Contexto Int. [Newsletter] - Special Issue 47.2 Where is the Sea in Int. Relations?

Dear Colleagues,

We hope this correspondence finds you well.

We are delighted to formally announce the publication of the latest special issue of Contexto Internacional, entitled "Where is the Sea in IR?," which I had the distinct honour of co-editing with Dr Flavia Guerra (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro).

The overarching objective of this Special Issue is to address a central scholarly lacuna within International Relations (IR) scholarship: the historical and theoretical marginalisation of the oceanic domain. In pursuing this fundamental inquiry—why and how does the ocean recede from scholarly and political attention?—the assembled contributions collectively prompt a sustained, rigorous examination of two key analytical challenges:

1. The specific mechanisms through which IR has historically relegated the oceanic domain to the periphery of its dominant analytical frameworks.
2. The subsequent broader political and theoretical implications that stem from this systematic exclusion.

The volume is structurally organised around three distinct, yet interconnected, thematic axes, each seeking to contribute to a deeper engagement with the marine sphere:

1. The Marginalisation of the Ocean in IR: Conceptual and empirical explorations of how the sea is actively rendered absent or subordinate within core theoretical debates.
2. Complex Entanglements between the Ocean and Ontological Security: Analyses focusing on the relationship between maritime spaces, existential anxieties, and state identity formation.
3. Ocean Governance as Regulatory Mechanism and Platform for Political Discourse: Critical assessments of regulatory frameworks and their role in structuring political contestation over the maritime commons.

We sincerely hope that you find the contributions within this volume to be a compelling and theoretically relevant read that stimulates further research and critical reflection within the discipline.

Special Issue: Where is the Sea in IR?

Where is the Sea in International Relations?
  Francisco Eduardo Lemos de Matos; Flávia Guerra Cavalcanti

Abstract | Full text

Table of Contents: https://www.scielo.br/j/cint/i/2025.v47n2/

Includes - Addressing 'Maritime Aphasia' in International Relations
  Bruno Sowden-Carvalho; Marcelo M. Valença

Between Nuclear Tests and Rising Sea Levels
  Beatriz Rodrigues Bessa Mattos

Carl Schmitt on the Move: Spatial Politics and the (political) Sacrifice of the Sea
  Francisco Eduardo Lemos de Matos

Thinking Ontological (In)Security with Water: The Place of the Ocean in Boat Migration
  Flávia Guerra Cavalcanti

What is the Place of Mar de Timor in Timorese Geopolitics, Culture and Education?
  Silvia Garcia Nogueira; Betina Lopes; Ângelo Ferreira; Samuel de Souza Freitas

Fluid Boundaries: Reassessing Maritime Spaces and Nomadic Waves in International Relations Theory
  Henrique Campos de Oliveira

The Third Bank of the Sea: Maritime Traces of Constitutive Outside(r)s and International Ontopolitical Lines
  Roberto Vilchez Yamato; Gustavo Alvim de Góes

Ocean Governance, Maritime Security, and International Relations
  Daniele Dionisio da Silva; Gilberto Carvalho Oliveira

Sailing on Waves beyond National Sovereign Land Borders: On the Crossroads between International Ocean Relations and the Blue Economy
  Thauan Santos

Regards,
chico

Francisco Eduardo Lemos de Matos
Doutor em Relações Internacionais pelo IRI/PUC-RIO.
Pesquisador de Pós-Doutorado em Relações Internacionais no IRI/PUC-RIO pela FAPERJ.

Rede IPS Brasil - https://www.ipsbrasil.com/
Lattes: https://lattes.cnpq.br/9338374067089166
Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4214-5382

My source: DOINGIPS list - https://www.doingips.org/

Revisiting the G7 ... G20

'Under the Trump administration, the US is retreating from the global leadership role it has played since the end of the second world war. The world is bedevilled with challenges and there is a desperate need for stability and co-ordinated solutions to global problems. Where will the leadership to solve them come from? 

