The Regionalism Observatory (ODR) was created by students from the Interinstitutional Graduate Program in International Relations “San Tiago Dantas” (Unesp/Unicamp/PUC-SP), under the coordination of Prof. Dr. Karina L. P. Mariano as a space for academic dialogue among its researchers, with the aim of fostering debate on regional integration and cooperation initiatives. ODR’s activities are linked to the Research Network on Foreign Policy and Regionalism (REPRI), a group formed by researchers, professors and graduate and undergraduate students from different Higher Education and Research Institutions of Brazil, such as the Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU), Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo State University (UNESP), University of Brasília (UnB) and the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA). By taking into account diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives, the studies and research conducted by members of the ODR (currently 30 researchers), aim to understand the motivations and determinants of States’ foreign policy and processes of regionalism and multilateralism in Latin America and beyond. Although it has initially focused on regional processes in the Americas, the Observatory also investigates other regions of the world, such as Europe, Africa and Asia. On its website and social media, ODR releases brief articles on its topics of expertise weekly.
Since its creation, the ODR has organized conferences with experts on regionalism and regional integration and cooperation, not only stimulating the creation of open debate spaces as well as, within these spaces, creating content that is made available to a much broader public through its Youtube Channel, such as interviews, workshops and recorded conferences. Although developing its own events and materials, the ODR has contributed to the organisation of two main events in International Relations in Brazil and Latin America held by such Graduate Program: the Symposium of International Relations (SIMPORI) and the Congress of International Relations for undergraduate research. Since 2023, there is the Internal Regulation of the ODR, available in Portuguese at https://observatorio.repri.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Regimento-Interno-do-Observatorio-de-Regionalismo-ODR-de-8-de-dezembro-de-2023.pdf.
The ODR is currently under the coordination of Prof. Dr. Guilherme Ferreira (UNIFESP and PPGRI San Tiago Dantas) and is registered in the Directory of Research Groups of CNPq.
Disclaimer: The ideas and opinions expressed on our website are the responsibility of the authors/interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Regionalism Observatory (ODR).