NUPRIMA website

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Research Group on the International Relations of the Arab World (NUPRIMA) is a research group registered with CNPq since 2018 and linked to the Department of Economics and International Relations (DERI) and the Graduate Program in Strategic International Studies (PPGEEI) from UFRGS. NUPRIMA is coordinated by Prof. Dr. Silvia Ferabolli and works as a space for Arab and Middle Eastern studies studies and for the promotion and dissemination of new research in the area, in addition to assisting the development and publication of research in progress by professors, doctoral and master students who are working with projects that involve the International Relations of the Arab World.

 

NUPRIMA works with projects that fit into one of its three core research lines, namely:

 

Axis I – Arab Regionalism

This line concentrates research on the evolution of the Arab regional construction process, especially in terms of the constitution of Arab identity, the functioning of Arab regional organizations and institutions, the regionalization of Arab capital, intra-Arab migrations and the formation of a cultural public sphere centered on the Arabic language.

 

Axis II – The Arab World and the Global South 

This line concentrates research on contemporary Arab thought on the international, as well as on the relations between Arab states, organizations and social movements and the Global South, especially with Brazil and other members of the BRICS, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Africa.

 

Axis III - Contemporary Arab Conflicts

This line focuses research on Arab regional security issues, such as the Arab (in)ability to deal with the Israeli issue, the place that Iran occupies in the different (and often conflicting) regional, subregional, national and subnational security agendas of the Arab states, the interventions (and counter-interventions) of the Gulf Arab States in Libya, Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Egypt, and the issue of Western Sahara as a source of instability in North Africa.

 

Goals:  NUPRIMA will host an annual seminar, open to the public, in which its members will present their research. These presentations will be mediated and discussed by guest professors. The expectation is that the papers presented will evolve into publications in specialized journals and that they can be resubmitted in a panel/roundtable format with other scholars in the area at the annual meeting of the Brazilian Association of International Relations (ABRI). Lectures with professors, researchers, journalists and diplomats should be promoted by the center on a quarterly basis.

 

Work methodology: Presentation and discussion of selected texts. Master and PhD Viva simulations. Critical review of papers in progress produced by the group members. Guest lectures. Organization of annual seminars. Panel organization for ABRI in partnership with scholars and graduate students from other universities.