Analysing the asymmetry in decentralised international co-operation: The case of Brazil/Europe sub-national relations

Abstract

The article analyses the decentralised international co-operation between Brazil and Europe, focusing on two specific issues that are not the main objectives of the literature specialised in paradiplomacy studies: first, how international co-operation can be used as a tool for power projection and second, the effects that the economic, political and institutional asymmetry among the actors involved in co-operation arrangements produces on the co-operation outcomes. For that, a wide range of documents and data was used (interviews, official documents, minutes of meetings and data collected with a survey applied to public managers) related to the international co-operation developed between Brazil and European countries. The conclusions are that even in decentralised co-operation arrangements, power relations matter to the results of co-operation.