Some have argued that we are now in a "G zero" world in which no one is in charge. There is great uncertainty and the powerful dictate solutions to smaller players. Others say we are moving to a regional carve up - a G3 where the US. Russia and China have spheres of influence in a modern day version of the Three Emperors League. 

Some version of a new multi-polar order may yet take shape. But it also seems clear that a G minus one world is starting to fill the vacuum in some domains — with countries coming together to find solutions to global problems without the US.' p.11.

 

Individual

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Group

imaginary - *You cast your vote and get the  global leadership we all deserve. ...	- numbers
... Discuss.	G20 G7 G-0? Goto*

My source: 

Minouche Shafik, How to live in a G minus one world, Opinion, FTWeekend. 26-27 July 2025, p.11.

https://www.ft.com/content/7b884f20-e44e-4afe-9c0c-0c602f76b3f6

Previously: 'G7'

🗣️Solving or Resolving Palestinian Human Rights Issues: Relationship "Normalization" | Mohamed ‘Arafa

🗣️ Solving or Resolving Palestinian Human Rights Issues: Relationship "Normalization" | Mohamed ‘Arafa

This session will be the first in the series of conferences “Jurisprudential Dialogues on Human Rights”, which is designed to promote exchanges on topical issues involving human rights and the role of the courts of justice.

 

The aim of this session is to reflect on the violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people — an enduring state of affairs that transcends political or religious lines of judgement. Over the decades, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been marking the international landscape, sparking divisions, human misery, and far-reaching geopolitical consequences.

 

This session will be led by Professor Mohamed ‘Arafa, Professor of Law at the University of Alexandria and Adjunct Professor of Law & the Clarke Initiative Visiting Scholar at Cornell Law School. Joining in will be Professor Rita Ribeiro, from the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Minho, and Zaina Awartani, PhD researcher at the School of Law of the University of Minho and the School of Researchers of the Research Centre for Justice and Governance (JusGov). The event will be chaired by Sergio Ruiz Díaz Arce, Doctoral Integrated Researcher at JusGov.

 

💻 Zoom room: https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/j/95090845748

📍June 13th, 2025 | 4.00 p.m. Online

Scientific Commission

Sergio Ruiz Díaz Arce

Joaquim Freitas da Rocha

Robert Junqueira

 

Organisation

JusGov (JusLab – DH)

School of Law of the University of Minho

 

Support

FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology

Yours respectfully,

Robert Junqueira Executive Coordinator | Research and Scientific Careers Bureau Research Centre for Justice and Governance School of Law of the University of Minho Gualtar Campus 4710-057 Braga - Portugal   T: (+351) 253 60 18 75 E: martinsjunqueira AT direito.uminho.pt

Book: Digital Disinformation in Africa: Hashtag Politics, Power and Propaganda

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Group

	Digital Disinformation in Africa
	#Politics #Power #Propaganda

Source: Twi/X

Policy Dialogue - Water, Conflict and Peace in the Middle East: online

Dear colleagues,

I am delighted to invite you to the next Policy Dialogues from the JHU-UPF Public Policy Center:

Water, Conflict and Peace in the Middle East

Thursday 25th April, 6pm CEST

Online via Zoom (registration required)

Language: English

The Middle East is a region of both severe water problems, and acute political instability. But what is the relationship between these two things? This Policy Dialogue will provide an opportunity to reflect on this question and its implications. It will overview the region’s water problems, and consider how these problems are – or are not – contributing to conflict. It will also examine, conversely, how war and violence are affecting patterns of water resource degradation and water insecurities, and will reflect on opportunities for water-related peace-building, including on how water for peace initiatives might best be pursued.

We are delighted to invite Natasha Carmi (Water Peace Programme Manager at the Geneva Water Hub) and Jan Selby (Professor of International Politics and Climate Change at the University of Leeds, UK) to share their expertise during this session.

We invite you to join us and explore the complexities of this extremely important issue. You can register here. Please also share this invitation within your networks.

