This is a study of the Fórum da Liberdade (FL), an annual event organised by the Brazilian think tank Instituto de Estudos Empresariais, an Atlas Network partner. Based on critical theory, this study is aimed at casting light on the role played by the FL in promoting US hegemony in the realm of ideas. Drawing on an analysis of all the forums over 30 years from its inception in 1988 until 2018, we demonstrate that this hegemony is based on the neoliberal economic model. We examine the presenters, the sponsors, the main themes and the award winners. We find that a) the FL privileges speakers who support the neoliberal ideal – mostly male politicians, entrepreneurs, and members of neoliberal think tanks in Brazil and elsewhere; b) the FL has been internationalising, embracing an absolute majority of speakers from the USA, and strengthening ties with its major partner, the North American Atlas Network; c) the FL helps build electoral platforms by privileging politicians who support its economic ideals; and d) the FL promotes the US neoliberal agenda via financial support from the entrepreneurs who fund the annual events, and an ‘intelligentsia’ that legitimises the ideas presented at those events. Fórum da Liberdade; think tanks; Atlas Network; neoliberalism; Critical Theory.

Resumo O presente artigo dedica-se à compreensão da polarização partidária estadunidense. Por meio de uma metodologia que privilegia o uso de plataformas nacionais e de indicadores de gradação, busca-se evidenciar empiricamente aproximações e distanciamentos ideológicos entre os dois principais partidos políticos nos EUA e, consequentemente, a ascensão ou o declínio de ideologias como conservadorismo e liberalismo. O recorte temporal feito se dá entre 1936 e 2016. Os resultados nos indicam que há uma polarização partidária no período recente caracterizada, sobretudo, pela ascensão conservadora do Partido Republicano no que tange às questões sociais. Resta saber se esse processo beneficia a democracia ao representar a sociedade com todas as suas idiossincrasias ou a prejudica por contemplar extremos nem sempre característicos da sociedade como um todo.

North-American politics has been defined as polarized for parties that deviate from the political center emphasizing, as in the case of the Republican Party, ultra-conservative politics. As such, the work here presented intents to analyze the so called North-American classic conservatism. It seeks to understand the conservative movement from the analysis of 4 authors' works, important to launch it in the intellectual debate and, afterwards, in politics: Richard Weaver, Robert Nisbet, Russell Kirk and William Buckley Jr. It is noticed, at the end of the study, that the conservatism that emerges during the 1950's can be understood both as a rejection of the liberal movement that was ascending in the United States since the previous century, and as a rejection against URSS' Communism.

From a neo-Gramscian approach, this research analyses the military institution of the Southern Command as a strategic instrument to U.S. hegemonic maintenance in Latin America. To this end, this article seeks to present an X-ray of the Southern Command from the 2000s, paying attention to its organization, budget structure, and its operating strategies – in particular, in the use of military bases, in the development of ‘partnerships’ for defense and public security, and in the analysis of military education and training in the schools where this institution operates. To conduct the analysis, primary data were collected from documents and electronic sites published by the same institution and by high level institutions, such as the Department of Defense and the U.S. Congress. As a result, we conclude that the Southern Command is characterized by a hybrid mechanism for hegemonic maintenance through a combination that simultaneously encompasses the use of force and consensus.

O artigo proposto tem o objetivo de analisar o protagonismo brasileiro na mediação com o Irã em 2010 e que culminaria com a Declaração de Teerã, através de um estudo sobre a diplomacia brasileira de Lula. Por meio de análise bibliográfica, documental e de conteúdo, se busca inferir que: o protagonismo brasileiro no caso da mediação com o Irã é reflexo tanto de padrões enraizados e típicos da diplomacia brasileira (“acumulado histórico” para Amado Cervo, 2008), bem como de fatores novos, caracterizados na própria política externa assertiva de Lula e Celso Amorim. A Declaração de Teerã só foi possível graças a essa combinação de tradição e inovação presente na diplomacia brasileira durante a presidência de Lula.