembro 2025, 14:30 • Luís Manuel Macedo Pinto de Sousa
1. Strategies to foster democratization in a target state
2. Democratic imposition, promotion and emulation
Selected readings
Whitehead L. (1996) (ed.), The International Dimensions of Democratization. Europe and the Americas, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Brinks D. e M. Coppedge (2006), Diffusion is not Illusion. Neighbour Emulation in the Third Wave of Democracy, in “Comparative Political Studies”, 39, 4, pp. 463-89.
Carothers T. (2007), A Quarter-Century of Promoting Democracy, in “Journal of Democracy”, 18, 4, pp. 112-15.
Grimm S. (2008), External Democratization after War: Success and Failure, in “Democratization”, 15, 3, pp. 525-549.
THE ERA OF POLYCRISIS: A STRESS-TEST FOR MULTILATERALISM
12 Novembro 2025, 14:30 • Luís Manuel Macedo Pinto de Sousa
The current geopolitical context illustrates how crises amplify one another, placing unprecedented stress on the multilateral system. Russia’s war against Ukraine challenges European security and NATO’s cohesion, while simultaneously eroding the international liberal order. The ongoing war in Gaza exposes the United Nations’ inability to foster collective decision-making in polarized contexts, as major powers instrumentalize multilateral frameworks for strategic ends, thereby undermining their legitimacy. At the same time, the global order faces an erosion of the international society, the prevalence of power politics over shared rules, and a deeper ethical crisis that threatens the credibility of international institutions.
Where do small States stand in a context where power competition frequently undermines collective decision-making within international organizations? To overcome their more limited material capacity, small States use multilateralism as an indispensable tool of influence and diplomatic reach. In this seminar, we will explore case studies from Portugal, Czechia, and Estonia to analyze their insertion in multilateralism and how they exert influence on multilateral frameworks through foreign
policy specialization and agenda-setting.
Selected readings
Fernandes, S., & Makarychev, A. (2019). Estonia and Portugal in Europe: escaping peripherality, capitalizing on marginality. Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 27(4), 394-408. https://doi.org/10.1080/14782804.2019.1635438
Fernandes, S., & Simão, L. (Eds) (2019). O Multilateralismo: conceitos e práticas no Século XXI. Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra. https://repositorium.uminho.pt/server/api/core/bitstreams/af7ba7ed-d47c-45cf-9a0c-a460296b052b/content
Keohane, N. (2020). Understanding Multilateral Institutions in Easy and Hard Times. Annual Review of Political Science, 23: 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-050918-042625
Weiss, T., & Fernandes, S. (2025). Foreign Policy Specialisation in EU Small States: Conceptualising and Analysing an Underexplored Practice. Journal of International Relations and Development. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41268-025-00358-5
Weiss, T., Fernandes, S., & Pisklová, M. (2024). Institutional inertia and change: Explaining the Czech and Portuguese engagement in PESCO and EDF. Journal of Common Market Studies, 62(3), 784-800. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13533
CONCEPTS, THEORIES AND DEBATES IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
29 Outubro 2025, 14:30 • Luís Manuel Macedo Pinto de Sousa
1. Concepts: Man, the state, and the international system
2. Selected theoretical perspectives
3. Debates: domestic factors, international relations and globalization – Where is the world going to?