processes of democratic backsliding have been driven, to a significant extent, by democratically elected governments that exploit legal and constitutional vulnerabilities to weaken checks on the executive and reduce the conditions for genuinely free political competition. Therefore, democratic erosion begins at the ballot box. This does not mean that voting for conservative parties is equivalent to voting against democracy. Such a conclusion would be mistaken and political

twenty-first century is marked by a progressive transformation in the distribution of international power, by the intensification of competition among major powers, and by the emergence of new centers of economic, technological, and strategic influence. This article analyzes the implications of this reconfiguration for Africa through three levels of analysis in International Relations: domestic, regional, and systemic.

polarization has reached a point where even the defense of relatively elementary national interests is interpreted through the lens of ideological conflict. If Lula defends a particular international position, some people feel compelled to reject it simply because Lula was the one who defended it

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict is going through, in 2026, a phase marked by the consolidation of a war of attrition, in which the ability to sustain military operations, replenish personnel, and exhaust the adversary’s resources has acquired increasing importance.