Rethinking EU–Latin America Relations Through a Franco-Brazilian Research Partnership

Rafael Mesquita (Federal University of Pernambuco, UFPE, Brazil): 

It began in 2024 with a collaboration between professor Kevin Parthenay and myself around the subject of Latin American contributions to the international order. He invited me for a two-month visit to his university. We worked on a webinar, two original articles on this subject [1, 2] and caught the spark for the idea of the current project. 

Interestingly, Sciences Po is part of the story because the thought struck us when we were coming out of a joint lecture on EU-Latin American affinities that we gave at the Winter School in the Poitiers campus. Europe was increasingly seeking to develop a  ‘strategic autonomy’ and reduce its dependencies. The similarities of this strategy to the case Dependency theorists have been making about Latin America since the 1950s was striking. 

We realised that this unexpected encounter between European and Latin American diplomatic traditions could be the conceptual core for a robust research programme, so for the rest of 2025 we put together a project along with other colleagues from universities in Brazil and France, which was approved by CAPES-COFECUB for a four-year period. 

We are honoured to have Sciences Po as part of this network via scholars like Kevin Parthenay, Frédéric Ramel, Carola Klöck, and Sciences Po’s Center for International Studies (CERI) and Political Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean (OPALC). We believe this partnership leverages some of the unique strengths of Sciences Po: the school has a longstanding interest in EU-Latin American relations, not only as a research topic but also at the institutional level. In addition, the project foresees mobility for young PhD students.

Frédéric Ramel (CERI/CNRS): 

The strategic consequences of the second Trump administration, grounded in the revival of the Monroe Doctrine—or, more precisely, in what may be described as the Trump Corollary to that doctrine— have strong impacts on both regions.

Inspired by Roosevelt's interpretation, the Trump corollary extends the notion of the Western Hemisphere beyond the American continent itself and broadens the range of perceived threats to include not only foreign interference but also transnational crime and illicit trafficking. It generates a certain form of behaviour in Latin America, as illustrated by the abduction of President Maduro, while also reshaping the Trump administration's understanding of NATO on the one hand and of its European allies on the other. 

In other words, the two regions share a common denominator: how should relations with the United States be conceived at a time when Washington is no longer willing to exercise hegemony or uphold a liberal international order? In the field of security, the question of strategic autonomy has therefore become even more salient as a result of this redefinition of U.S. foreign policy. 

Admittedly, this issue does not arise in exactly the same terms for Latin American and European states. Nevertheless, it is closely intertwined with another key question: that of cooperation between the two regions, particularly in the fields of new technologies, including cybersecurity and, above all, artificial intelligence. 

The objective is therefore not only to compare how the states and regional organisations of these two regions conceive of—and seek to strengthen—their strategic autonomy vis-à-vis the United States, but also to assess the extent to which their respective responses to the multifaceted threats of our time can be articulated, coordinated, and mutually reinforced. 

Carola Klöck (CERI/CNRS): 

We tend to ‘forget’ the environment and climate amid the geopolitical turmoil and domestic political problems, but clearly these problems – climate change, biodiversity loss, plastics pollution, to name but a few – remain urgent and tend to get worse all the time. The recent heat wave here in Europe is a clear indication of this. 

Both Latin American and European countries are often considered progressive and ambitious in terms of their environmental goals. While the two continents clearly play a key role in major environmental negotiations like those on climate change, there are also tensions and contradictions. For instance, the European energy transition relies in part on extractivism in Latin America. Both continents have also seen important environmental backlash under right-wing pressures – but have also been pioneers, for instance with the recent Santa Marta conference on ending fossil fuels. To understand environmental politics globally, we need to study Europe and Latin America. 

Ana Paula Tostes (University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, UERJ): 

The project offers a valuable opportunity to strengthen research, academic outreach, and high-level dialogue on relations between the European Union and Latin America. 

Both regions have pursued convergent political agendas in response to the crisis of multilateralism, emphasising diplomacy, cooperation, and peaceful solutions to conflicts and differences in international relations. This commitment provides a framework for analysing national foreign policies in bilateral EU–Latin America interactions and broader interregional relations in times of a rapprochement between the regions by the relaunch of the CELAC-EU Summits. 

From the Brazilian perspective, the project responds to the need for greater internationalisation. At Rio de Janeiro State University, European studies are particularly welcome and align with the activities and research conducted through the Jean Monnet Chair that I coordinate. 

The partnership focuses on at least three research areas of shared interest to both regions: regional and multilateral contexts for human rights violations and protection; national contexts and transnational links among far-right movements; and global health. 

Both regions share a commitment to values and human rights in international relations, as well as to the principle of autonomy, despite differences in perspectives and strategies. These differences offer a valuable basis for research across the three areas, especially for examining the challenges of promoting human rights amid the interests of countries from the Global North and Global South.

Kévin Parthenay (University of Tours and CERI/OPALC): 

The project is designed to generate significant scientific, societal, educational, and institutional impacts by fostering sustained collaboration between French and Brazilian research communities and by promoting the dissemination of knowledge beyond academic circles. 

From a societal perspective, the project aims to produce and disseminate a series of editorial outputs, including policy briefs and white papers, in French, Portuguese, and English. These publications will target a broad audience, encompassing policymakers, journalists, practitioners, and civil society organisations in both France and Brazil.

The project will promote policy dialogues through the organisation of dedicated activities involving national and European public institutions, as well as think tanks and civil society organisations. These exchanges will contribute to strengthening interactions between academic research and policy communities while facilitating the circulation of expertise between Europe and Latin America.

This project aims to generate analytical insights and empirical evidence capable of informing the policies and strategies developed by European governments and institutions towards Latin America. The past decade has been characterised by uncertainty, hesitation, and strategic ambiguity regarding the nature of the dialogue that should be pursued between European and Latin American actors, as well as the principles and priorities that ought to underpin this relationship.

Against this backdrop, the project seeks to provide evidence-based reflections and policy-relevant analyses on the opportunities for renewed cooperation and strategic convergence between Europe and Latin America. At a time marked by profound global disruptions—including geopolitical fragmentation, technological transformations, environmental challenges, and the reconfiguration of multilateral governance—the project aims to identify the conditions under which both regions may strengthen their partnership and contribute jointly to the shaping of the international order.