Conference Program

The concept of power belongs to basic categories of international research. With the development of digital technologies, the concept of cyberpower began to be used and applied to states. However, it was not states that became the earliest cyberpowers. This fact has broadened and deepened the discourse on non-state actors and their potential to influence international reality. Last years we have seen efforts by states to maximize control of cyberspace. This applied equally to great powers and medium-sized and small states. Large international companies from the IT/ICT sector have also joined the race for the effective use of cyberspace for international competition. These phenomena have become the subject of scientific debate in the field of international studies.

The subject of this speech is to analyze changes in the perception of the phenomenon of cyberpower in the research discourse on power, international order and international security. Factors that will be taken into account will be the researchers' generation affiliation, the location of the research centers with which they are associated, the researchers' gender, higher education (technical or political science) and readiness to cooperate with IT specialists (confirmed in publications).

The second area of analysis will concern the evolution of the political debate on cyberpower in selected countries. The stages of interest in the topic by the authorities, the way the topic is presented in the public debate, and the dependence of the political narrative on IT/ICT on the age and education (e.g. technological) of politicians will also be examined here.

In many countries, the access to new technologies has increased, global figures show that after 60 years of the birth of the Internet, "almost two thirds of the inhabitants of planet Earth are connected to the network", access to the Internet which already exceeds 60%, in the same way the risks and cybercrime scenarios continue to increase, since tasks that develop critical infrastructures such as services in ports, health services, mass transportation and energy, have been interrupted, nothing escapes for this type of “new risks”; Hospitals and basic services such as health are now in the crosshairs and are not safe from software developers who are hired by the cibercrime, "The new IT adversaries". Therefore, national security must be rethought. Where to focus efforts? What laws and legislation we need to protect us? ¿What skills and competencies we need to teach in the schools? ¿How should we protect the world population?

Knowing the challenges, good practices and advances are very important, since cybersecurity is now global policy.

Western support for the Rule of Law has been a cornerstone of the rules-based liberal international order since the Cold War. Indeed, it has been linked to several core goods, including free markets, democratic government, and international security as well as broader normative ideals such as justice and legitimacy. Moreover, the idea of the rule of law enjoyed near-universal acclaim, at least rhetorically. The rule of law consensus, however, has come under increasing strain in the past two decades as both a universal concept and a cogent policy rationale. States hostile to the liberal international order have attacked the idea of the rule of law as fundamentally biased towards Western ideals and, in some instances, even as a stalking horse for Western imperialism. At the same time, there has been an effort to redefine the term in a decidedly illiberal understanding by other powerful states in the international order. This alternative understanding strips out the normative commitment to liberalism itself. Rule of Law promotion has also been challenged on practical grounds. This paper explores the source of that strain both domestically through an examination of US foreign policy and practice in relation to promoting the rule of law from the end of the Cold War to the present wholistically. While challenges are inevitable, greater clarity regarding what the rule of law entails alongside critical examination of how the rule of law is promoted in practice offers real hope for revitalizing the rule of law.

International order is experiencing multiple crises marked by discontinuities and uncertainties. In this scenario of potential changes in power status, some Global South countries challenge stablished international hegemonic structures. Brazil, as a regional power, has long supported a multipolar international order. Nevertheless, the influence of the United States over the American continent is one central element that hinders Brazil from fully advocating for a rupture with the current international architecture based on Western powers. This research seeks to analyze Brazil’s narrative in international forums, examining how its approach varies across audiences. In universal spaces like the United Nations General Assemblies, Brazil emphasizes less strongly the need for a change in the international order and proposes a new order based on multipolarity, mainly within economic topics. Among Global South countries, Brazil’s narrative still defends multipolarity, but it is more vocal in criticizing global disorder and calling for changes in other arenas such as politics and international governance. The research begins by exploring the concepts of international order and disorder, multipolarity and the Global South grounded in the English School and critical theories. Subsequently, the Brazilian speeches at UN General Assembly and at BRICS annual summits – from 2009 to 2023 – will be studied with content analysis to understand the country's discourse defending multipolarity and the perspective of the Global South rise as a space for international hegemonic arrangements (re)construction. Finally, findings will be discussed in relation to concrete actions taken by Brazil, analyzed through a qualified specialized bibliographical review.