Best regards,
Aeve

Aeve Ribbons
she/her

Educational Projects Manager of JHU-UPF Public Policy Center (UPF-BSM)
Managing Editor of the International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services (IJSDOHS)

My working days are Monday-Thursday / Mis días laborables son de lunes a jueves.

Website: http://www.upf.edu/jhu-ppc/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pubpolcenter

My source:

Politics of Health Group Mail List Messages

Visit the PoHG website for lots of interesting links and publications: http://www.pohg.org.uk/

Visit PoHG on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/282761111845400

Follow us on Twitter: @pohguk

When you 'give no quarter'^

When the only thing
on the table is your history,
there is no space, even as corners multiply.
No longer is there space for a future,
no longer space for hope,
no space for a peace to be thought of -
let-alone shared.

When you give - absolutely! - no quarter
and act to prove the same,
Yes, you stand.
But how do you stand?
You stand to lose insight,
and so much more - 
you stand to lose
humanity

 

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CON-SCIENCE	SCIENCE geo-
Time & Land	politics PEACE?

^Easy for me - many of us - to say?

Listen also:

BBC Radio 4 Start the Week War crimes justice

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001vktw

Where do you/we find peace? Discuss.

Invite to a Disaster

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"THREE DAYS AFTER THE JANUARY 14, 1907, JAMAICAN EARTHQUAKE, two American naval ships, the Missouri and the Indiana, alerted by their newly installed radio receivers, moored in Kingston Harbour and disembarked sailors who patrolled the streets, shared provisions, and brought the injured to the ship's hospital. ...

When the island's British governor, Alexander Swettenham, discovered the American presence, he was apoplectic and demanded an immediate re-embarkation and expelled the US ships. The diplomatic crisis was only resolved weeks later after the governor issued a formal apology and resigned. The incident highlighted the need for international protocols around disaster diplomacy. To attend another country's catastrophe you need an invitation. The following year the first rescuers in Messina the day after the December 28, 1908, earthquake were sailors from the Russian cruiser Admiral Makarov, accompanied by two naval escorts that happened to have been moored down the coast at Augusta. Within days, rival fleets arrived from Britain, France, and the United States. A catastrophe now provided the unanticipated world stage on which nations projected their international status through the strength and speed of their humanitarian missions. Kurt Waldheim, secretary-general of the United Nations, said in 1978: "Four years ago I believed that humanitarian relief was above politics. Now I know that humanitarian relief is politics." pp.201-202.

 
Robert Muir-Wood (2016) The Cure for Catastrophe: How We Can Stop Manufacturing Natural Disasters, London: OneWorld Publications. ISBN-10: 1786070057

See also ...

The nature of catastrophe and disaster

'Faulty thinking' or 'Thinking faulty'?

Editorial: "COP27 climate change conference: urgent action needed for Africa and the world" c/o HIFA

Dear HIFA colleagues,

Chris Zielinski and colleagues achieved a remarkable feat by publishing a climate emergency editorial simultaneously in more than 250 journals. What does this tell us about communicating health research to policymakers?

https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2022/10/18/bjsports-2022-106442

The point was 'to demonstrate the united will of the medical profession, including all areas (nursing, mental health, veterinary medicine, etc.), to combat the health effects of climate change'.

The key message of the authors is to urge 'wealthy nations to finally step up', particularly to realise 'the promised target of providing US$100 billion of climate finance a year... ensuring these resources focus on increasing resilience to the existing and inevitable future impacts of the climate crisis, as well as on supporting vulnerable nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions'.

The message is supported by a well-worded case, and by a string of references to published research.

The piece is jointly authored by the editors of medical journals, which was presumably a deliberate decision to emphasise solidarity rather than including climate scientists and others.

In relation to 'communicating health research to policymakers' the exercise suggests more can be achieved when scientists work in solidarity and cooperatively than individually and in competition.

It will be interesting to see what happens at COP27. Will there be major steps forward along the lines that this editorial calls for? If so, what were the key contributing factors to the decisions made? One suspects the shared voices of 250-plus journals will play an important role. Moreover, their solidarity and cooperation is in place and ready to take on the next major advocacy challenge.

