No 4 (2024)

The article examines the principal courses in the development of the internal political situation in Brazil after the start of the third mandate of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (from January 1, 2023 to the present). One of the main trends is the fight against the intensified supporters of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro on the background of the implementation of social-economic reforms, fulfillment of election promises. Difficulties in governance are associated with conflicting relations between the branches of power, which are further aggravated in conditions of political polarization and “divided society.”

5 years ago Brazil was a country with an extremely monopolized structure of the banking sector. The existing problems in the banking sector (limited operations without physical presence, the inaccessibility of bank branches to the population from remote areas of the country), combined with the spread of the Internet and smartphones and the accelerated penetration of digital technologies during the pandemic, contributed to breakthrough development of FinTech companies offering affordable and simple digital financial and investment services. Brazil has become a country of FinTech leadership both in Latin America and in the world – it has reached a share of 15% of global online transactions and ranks 2nd in the world after South Korea in terms of the number of mobile transactions per capita, and 2 times more mobile fast payments are made here daily than in India, with the difference in population more than a billion people. The article analyzes the prerequisites of the Brazilian FinTech revolution and the dynamics of the FinTech industry and assesses the limitations and prospects for development, taking into account the significant role of the state in the digital transformation in the country and the stimulation of private business in the financial sector, the creation of digital banking ecosystems and the support of healthy market competition.

The purpose of the article was to assess the state of food security of the Brazilian population in the 21st century, reflecting the effectiveness of public policy in this area. Since the early 2000s, this problem has been a priority for the Brazilian authorities, who managed to eradicate hunger by 2014. After the political changes and the departure from power of the Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT), the agri-food policy was gradually weakened, and the budget of the national food and nutrition system was restructured and reduced. Combined with the effects of the pandemic and the economic crisis, the new deal has demonstrated its ineffectiveness, which has led to an increase in the number of citizens who are food insecure, including the hungry. Regional, gender and racial inequalities in access to food are increasing in the country, and the most vulnerable groups are families with children, low—income and living in rural areas.

In the context of growing tensions in international relations the example of Brazil as a country that integrated into the global context mainly by peaceful means and which in 2023 was again headed by the president who consolidated its status of a peacekeeping country in the first decade of the XXI century is of particular relevance. The year 2024 will mark the 20th anniversary of Brazil's landmark UN peacekeeping operation in Haiti, and the aggravation of the political and social situation on the island since the second half of 2021 makes the topic even more pressing. Using the case study method, i.e., the example of the missions in Haiti and Lebanon, the author analyses the use of “soft power” by Brazilian peacekeepers during the operations with a force component.

The article examines the changes that occurred in relations between Brazil and Angola in the first quarter of the XXI century. The author analys the events in 2019–2022 that preceded the election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as President of Brazil in 2022. The events that occurred during the first presidential mandate of Lula da Silva are described, the main trends and successes achieved are identified. An attempt is made to explain the reasons for the cooling of relations between the two states after 2015 and until 2021, when a call was again made for the resumption of interaction.

The current review examines a collective monograph prepared by the researchers of the Institute of Europe under the guidance of its director A.A.Gromyko. The book touches on a number of challenges that Europe faces during the contemporary turbulence of the modern international system. The following challenges could be highlighted: various European socio-economic policy approaches during the COVID-19 pandemic; the problems of European countries due to different views on the vaccine diplomacy and the vaccine war; cybersecurity and internal security threats that are concerned within public protests and shocks caused, for example, by the migration crisis; as well as the costs of the environmental agenda and “green” energy transition. European approaches to solving the problems outlined above seem interesting in comparison with the responses of Latin American states to the same challenges.