Educational Journey
Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias
Agregação in Ciência Política • Ciência Política
2012University of Beira Interior
Doutor in Sociologia • Sociologia
2005Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias
Mestre
2002Experience
Professor Catedrático e Investigador Coordenador
2007 - Present • Ciência Política, Segurança e Relações InternacionaisDiretor dos Mestrados em Diplomacia e Relações Internacionais e em Ciência Política, Cidadania e Governação e da Licenciatura em Ciência Política e Relações Internacionais
2012 - 2015Diretor da Licenciatura em Sociologia
0 - PresentAffiliations
Open Association of Research Society (USA)
Fellow
Member since 2019Academia Internacional da Cultura Portuguesa
Académico de Número e Vice-Presidente
Member since 0Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa
Membro
Member since 0Grants and Awards
Fellow of Social Science Research Council
Open Association of Research Society (USA)
Académico de Número
Academia Internacional da Cultura Portuguesa
Research
New World Order: 2022 as a Turning Point
In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and this act represents a turning point in the world order because it was a step toward the expansionism of Putin’s Eurasian Order to challenge the hegemony of the Liberal Order ruled by the United States of America. The so-called special military operation aims not only to force Ukraine to reject any approach to Western Europe, namely to NATO and European Union but also to fight against American hegemony and to replace the present world order with a new model in a conjuncture when China defends an alleged post-hegemonic world and uses both its sharp power and its wolf warrior strategy to reach it. This fact explains China’s position toward the war in Ukraine because, despite its appeals to peace, China never refers to the conflict as a war or an invasion. Moreover, China has opposed European and North American sanctions on Russia, and, even saying that Beijing does not provide weapons for the Russian army, Xi Jinping refuses to break its no-limits partnership with Russia. This chapter proves that this fight against American hegemony represents a strategy to change the world order, but not with a post-hegemonic goal. In the first moment, revisiting the Cold War bipolar order and, in the second phase towards a multi-order world, also involving a religious dimension.
The Role of the Non-Partisan Movements in Democracy: The Portuguese Case
Since its birth in Greece, democracy has evolved mainly with regard to the role people or citizens must play in the system. That evolution explains not only the various modalities of democracy but also the formation of political parties and their change over time. There is no democracy without the parties, but the parties are not the owners of the democratic system, and this encourages the appearance of non-partisan movements that wish to be part of the power play. In Portugal, during Salazar’s dictatorship, political parties were forbidden. After returning to democracy, Portuguese law currently does not allow regional or local parties, as political parties need to act at the national level. However, the Constitution stipulated that non-partisan groups had the right to present lists to the lowest level of local power, the parish council. Despite the official constraint, these groups accepted the challenge, and their power and influence have increased since the first local election in 1976, and it was no wonder that, after the 1997 constitutional revision, the law had recognized them the right to apply for all the organs of the local power. Later, due to political dissents, some politicians decided to constitute non-partisan movements to run against the party that they had just abandoned. Nowadays, these groups rule over 17 of the 308 municipal councils, namely Porto, the second most important city in Portugal. Moreover, the nonpartisan movements are the third political force concerning local power, ruling over more than 400 parish councils.
The Siren Song of Populism
Populism is not a fad or an epiphenomenon. As the election results prove, populism is increasing almost all over the world, and populists rule the four most crowed democracies. Populist parties are gaining ground in the majority of the EU countries and in the two latest American presidential elections two populists – Donald Trump and Bolsonaro – achieved the power stage of the USA and Brazil. In the European Union, after a long period, while populist parties assumed an anti-system position, most of the populists changed their strategy trying to reach the power, and they are already the third political force. This increase has been constant. However, the economic recession and the large flow of refugees and immigrants were at the roof of the most recent rise. The essay analyses the populist parties’ strategic change and the reaction of the mainstream parties. It also explains that right-wing populism is using the nationalist rhetoric and some policies of social democracy into the service of nationalism, and it is increasing faster than the left-wing one. Moreover, the essay shows that populist governments stay in power longer than non-populists do. Finally, it proves that the populist discourse works as a new siren song because populist leaders say what the citizens are keen to hear.
Global Religious Terrorism a Troubling Phenomenon
Terrorism is an ancient phenomenon, as it comes from classical Antiquity. However, its global version only started in the last decades of the 19th century, after the fall of Paris Commune and the murder of the Russian tzar, Alexander the second. Global terrorism is a phenomenon in which, according to Rapoport, we can consider four waves, with religious one as its present phase. This essay accepts the existence of several periods of global terrorism, but it seeks to prove that the designations «religious terrorism» and «Islamic terrorism» are not entirely correct and they represent myths. Besides, it shows that these myths are based on two fallacies– the clash of civilizations, and the unity of Islam world – and they are the origin of serious problems, n ot only in the western world but also in the Islamic countries refusing to follow the Islamic law. It is a ubiquitous problem because when a terrorist group is defeated it continues “to shift away from a centralized command and control structure toward a more diffused model†This strategy represents a severe threat because some terrorists choose a new battlefield while others return to the West but as radicalized as they were when they joined ISIS or any other terrorist group. The world is facing a troubling phenomenon, and its de-construction is essential for controlling a problem also related to identity.
Global Female Jihadism: Far from the Paradise
Terrorism, global terrorism, and global religious terrorism represent three different levels of the phenomenon. Despite the word «terrorism» being associated with a period of the French Revolution of 1789, terrorism is much older. However, global terrorism only dates back to almost 150 years, as it began with the anarchist wave (Rapoport, 2001) in the last decades of the 19 th century, and global religious terrorism is the most recent as it started with the Islamic Revolution in Iran. In this evolution, the role of women in terrorism has changed over time, and when religion made its appearance as a feature of the phenomenon, it reached a critical position, even in the communities where women are not regarded as man’ s equals. This paper provides a snapshot of global female jihadism. It points out the reasons for female attraction to terrorism. It also shows the roles that women play in terrorist groups. The argument of this paper is that, instead of paradise, female jihadists, mostly those who left western countries, discover hell on earth. Besides, the article suggests that they represent a challenge and a threat following the breakdown of the ISIS caliphate.
Populism in Latin America and in the European Union: Two Sides of the Same Coin?
Populism is usually seen in an ambivalent perspective, as it is conceived both as a threat for the representative democracy and as an opportunity for the renewal of the democratic institutions. This essay intends to show the evolution of the populist phenomenon in Latin America, since its initial phase in the 30s of the 20th century until the neo-populist or even postpopulist conjuncture, and the populist dynamics occurring in the European Union. It will be a comparative study, because a comparison helps to understand one reality vis-a-vis another through similarities and differences. The interrogation in the title points to the starting point of this research: is there continuity or influence between the populist realities in the two continental blocks?