Best wishes, Neil

Joint Coordinator, HIFA Communicating health research https://www.hifa.org/projects/new-effective-communication-health-research-policymakers

Neil Pakenham-Walsh, Global Coordinator HIFA, www.hifa.org neil AT hifa.org Global Healthcare Information Network: Working in official relations with WHO

Reflection = 'navel gazing'?

Individual and Collective reflection ...

THE NEED FOR HOLISTIC BANDWIDTH

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Reflection Critique of reflective practice Risk of navel gazing
	"GLOBAL BRITAIN" 'Rules-based order' in the 21st C? Government - Governance Preoccupation with COVID-19, Brexit ... "We have not had enough bandwidth to deal with International issues to use our position on the security council and in the G7 ..." Jeremy Bowen Risk of navel gazing*

BBC Radio 4, Today, 25 October 2022 c.0816. Jeremy Bowen, International Editor.

Related:

Horta, H., Veloso, F., & Grediaga, R. (2010). Navel gazing: Academic inbreeding and scientific productivity. Management Science, 56(3), 41.

Ronald J. Pelias. (2009). Pledging Personal Allegiance to Qualitative Inquiry. International Review of Qualitative Research, 2(3), 351–356. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/irqr.2009.2.3.351

*A constant consideration here.

 

Book: "A Blue New Deal"

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	A BLUE ... "A Blue New Deal"
	... NEW DEAL

Source: Book in the news. Money Week, 29 April 2022. Issue 1101, p.39.

Finding motivation ...

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INTRINSIC	EXTRINSIC
INTRINSIC	If 'you' activate the intrinsic motivation of a people 'here' by extrinsic means, be prepared to suffer the consequences.

 

Previously:

Conveying the Message: Channel, Noise, Redundancy, Information ...   

Social care ... 

 

Flee Memory Box Europa

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MEMORY BOX

Einav, D. The human face of war and migration, Life&Arts, FTWeekend, 5-6 February 2022, p.15.

RSPH Sparks Debates - Geopolitical determinants of health

The Royal Society for Public Health 

Thu, 11 November 2021, 15:00 – 16:00 GMT

Online event

 

Individual
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humanistic ------------------------------------- mechanistic

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Group

i m p a c t	GEO-
SOCIAL determinants of health	POLITICAL determinants of health

 

My source:

https://twitter.com/R_S_P_H/status/1446469190198628376?s=20

https://twitter.com/R_S_P_H/status/1445011311478325249?s=20

#RSPHSparksDebate

History: Ancient and Modern

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HISTORY

Artist:

Ian Hamilton Finlay

(British, 1925–2006)

Title:

For the temples of the Greek our homesickness lasts forever (collab. w/Michael Harvey)

Image: https://emuseum.aberdeencity.gov.uk/objects/118193/for-the-temples-of-the-greeks-our-homesickness-lasts-foreve

Lubbock, T. The conflict of ancient and modern, The Tuesday Review, The Independent, 26 March 2002. p.10.

On the Border - In the Border

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... It is not about the people of Chad and what's good for them.'" p.8.

"A French diplomat who knew Déby expressed a romantic view of the late president common in Paris, calling him a "warrior" who 'wanted to die in battle rather than in a hospital bed'. Ayisha Osori of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa said the Parisian view betrayed a casual indifference to the fate of ordinary Chadians. "It just seems fundamentally unfair that the whole world's view of Déby  is 'Oh, we've lost the great soldier'," she said. 'And now we have to do everything to make sure Chad is secure. But we don't really mean Chad, we just mean the borders around Chad. ...

My source:

Munshi, N., Pilling, D. Death of Chad leader spells uncertainty for Sahel, FTWeekend, 24-25 April, 2021, p.8.

Graphic: https://vemaps.com/chad/td-01

Migrants, Picnic across the border c/o JR

individual

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group - population

	Migrants, Picnic across the border

 

My source:

Harvey, C. 'At first, they used to arrest me...'. The Daily Telegraph, Review, 31 October, 2020, pp.4-5.

