Editor’s Note

Abstract

It is an honor to introduce this issue, the third issue of Contexto Internacional in the new phase of the journal inaugurated by Vol. 37, no. 3, and the first issue in its new design and layout. While the previous two issues were curated selections of articles on special topics-by Anna Leander on Benjamin Cohen's signature approach to international political economy, and by Dawisson Belém Lopes and Carlos Aurélio Pimenta de Faria on foreign policy and social demands in Latin America-the current issue by contrast showcases the range and depth of research on international questions from a Global South perspective that comes to our editorial team through spontaneous submissions. Based near and far, in Europe and in South and North America, our authors for this issue explore global connections by taking a refreshing variety of approaches to politics and international relations. Consequently, their objects of analysis are myriad: from national science/technology policy and international nuclear cooperation in South America to energy security in China and the USA; from UNASUR to Mercosur to an earlier attempt at economic integration among Argentina, Brazil, and Chile; from dispute settlement above the Southern Cone to cooperation and conflict in southern Africa; from how to locate afrobeat and bossa nova in global capitalism to how civil society might participate less unevenly in Brazilian foreign policy. Before closing this introductory note, I should also perhaps introduce myself. My name is Jimmy Casas Klausen, and I joined the Institute of International Relations at PUC-Rio in 2014. I will be serving temporarily as the Editor-in-Chief of Contexto Internacional during the few months that my colleague Carolina Moulin is on leave. Although my own training has been in the field of political and international theory, I have always striven to show in my scholarly work the global connections of European, North American, and South Asian theory. So, with the help of our associate editors, Anna Leander, Roberto Vilchez Yamato, and Alina Sajed, I am thrilled to continue the exciting project initiated by Carolina of making Contexto Internacional a premier venue for publishing cutting-edge work on global connections in, of, and from the Global South.