THEODORO LUCIANO Bruno

Units

REPI Recherche et Études en Politique Internationale

REPI is a research unit, mainly dedicated to research and studies in international politics at the Université libre de Bruxelles. It is linked to the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences. REPI fosters fundamental research in the field of international relations and aims at providing a high quality framework for the research in this field (PhD dissertations, publications, conferences...). Depending on available resources, members of REPI can also provide specific expertise for national and international institutions. Furthermore, the research centre encourages the dissemination of knowledge in international relations to a larger audience and represents a convenient space for discussing the teaching of international relations within the university. REPI also organises seminars and summer schools for professionals and young scholars.

Its scientific activities focus on two major areas of international politics: the study of security issues and international public policy (environment, health, international economics, development, etc.). These activities are rooted in several research traditions and schools of thought: foreign policy analysis, political sociology of international affairs, critical approaches to security, international political economy, etc., with the aim of better understanding power issues in international relations at different levels. The research agenda also includes the study of the European Union's external action and the main international institutions.

Director : Christian Olsson

Projetcs

EU-Latin America relations and the limits of normative inter-regionalism

This project aims to understand how recent the political transformations in Latin America and Europe have affected the normative component of EU-LAC inter-regional relations. By assessing both the latest developments of the inter-governmental and inter-parliamentary dimensions of EU-LAC relations, it intends to understand the impact of recent disintegration trends encountered within the two regions on EU-LAC inter-regionalism. Therefore, it aims to analyse whether the principles historically supported by the two regions in their relationship have been contested or deteriorated by the newly-elected leaders/parties in the two sides, and what are the manifested effects when it comes to this particular inter-regional relations. In doing so, this action will also examine the stage of current EU-LAC, EU-Brazil, and EU-Mexico Strategic Partnerships, considering that these three dimensions are key components of EU-LAC overall relations. Although previous literature on the topic has vastly explored the history and the key issues of EU-LAC relations, the new disintegrative dynamics identified have demanded novel studies to assess how the normative features of current and future inter-regional relations between the two continents have been challenged. By simultaneously looking at three spheres of EU-LAC hybrid inter-regionalism, this research intends to innovate by not only examining one aspect of EU-LAC relations as done by previous studies. In fact, it aims to reach a comprehensive assessment of EU-LAC overall relations by combining and contrasting three of their component dimensions (EU-LAC SP, EU-Brazil SP, and EU-Mexico SP), highlighting key differences and commonalities among them.