See also:

JR: Chronicles

https://www.saatchigallery.com/art/jr_chronicles.php

Any one for CSA - care situational awareness?

individual

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group - population

	SSA Space Situational Awareness*
	*(knowing what everyone else is up to in orbit)

My source:

de Quetteville, H. China joins the 'great game' in sky with GPS rival Beidou, Business, The Daily Telegraph, 25 June 2020, p.4.

The gravitas of Groups - and inertia

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 GROUP 

talk green	walk the talk
'X' marks the spot the impact of inertia elsewhere	Group of Twenty Group of Eight Group of Seven

the G20 and other G's

despite their nomenclature

do they recognise the gravity of the situation?

the road is long

time is short

life is the essence

and the 'road' part of the problem ...

On Wikipedia:
Group of Seven
Group of Eight
Group of Twenty

Here is the News: another "Brilliant Map"

Or, to be more precise -

"Brilliant Maps"

An Atlas for Curious Minds – 100 New Ways to See the World

A new book released 5 November 2019:

Brilliant Maps - Book

"Which nations have North Korean embassies? How many countries have bigger economies than California? Who drives on the “wrong” side of the road? And where can you find lions in the wild?

In Brilliant Maps for Curious Minds, you’ll learn all this and much more. One hundred visually arresting maps strike a balance between sobering analysis (number of executions by state) and whimsical insight (the countries of the world where there aren’t any McDonald’s).

Thought-provoking and flat-out fun, this one-of-a-kind atlas—compiled by the editor of the popular Brilliant Maps website—makes surprising connections that illuminate the contours of culture, history, and politics. Brilliant Maps for Curious Minds will change the way you see the world—and your place in it".

See also:

https://www.infographic.ly/


My source:
Wright, I. The World as you've Never Seen It, The Sunday Times Magazine, 27 October 2019, pp.26-31.
 

Paper: Geopolitical factors and mental health I [mapped to h2cm]

" ... we propose that mental health must be seen as a key strategic goal of foreign policy and be used as a measure of success of the foreign aid to ensure that individual people with mental illness are guaranteed a role and support in the civil society and their needs – clinical or social – do not get swept under the carpet. To this end, we examine some key statistics and to address the mental health needs of those worst placed, we propose an index – the Compassion, Action, Pragmatism and Evidence (CAPE) Vulnerability Index – that identifies the most vulnerable communities so that international aid may be more appropriately targeted, possibly ‘ring fenced’ making mental health a strategic building block of foreign policy." p.779.

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wither mental health in relief, shorter life compared with general population,  poverty including  As a child As an adult Vicious cycle 1: Disaster experiences - mental health Traumatic Stress Disorder**

Natural & man-made disasters, health crises, e.g. Ebola, Conflict, War Climate warming Humanitarian intervention: Emphasis on physical survival and physical health Statistics: globally Proposed index: the Compassion, Action, Pragmatism and Evidence (CAPE) Vulnerability Index – that identifies the most vulnerable communities

Vicious cycle 1: [**Intergenerational transmission of stress and trauma - Epigenetics, social memory]  Social upheaval, migration and displacement mental illnesses assoc with social failures such as poor parenting, school failure, domestic violence and toxic stress, impacted prospects on earning a living, stigma social exclusion Social Determinants of Health Displacement refugees, poverty, women, children,  trafficking, rape

Foreign Policy Relief: mental illness = denial of - human rights, vote, marriage, inheritance, make a will Vicious cycle 2: corruption - inequality sequestration of assets crime, law & order Disaster ('declaration') Mental health problems cost the world some US$2.5 trillion per year  (US$16.1 trillion by 2030) Foreign aid & assistance Foreign policy Populism

Persaud, A. et al. (2018) Geopolitical factors and mental health I. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 64(8) 778–785. DOI: 10.1177/0020764018808548
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0020764018808548?journalCode=ispa&

n.b. I have added epigenetics and the intergenerational transmission of stress and trauma.